Roland SP300v Cutting is Consistently Inconsistent

[equippaint]

I have an SP300V and it never ever cuts consistently between prints. Its all the same for each job and that ranges from about spot on to 1/8 off on feed to 1/8 off on scan for the entire cut. I ran a print/lam job yesterday, maybe 48" long and was acceptable. Today I run the same exact print and its off on 1/8 on the scan. A month ago it was off on the feed. It honestly seems to be better when I select center to media despite everyone saying not to do that. Env match doesn't make a difference. Its about the same on a print cut as well without taking it out to lam. Adjustments in the user menu do nothing, kind of reminds me of using the door close button in an elevator. Can run it in service mode, get it all dialed in then run the last test print and its off again. Im not looking for perfection here but I went from 4pt to 8pt bleed and it still goes outside of it. Cleaned the encoder strip which isn't that old. Blade holder's relatively new also. Any suggestions on where to go from here?

 

[Ragnabrok]

sounds like a feed issue. The pinch rollers get old and hard, turn kinda brown and don't bite like they used to. replacing them usually helps. The grit rollers too, get built up with crud, so if they aren't raspy like a file, you can use a metal bristle brush to scuff them sharp again.

The other one is the versa-camm side, the plastic pinch roller arms. They fatigue over time, and get fractures that lose all the tension from the springs. you can look when you drop the pinch roller bar how much they get pressed back up.

 

[BlueDuck]

SP300 Post laminating cutting drifts out of position

Hi Equippaint,
I am having a similar cutting problem with my SP300.
The cutting outline of my stickers often (but not always) drifts. Always to the left (away from the control panel)
In a one metre print job of 20 or so labels, the first few may be ok but might be off by 3mm at the end.
I have done test alignments & cleaned the encoder strip.
I am wondering if it is the encoder in the stepper motor. ???
Any advice would be helpful.