# Help with cutter / weeding



## Boro (Jun 30, 2008)

Hey guys, you might remember i posted up that id just bought a Foison C24 USB cutter from Ebay.

Im really pleased with it but i have a question that i hope you can answer.

When im doing small vinyl decals (Oracal 651), at some points on the vinyl the cutter hasnt cut completely round the letters.

This makes weeding a nightmare.

Is this likely to be a pressure problem that i can adjust or something else?

Thanks in advance.


----------



## specialtygraphcs (Jun 16, 2008)

Im not familiar to your cutter, however i would try increasing the force of the blade. Another option is if your cutter allows you to change the offset, try adjusting that if increased force doesnt work.


----------



## Boro (Jun 30, 2008)

I will have a read of the instructions for offset. Thanks


----------



## COEDS (Oct 4, 2006)

I think the vinyl not being cut would need more cutting force, but also check the blade depth is adjusted to 1 mm . The formula is the thickness of your vinyl + half the thickness of your backing ( carrier sheet)= blade depth.I hope this helps and I wish you good luck. ..... JB


----------



## Boro (Jun 30, 2008)

Theres nothing about offset, but ive just had a thought.

The cutting blade sits in the holder and in the instructions it shows you how to set the blade so that enough is showing and how far it should stick out.

Would it have this effect if the blade wasnt sticking out enough?

If that is the case, when cutting vinyl, should i have a score mark (not a cut) in the backing paper. At the moment its cutting the vinyl (maybe not quite enough) but not marking the backing paper at all.

Im guessing my issue maybe either a) cutting force b) blade length c) both.

Does that sound feasable?


----------



## COEDS (Oct 4, 2006)

I would say you are on the right track. ..... JB


----------



## mystysue (Aug 27, 2006)

yeah i can always see a score mark on my backing when its deep enuff..
so I agree with JB again.. lol..
you are on the right track


----------



## toro168 (Apr 14, 2008)

sometimes i think dull blade will do that too


----------



## plan b (Feb 21, 2007)

If you do not have a offset control on your cutter you will find that in your software, sounds like it may be a combo of blade depth and offset


----------



## CarlT (May 23, 2007)

Your on it!

The cut should be just enough to cut through the vinyl and leave the score on the backing paper.

If you do not have a way to adjust force or offset, you will have to adjust the blade. I know mine if I want to adjust the blade itself, it sits on the cutter in a container which can be turned to move the blade further in or out for more cutting depth.
Most of the time on mine though I just have to adjust the offset.
So I'm a lucky one ;o)


----------



## Boro (Jun 30, 2008)

Ive just dismantled the blade from the holder and found a 1mm square piece of vinyl surrounding the tip. I think that may have stopped the blade cutting to the required depth. Ive also lowered it slighty and will run some tests to see if i can get the backing to score.


----------



## Boro (Jun 30, 2008)

Not alot of improvement, pulling away the excess vinyl on the outside is still pulling away the actual decal 

Ive lowered the blade and increased the force. I'd like to adjust the offset but i dont fully understand what it is, how or where to adjust it.

Im using SignCut X2.

Any help appreciated. Thanks


----------



## plan b (Feb 21, 2007)

In sign cut look at the menu, open settings , go to cutter, and there you will find offset it should be at 0.25 or 0.025 if you have a manual setting on your cutter set that to 0 it then will be controlled by your software, increase the offset until you get a smooth cut


----------



## Boro (Jun 30, 2008)

Thanks. The offset on the software is set to .30 at the moment. Should i set this lower or higher?


----------



## plan b (Feb 21, 2007)

try .25 make sure you have a new blade and zero out your machine if it has a machine set fo offset. are you sure its not 0.030 if it doesnt do things right check that #


----------



## plan b (Feb 21, 2007)

A couple more things, slow your cutter speed down and if you are cutting small objects enable small object cutting in the software, I really don't like sign cut program but sometimes you have to make do with what you have.


----------



## Boro (Jun 30, 2008)

Its definately 0.30 and the blade is only a couple of days old.

I have just read the instructions again but no mention of any offset adjustment.

However, it did state:-

Q) Why do some characters not close correctly when plotting?

A) Please check blade offset in your cutting programmer.

Should i reduce the offset to 0.25?

Can someone explain what offset is so that i can understand what im doing rather than just doing it.

Thanks again


----------



## plan b (Feb 21, 2007)

Ok if the offset is set to high it will pull up the corners,

offset meaning: offset is the distance the blade travels past each corner, the plotter actually sends this via the value set on either the machine or by software, it works off of the center point of the blade, in other words if its a 45 degree blade imagine a line at 45 degrees up from center point of the blade if it stops short of the centerpoint it will not cut all the way to the corner thus pulling up nipples in the vinyl or not cutting at all, the offset controlls that to cut past to ensure a complete cut.

Hope I didn't loose you

Roger


----------



## Boro (Jun 30, 2008)

It definately makes more sense than it did before, lol.

I will adjust the offset and try again. PS, im running it at 150mm/s

Should i slow it down further?


