Difficulty cutting Ultraboard & PVC on Steeltrak Keencut

[sinclairgraphics1]

We have the 98" Keencut and the blade is great for foamcore, coro, any soft substrate but sucks for 3/16" Ultraboard and 3mm PVC. The blades that came with were medium duty, so we thought let's get the heavy duty and that should solved it. Nope, rips at the edge, does not cut it clean at all. Tried scoring it, tried running the dibond blade, tried multiple techniques and calibrated it several times with no change in cutting. For a $7k cutter it's not performing very well for doing basic materials. The aluminum composite blade works great as well as the V-groove cutting attachment but nothing seems to work on PVC and Ultraboard. Has anyone else experienced this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Gino]

We don't have that machine, but when using the correct blade, it might take several passes to cut clean and smoothly.

 

[Humble PM]

I've got the 210cm version. What is the temp in your unit, and how fast are you trying to cut? 5mm should cut clean on one pass if you go slow, 2-3 passes if it's cold.
Years ago, I ordered a load of "ultra-smooth" PVC, thinking I could use it instead of DiBond (for mounting gloss prints), but had very little luck cutting it on the steeltrak. I also had very little luck cutting it with any other blade.

Temp over 60F, most pvc should cut fine at a steady pace - maybe 15-20 seconds for a 4' cut.

Have you got the blade support dialed to hold the blade rigid, and have you tried these bad boys?

Going too fast on excessively brittle materials, you hear/feel the material shatter.