# Graphtec CE5000-60 not cutting precisely???



## toastynhere

Hello everyone, 
I have been having all sorts of problems cutting accurately with my CE-5000-60. Whenever I cut anything, I always have "hangnails" which cause my vinyl to get "stuck" when I am weeding any design. 

I have tried changing the offset and I have tried using different blades, but I can never get anything to cut "perfectly". Essentially, where the cut begins, it doesn't end at the same point. It is off just a hair.

Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated. It's making weeding very difficult and the final product is not of professional quality.

Thanks,

Kevin


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## 34Ford

Do you see 09U on your display?
And 0 for offset?

What software you using?


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## toastynhere

Yes, The condition I have the cutter at is 09U and the offset is set at 0. I currently have a 45 degree blade installed. 

I have actually gone into the Graphtec through the menu and completed a cut demo, which prints the word Graphtec. The 90 degree corners on the letters are never perfect and when I weed, it still catches. 

I have also tried going through each of the offsets, 0 through -5 and 0 through + 5. I never get a perfect test with the triangle in the square.

I cut calendered vinyl and Siser shirt vinyl regularly, and have this hangnail issue with both types of media.

I am designing in CS3 and am cutting using the Cutting Master plugin.


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## Twanabee

I would contact Grabhtec tech support. Did the cutter ever cut right or is this a new cutter. If it's new, it could be in the cutter itself and no settings are going to help you. I have the same cutter and had to send my first one back because it was twisted somehow in shipping and would not track the vinyl evenly.


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## Nick Horvath

Have you tried the tangential control mode?


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## toastynhere

Now that I think of it, it has always done this. I have never successfully been able to get rid of the hangnail issue. 

For a long time, I was only using the cutter for various little jobs for myself-practicing with it, etc. Now I'm actually doing larger runs of vinyl for customers and it's becoming a headache. I will try graphtec today.

*I have also tried tangential mode in the settings, but to no avail. Essentially the same problem.


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## [email protected]

It sounds like you may have done this, but the default offset force is 4 and can be increased if the start and end points of the cut don’t match up.


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## lben

Mine was delivered this week and I have never used a cutter before. I wasn't expecting it to be so big. I had a job to do which was cutting 1/2" letters out on sign vinyl to apply to water bottles. After 3 hours of wasting material trying to get it to cut properly (I was having hangnails too) I adjusted the depth of the blade and eventually found a depth that cut without the little snags. OMG shoot me if I ever offer to put 1/2" names on something again... It took 1 1/2 hours to weed 28 names!


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## lizziemaxine

lben said:


> OMG shoot me if I ever offer to put 1/2" names on something again... It took 1 1/2 hours to weed 28 names!


There are always those jobs that make you crazy. I have a list of "done that, not going to do it again jobs". Most are embroidery but some are vinyl.


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## Twanabee

I did this sail boat for the America's Cup. The boat is only about 4" high. Talk about weeding !


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## lben

Twanabee said:


> I did this sail boat for the America's Cup. The boat is only about 4" high. Talk about weeding !


I think I would've ended up in a rubber room for that one. Hopefully you only had to make one of them. That would have driven me nuts. I don't feel so bad now. Thanks for sharing that weeding nightmare with me.


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## Twanabee

I ended up doing around 30 shirts with 2 boats on each shirt. (see my avatar) It was for a consignment job. Other than loosing a little eyesight, not too bad. I don't recommend this for people with shaky hands. lol


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## failsafe

i am having the same problems. I havent even gone beyond "test" cut at this point because i cant get even get a decent triangle. They look like this every time, no matter the offset. I have tried adjusting the force, speed, and every slight fraction of distance of the blade sticking out of the holder. Rotating the blade ever so slightly, different vinyls. always the same crappy triangle. This is a brand new machine purchased from Coastal Business Supply weeks ago.

any ideas?


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## Gilligan

The other day I noticed the same thing on mine. Mainly when I do lettering. I did a prototype for a buddy of mine and EVERY letter had that little gap. Easy enough to yank and break but not ideal by any means.

Honestly, my experience with the cutter has been rather frustrating because there is ALWAYS something kooky.


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## mfatty500

did you check the condition, tool & quality settings? Never had that on mine.


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## failsafe

update: though "test" cuts never yielded decent results, a simple cut of a few words produced rather acceptable results.....except....

the cut starts out great, working its way from the last word to the first (right to left as always) and about half way through the cut depth starts to decrease, being more and more shallow until the vinyl is not being cut at all (but the cutting head continues to "ghost cut".

has anyone heard of such a problem? I sent graphtec an email but something tells me not to expect much...


