Mimaki CG-160fx Plotter trouble

[SignDeeJay]

Hello its me again, I've seemed to fix most of my problems with my mimaki jv3 160 sp. still having a problem with all the heads not being aligned. but my boss doesn't want to do anything about it. (btw all I had to do was replace the pumps. and the ink flow came back, what a headache.)

Anyways. Now I'm having trouble with my mimaki plotter. we've had a huge increase in laminated contour cut decals. and do to this (I believe) the 45° plotter blade dulled very quickly. I had to set it to pressure 100 just to get it to plot regular vinyl (Oracal 651 or Avery 700).

Now to the real problem. My boss and I ordered a new blade and our supplier suggested to get the 60° due to our increase of plotting thicker material. I personally was excited to get this new blade. But now it's been a headache. I curently have the pressure set at 150 speed 30 and offset 25, but this is still only enough to plot intermediate vinyl. I can no longer plot thick material. Im using Flexi Production Manager, and I've tried changing the pressure settings in the software its self but it can only go up to 47. ?_? I have made sure the knife is sticking out no less than a credit cards width. and yet still to no avail. When I try to pull the blade out more, it ends up being to much and glides along the material as it moves.

Have I changed a setting wrong or did something completely whacked?

also, when i try to put the old blade back and set everything back to the old settings. it doesn't plot through anything. I don't know if thats due to it being very dull or if something is wrong.


Please help and let me know what I did wrong. :/ I'm getting backed up due to having to hand cut all the decals. I can't even get my orders done for the pylon signs.

 

[DirtyD]

In Flexi Production manager are you telling it to use Flexi Plotter settings or Your actual Plotter Settings?

Can you take a picture of your plotter blade holder and blade?

 

[SignDeeJay]

Here is the settings config. I usually just set it to "none" hoping thats the key.

It used to always be on ct:1 I've tried resetting it back to default. I used close to 10 sqft just trying out different combinations. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong.
What I've seen on the internet is for this plotter with a 60° blade they have it set 20-40 / 75-100 / .20 -.35 but none of those settings work for me.

 

[DirtyD]

Hmm -

If you have set the cutting parameters on the Mimaki itself and checked "none" in Flexi and it still doesnt work, and you have Checked "CT1" in Flexi and tried those setting and it still doesnt work and your blade is sticking out of the holder correctly. It is the correct blade type - "made for a Mimaki?"

Then check the firmware the Mimaki is on and that is is the correct firmware for the version of Flexi you are using. Or do you have Simple Cuts? The cutting software that Mimaki gives out for there machine? Try that if you do and see if you get the same problem.

 

[DirtyD]

Also -

On My cutter my blade is sticking out about 3/4 the thickness of a credit card and my pressure is @ 100 for Oracal 651 Cut vinyl - for cutting Print and laminated my pressure is 130 - same blade. i use a 45 degree

 

[SignDeeJay]

I have confirmed everything is set correctly using the product manager. I've double checked software, and everything seems fine. I don't know if the blade is oem. I simply called our local distributor and this blade is what they sent me. I was always using a 45° blade before, like I said our supplier suggested to switch to 60° since we are cutting alot of extra thick material.

I'm going to call and order a new 45° blade and hopefully receive it by Monday. I just don't understand how a sharper blade. needs almost double the pressure.

When I first started with this machine. the settings were. Speed: 20 Pressure: 70 Offset .20
after a year I had to adjust it to- Speed: 35 Pressure: 85 Offset .30
And that change was after a year. using that same blade I started to do contour cuts and thicker cut vinyl jobs. And after 2 weeks I was at Speed: 35 Pressure: 120 Offset: .30 (and thats with the dulled blade)

new blade is at S:30 P:140 O:30

 

[jfiscus]

Get a magnifying glass or loupe and look at your blades. I am willing to bet that both are bad. We go through a lot of vinyl here and sometimes the Mimaki plotters blades just randomly break. You shouldn't need your blade to be sticking out that far, but we normally run on 100 setting on the machine.

 

[MikePro]

I testcut (function>squarecut) every time I load a new media.
I'm actually upwards of 250 on some pressure settings for laminated material, especially laminated reflective.
but most of the time I'm cutting cast colored vinyl at 70-120. haven't had to change a blade in a couple years.

i usually handle all the feeds/speeds/pressure from the console on the plotter.
setting up & sending tool values from your computer is nice and all, but i'm still a fan of pausing the start of my file and manually verifying my settings at the console as a surefire way to know that you're setting the right pressure everytime.

 

[SignDeeJay]

I have gotten it all figured out. went back to a 45 degree blade. regular material is set to 90 pressure and laminated is set to 150. everything plots so smoothly.