Weeding reflective

[d fleming]

You are supposed to weed reflective immediately after cutting as the adhesive tends to bond back with itself (on the other side of the cut). I have used Oralite 5600 and really like it. A few tips: make sure your cut weight is heavy enough to scar the wax paper, but not so heavy it cuts through the wax layer; be careful that the adhesive doesn't touch the unweeded part or weeded letters - a pain to separate again; Tape the reflective down before weeding so it doesn't move; make cuts between lines of text and weed one line at a time.

We do a fair number of firetrucks and I can say the 3M 680CR removable is awesome when you have to remove it. Costs a lot more, but great stuff. Nikkalite is the absolute worst to remove, even if it sticks to your table - 1/4" chips everywhere

+1 it needs to be weeded right after cutting. It should have been sent to you as RTA.

 

[DL Signs]

I use the Oracal 5650RA all the time, also stock the 5600, and some 3M. Weeding can be painful & slow with any, but I've never experienced the stringy adhesive. Probably a bad roll or batch, maybe it was on the shelf too long and past it's prime.

 

[gnubler]

^^ It came from Signs365 so I doubt it was old stock, but possibly a bad batch. I didn't bother contacting them to ask about it...the job is done and I don't care enough.
Like Gino posted above, maybe printing or heat had something to do with the insane tackiness. It was full coverage printing.

 

[Stormy Conner]

weeding reflective sucks. I've had better success with reverse weeding though. (mask the whole thing, then weed away from the masking)

I do this with a lot of the small lettering for any vinyl. Especially for the little door plaques on hotel rooms and such. I sort of just figured out how to do it since I had like zero training, but when I did I was like why didn't I think of this before!

 

[JBurton]

set it up to cut lines around copy.

I forgot about this, just a little .25" or less outline makes ripping the initial background sheet loose much less risky.

 

[DChorbowski]

I forgot about this, just a little .25" or less outline makes ripping the initial background sheet loose much less risky.

Protip right here!

 

[Proofread People]

I just experienced weeding hell putting together a set of reflective graphics for an excavator. Printed on Oralite 5600, ordered from S365. There was quite a bit of lettering, nothing less than one inch tall, and weeding it all was very slow going. This material is so sticky there were strings of glue pulling up as I was weeding, I had to go back with a Q-tip dipped in remover to clean up all the vinyl before masking. Is this typical of all reflective vinyls or did I get an off batch?

Does anyone charge extra for weeding reflective material? This was "intricate weeding" as far as I'm concerned and will have a surcharge in the future. And absolutely no delicate or serif fonts, or letters smaller than one inch.

Maybe increase the plotter force? Do a test cut.