Blade arm not dropping, advice? Graphtec CE5000-60

[Geminis076]

Graphtec CE-5000-60 purchased in 2009 (refurbished). The machine was cutting fine today, then suddenly the arm that holds the blade stopped dropping. The carriage moves and acts as if it were cutting something, but the arm/blade stays in place never drops and does not make contact with the vinyl. There is also a faint whurring sound which is probably due to the arm not dropping.

Manually I am able to move the blade/arm up and down smoothly and without any resistance so I don't believe there is something blocking it. Unless I accidentally changed a setting, to my knowledge I have not changed any of my machine or software settings.

I don't know technical information about the machine or trying to repair it, but I have tried simple things like turning the machine on and off, trying the "Test" cut feature on the machine - same results, and trying to test cut through my software with the same results. The software I use are CorelDraw X3 & Cutting Master 2. Up until now the machine had been running fine - the only issue I can think of is the Position Alarm alert would appear a bit often.

Any advice as to what I can try, what the issue may be, or who I can contact for advice would be great, thanks!

 

[briankb]

Make sure it's not set to Pen tool mode, it should be 09U. Download the manual and see if you can do a factory reset or default setting reset.

 

[GRAPHTEC]

There is a small pc. of plastic which acts like damper, this prevents metal from hiting metal when the blade goes up and down, I've attached a pick of where you can expect to find it. If necessary remove the black cover by simply loosening the screws, then clean this plastic pc. w/ alcohol and try again. If you still have issues please call Graphtec tech support.
btw.. to reset the plotter back to factory defaults you turn the plotter ON while pressing the UP arrow, release then select HL INCH ENG, ENTER..
then config. according to your software, if your using CuttingMaster 2 go to PAUSE, NEXT until you see Command, ENTER, UP, GPGL , ENTER 2 times.
hope it helps

 

[d fleming]

 

[Geminis076]

There is a small pc. of plastic which acts like damper, this prevents metal from hiting metal when the blade goes up and down, I've attached a pick of where you can expect to find it. If necessary remove the black cover by simply loosening the screws, then clean this plastic pc. w/ alcohol and try again. If you still have issues please call Graphtec tech support.
btw.. to reset the plotter back to factory defaults you turn the plotter ON while pressing the UP arrow, release then select HL INCH ENG, ENTER..
then config. according to your software, if your using CuttingMaster 2 go to PAUSE, NEXT until you see Command, ENTER, UP, GPGL , ENTER 2 times.
hope it helps

Hi, thanks a lot for your post and information . When I first ran into my issue I did contact Graphtec support and was able to speak with a tech. They had me try a few basic things like experiment with Pen mode, and reset back to the factory settings, but none of that worked. Then the tech sent info on how to clean the arm area with a cotton swab and alcohol which looks like the area from the image sample you have included, that didn't work either.

The tech advised that it probably is some sort of malfunction and mechanical error, I was able to find an authorized Graphtec service center 12 minutes from my home so I dropped my machine off there. With the assistance of a Graphtec tech the repair shop technician believes that this part needs to be replaced:

PEND BLOCK ASSY CE5000-40/60 792130702

I hope this is the issue, I don't want to have to spend a lot of money repairing a 2 year old machine that shouldn't have broken down so soon !

 

[Ken]

I'll be watching this thread as i have the same machine.
Thanks.
Ken

 

[GRAPHTEC]

sorry to hear about this issue- there really isn't a major problem w/ the pen blocks on this model, this is really an isolated case.. let us know if your problem was solved