Question Graphtec FC 8600 what is the maximum length I can cut? Can I run a job at 123"?

[Gnome Beard]

I am doing a partial wrap on the sides of a van and wanted to do a contour cut. It's not a complex CutContour, but it is about 123" long. Can my Graphtec FC8600 handle this job? I'm printing on a 54" roll, wish I can print side by side, but I cannot. Pictures attached.

 

[klingsdesigns]

I have cut longer than that on a fc5100

 

[ikarasu]

Yup. Easily doable. How do you setup your cuts? Using onyx / Flexi it'll add lines every xx inches for the graphtec to read, so it'll stay accurate.

Using cutting master I'm not sure if it adds intermediate marks... I wouldn't try to do it with just four corners, but providing your software adds more marks along the length you'll be fine.

We regularly do 20 ft cuts. Out of 30-40 we usually get one that's off...likely due to a bad mark read. Doesn't happen often ... But still a small chance.

 

[GAC05]

You should be able to print up to 52.5" - 53" on a 54" printer
I'd stack the prints and hand cut that. Save material - save time - less chance for a tracking error causing a crash and burn.

 

[bob]

As long as you're not running the media back and forth for 123" you should be fine. Every trip the media takes for the full length of the image you might lose a bit of accuracy on the X axis. If you don't want to gamble on the plotter reading the registration marks use th 4 point manual marks and the plotter's laser dot. You'll have to position the carriage for each of the 4 marks but for long or questionable marks on non-white media it works every time. It's as accurate as you've set the carriage for each mark.

 

[equippaint]

You could have that hand cut in about the same time itll takes to fiddle around running it through the plotter and dont have to risk trashing it.
To me, the long cuts are like laminating on a cheap machine. The more time you spend squaring it up (both print and cut) the better the results will be. I always blame tracking when it skews but reality is that the machine is the constant, not the operator.

 

[BUCKY]

You could have that hand cut in about the same time itll takes to fiddle around running it through the plotter and dont have to risk trashing it.
To me, the long cuts are like laminating on a cheap machine. The more time you spend squaring it up (both print and cut) the better the results will be. I always blame tracking when it skews but reality is that the machine is the constant, not the operator.

Agree. Would not even waste the time running that back through a plotter. Grab a xacto knife and be done with it in ten minutes. You do not have to worry about
a contour cut being off and ruining your print as well.

 

[bannertime]

It can and if it's setup properly, it wouldn't take very long. I'd even perf cut it on my machine since it's mostly square. Load the sheet up in the machine. Pull it half way through. Square it up on the lines and run it as a sheet.

 

[zillion29]

Cutting a giant rectangle is usually easy peezy on our FC8600. But if I was going to cut 50 1'' x 250'' stripes? By the time it cut the time it cut the final stripe, they'd probably look like pipe cleaners.

 

[zspace]

We slow the graphtec down when we run that long. You may have issues cutting so close to the edge of the media if you run 2 up since marks can add an inch on either side.