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Need Help Perf cut on graphtech fc9000/fc8600

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doinacut

New Member
Hi all,
New member, fairly new to digital cutting too and looking for advice.

I'm trying to create "die cut" stickers on our graphtec cutters. I've been doing some experiments and found simple shapes come up pretty well but im looking for settings for more complex shapes. At the moment, I've found cut pattern 5 and a user pattern of 3.5 mm cut and .8mm up with the up value set to f2 is working best but.. still getting some rough edges on a particular design.

Using rocal polymeric with an outdoor laminate. This design has a wavy outline and some really tight corners.

What settings have you found that work for tight angles and complex shapes?
 
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ikarasu

Active Member
We dont use perf cut as it'll almost always leave rough edges.

Use regular cut line... and dial in your settings so its just barelly cutting though.



- this one doesnt show them popping out... but shows a kiss cut over the channel, then perf cut over the channel after... just showing how much faster it is compared to perf cut.


Cutting through paper dulls the blade quick - So make sure you're using a nice sharp blade... buy a dozen off amazon for $10. I'll swap the blade out after every roll of perf cutting, or when I start to notice fuzzies on the edges of the stickers.


Also... not all vinyl is made the same. never used Rocal polymeric... but the cheaper vinyl brands use thin paper backing, which doesn't perf cut too well. 3M and Avery perf great for me... Oracal's higher end vinyl does as well, but the cheaper calanders don't. So if you're using a fresh blade, and your settings are dialed in but still getting rough edges... Try a diff brand vinyl
 
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doinacut

New Member
Alright! Got it sorted. For one I had my blade extended a little too far so the back of the blade was dragging through the material. Then I dialed in the settings for the conditions using cutting master. That's a great tip doing the kiss cut over the channel. Thats a big time saver for sure. For what it's worth I did get it looking pretty good with a perf cut too. I set the down to 35mm up length to like .5mm (could go lower i think) and up mode to f2 and it was fairly clean but the straight cut is quicker and smoother. I think the perf cut is going to be necessary on some of the stock we run (supacling for one. Backing is just a very thin film)

Thanks so much for your help!
 
rawjahprintshop

rawjahprintshop

New Member
I use a flatbed fcx2000 because we cut some thick stuff and outsource for some motocross company’s that laminate and it’s a total of 21 mil thick..

However we also use fx9000 for everything else for cut that isn’t for offroad or motocross company’s. Usually max out around 10 mil with laminate included.. but we print a variety of different products from cannabis labels to motocross decals to hand out stickers.
 
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doinacut

New Member
rawjahprintshop said:
I use a flatbed fcx2000 because we cut some thick stuff and outsource for some motocross company’s that laminate and it’s a total of 21 mil thick..

However we also use fx9000 for everything else for cut that isn’t for offroad or motocross company’s. Usually max out around 10 mil with laminate included.. but we print a variety of different products from cannabis labels to motocross decals to hand out stickers.
Click to expand...
Got a flat bed cutter on the way. Looking forward to it!
 
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BigNate

New Member
For us we don't like the 'die-cut' portion of the sticker to be perf-cut... the rough edges and all, as well as the sticker can be difficult to remove from backing. However, we also have noticed that perf cutting is slower and we don't really like plotting twice. A compromise has been to set the stickers on reasonable squares - anything from 12"x12" up to 24"x24" - we will contour cut a smooth "die-cut" around the image, then instead of perf cutting the individual stickers, we perf-cut the large squares - these can then go on our guillotine cutter to be separated very quickly in large stacks.

the perf cut we use is almost an inch down, and then about 0.05" up.... but for a lot of media we set this 'up' to barely drag on the top so the perf is closer to 1/4or 1/3 cut through and not a full media thick tab.... (last adjustment on the blade depth us always in the clockwise direction so that the slack in the threads is always the same - if you have to go counter-clockwise, go twice as far and come back to the correct position.)
 
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ikarasu

Active Member
Farmboy said:
Thank you for the link. Question, are you using all the blade that come in that set or just the 45's?
Click to expand...
I use the 45s for normal kiss cutting, and for perf cutting I use 60 (The pointiest one) - Some suppliers call the pointiest one 30... some 60... Cant tell by those photos which are which, since they all look the same. I pretty much throw away the flat / 30 degree one... I'd buy from Ebay though.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/39510086073...h1oyGe8WFIl6pzVhgHqEWazl60To|tkp:BFBMgKOoxt1j


Canadian ebay, but its from china so should ship to USA. I usually send them a best offer and ask if they'll do 300 blades for $200 USD and they say yes. Then you have 300 good perf cutting blades... And every roll I swap out to a new blade, whether it seems to be cutting good or not - Keeps the edges perfectly smooth,and you never have to adjust the blade depth to cut deeper when it starts to dull.


The chinese blades arent as good as regular, at least for kiss cutting - So I'd still bring in clean cut, or legit 45 blades for kiss cutting.... They kiss cut a lot better than the chinese ones as they have tighter tollerances. For perf cutting, all that matters is a sharp blade...so if the blade has a tiny nick, or isnt perfectly machined, it doesnt make a difference.
 
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