----------



## plan b (Feb 21, 2007)

yes if you are cutting plain vinyl try 60 cm/s and are you sure its not cm/s and not mm, your offset is in mm and your cut speed is in cm


----------



## plan b (Feb 21, 2007)

one more thing if you are cutting a lot of corners you need to go even slower


----------



## Boro (Jun 30, 2008)

Its definately mm, the max cutting speed is 600mm/s but ive being running 150mm/s


----------



## plan b (Feb 21, 2007)

wow ,ok just slow it down till you get a smooth cut thats going to be a trial and error till you hit that golden speed.


----------



## Boro (Jun 30, 2008)

Off to test it now, thanks for your help. Do some cutters actually cut at 60cm/s, thats about 2 feet!


----------



## plan b (Feb 21, 2007)

Ok after some calculations my machines run on cm/s so that means there is 1 cm = 10 mm so you can actually speed that machine up a tad start at 200 mm and work up until you get a good cut, as 15cm/s is really slow now


----------



## plan b (Feb 21, 2007)

or is it opposite, oh heck I don't know its been a long day


----------



## Boro (Jun 30, 2008)

LOL, thanks for your help. My cutter has just finished another batch, so im off to pull away the excess and see whats left on the page, haha.

Oh, quick question, should it matter if i pull it away slowly or quickly?


----------



## plan b (Feb 21, 2007)

Start at one corner and work diagonally to the opposite corner and it depends on the cut which corner you start at


----------



## Boro (Jun 30, 2008)

Ok, that was alot better, only a couple of letters (the same each time ironically) stuck and they just needed pressing down while peeling away the excess. Still not perfect, so more adjustments needed.

PS, these are just text decals, a name on one line and phone number below, about 3" x 1 1/2".

Someone mentioned changing a setting on SignCut to select something about small text or decal? Would this help and which setting is it?

Sorry for all the questions, but once this is set up, i wont have the worry of wasting anymore vinyl 

Thanks in advance.


----------



## plan b (Feb 21, 2007)

That was me, go into special cuttings, go to small text and enable small object cutting, give that a try you can always disable it later


----------



## Boro (Jun 30, 2008)

That didnt go according to plan. It first cut out the inner bits, like the centre of letters, etc. Then randomly starting the other bits on the wrong part of the vinyl, lol.

Will reducing the offset down to 0.20 help with the last few bits that are not getting cut properly or should i play around with force/blade depth now its on 0.25?


----------



## plan b (Feb 21, 2007)

well the optimum is .25 you can try that but most offsets are determined by blade manufacturers and hold a recomendation on the offset,, you have tried .25 and .30 go to the .20 and the .35 on down force machines are different but I go on rule of thumb at proper blade depth the down pressure should be around 60 grams, at this point you have all the knowledge almost there is to know and it is just a matter of dialing it in, also I have seen new blades that have nicks in them from manufacturing or defective in some way,,,, I would look at clean cut blades they are the best and last forever, pm me for the URL as some people here of late have been getting their hands slapped for dropping web sites.


----------



## Boro (Jun 30, 2008)

Thanks for your help. I'll give it some more tries tomorrow and adjust the blade/force until i dont have to hold anything down to peel it away.

Thanks again


----------



## mystysue (Aug 27, 2006)

Ok also when weeding.. . try this.. with your exacto.. cut a line between the lines so you are only weeding one line at a time..
I do this when I am having trouble getting it to weed correctly..
also.. the general rule for weeding the outside area off.. is if its text start pulling the vinyl off from the top right corner..
If its numbers pull from the left side..
it has to do with the openings in the letters..and numbers.. and works best that way 99% of the time


----------



## plan b (Feb 21, 2007)

I forgot that Susan, see its always better to have more people chime in on these threads


----------



## mystysue (Aug 27, 2006)

lol.. have you heard my nick name at the shop is weeder wench.. lol.. I do alot of weeding.. like 100 -150 yrds of vinyl weeded every week lol..
I have it tatooed in my brain.. hahahaha


----------



## Boro (Jun 30, 2008)

Thanks for the extra tips, i will try them today


----------



## Silverwind1953 (Jun 3, 2008)

I am really new to this and have been using premade transfers - will a cutter cut all the excess material from my inkjet printer made transfer - is this what I am hearing or am I wrong. Any and all info is apperciated.

Thank You


----------



## COEDS (Oct 4, 2006)

mystysue said:


> lol.. have you heard my nick name at the shop is weeder wench.. lol.. I do alot of weeding.. like 100 -150 yrds of vinyl weeded every week lol..
> I have it tatooed in my brain.. hahahaha


WOW, That's a small tattoo. ... LOL ..... JB


----------



## laggardlady (May 5, 2008)

Hi, I've just purchased a foison C24 as well. I am doing text. The height of the text is 1 cm. My cutter is set to
V= 150mm
f=41 

and it's weeding well.

As I am only learning I can't give you much help as I won't know what I'm talking about LOL but those settings work fine for me. Hope it helps in some way.


----------



## mystysue (Aug 27, 2006)

COEDS said:


> WOW, That's a small tattoo. ... LOL ..... JB


 
pfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff..
hahahaha


----------



## plan b (Feb 21, 2007)

You guy's are cracking me up LOL


----------