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## Gilligan

I've NEVER seen that... man I would be pissed.

I will check my condition and such next time I'm at the shop.


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## Twanabee

It sounds like your top and bottom rails are not lined up. If this is a new cutter, they should replace it. I have heard of others having this problem. It usualy because something happened in the shipping. If it is new, you have a 2 year warantee.


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## failsafe

Oh man I would hate to have to send it back and wait for another. Do you think Graphtec or Coastal Business Supply(where I bought it) would be the ones to contact?


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## Twanabee

You can try that. I'm not sure if they can help you. Call Graphtec tech support and they may be able to run you through some tests.


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## 34Ford

Maybe your protector strip is not stuck down good on the end, leaving it high at the ends and low in the middle.


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## Twanabee

Dennis....that is a good idea. If you have cut through your strip like I have, lol, you will not get the cutting force on the right side. (home position) Thats where most of the cutting is with small jobs and if you cut through the material into the strip, you will have problems with wider jobs setting your cutting depth. 
Look at your strip and see if it's scored. If it is than replace it. It is held on with double sided tape. Make sure that you clean the base good before putting the new strip on. I always have a spare. I forget to change settings when I change holders.


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## failsafe

well my cutting strip is brand new, as is my whole machine, and the strip is stuck down good and firm. going to give it a few more test runs later tonight but dont even know what parameters could change such an output.. grrr


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## Twanabee

I go back to a cutter that got misalligned (damaged) in shipping. Get a new one. I know that It's a pain but better that than putting up with bad cutting.


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## failsafe

tried many more times tonight, only cuts about the first five inches in from the left. Such a disappointment, My second machine i've had damaged during shipping. I hope my call to graphtec first thing monday morning will foretell a promising future.

wish me luck


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## vadan

I hate to revive old threads but i'm having problems too.

It's cutting vinyl with a 45 and 60 degree blade just fine.

But when I cut cardstock with a 60d it's just not able to cut accurately. I'm doing a print and cut for hang tags so it's pretty straight forward, a rectangle and a circle to cut, the rectangle cuts ok, the circle comes out a wonky oblong shape! Although the rectangle is cutting right, at the end the blade seems to be dropping, not obvious, but I can tell.

I've also tried a trace cut and it doesn't cut 100% to the line, some are on the line some are off.

I've tried with the 45 and 60d both same outcome, the 45 is stock and 60 is a new replacement.

I've tried all of the above, multiple variations of downforce, offset, tangential (which seems to make no difference at all!), been thoroughly through the user guide, even cut it to vinyl perfectly, but card is giving me issues. It's 220/240gsm unlaminated card.

The cutting strip does have a bit of wear but vinyl seems to be fine, I bought the machine used 2 weeks ago and has been running otherwise perfect.

The "0" offset seems to be fine on test cuts.

Also been through the artwork, every cm of cut line and all is fine.

Any suggestions as to what I may or may not be doing that's causing this issue?

Advice would really, really be appreciated!

p.s. images added




Thanks,

Raj


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## rico192

I just had to do this and it was a nightmare. I had the exact same problem and went through weeks of graphtec trying to trouble shoot over the phone. Ryonet would not take it back , said it is a graphtec problem even though I wanted to buy the Roland from them. Graphtec put me through the works before letting me send it back for a replacement. Then I had to basically give them 2100 dollars on my credit card that took them over a month to refund only after several emails to them. They did replace the plotter but I will never buy another grqphtec product because of the process to replace a defective item . 

Sent from my PC36100 using T-Shirt Forums


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## vadan

I don't like the sound of that 1 bit lol.

The previous owner had it for 3 yrs running no issues he claims.

Did you actually find out with graphtec what the problem is?


Sent from my iPhone using TShirtForums app


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## GordonM

On heavier stock slow the machine WAY down. Also be sure the blade is brand new and supremely sharp. Cutting paper dulls the blade. This is true of any cutting blade; it's why your wife screams at you if use her sewing scissors to cut paper!

What kind of carrier sheet are you using? You don't mention, and if you don't use one, you're just nicking or cutting into the teflon protective strip underneath. That quickly dulls the blade and ruins the strip.


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## vadan

Gordon,

It's a brand new 60d blade, first time used. 

I am using a carrier, my from old cameo, 12x12", hardly any scuffs on it. 

Also gone down as low as speed 10. I'll try 1 now.

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## vadan

Lowest speed didn't help. Done another vinyl cut... now it seems to be buggering up everything! ARGH!!

Could there be a setting on the machine i've unknowingly changed?

[media]http://s10.postimage.org/x0589qpqx/photo3.jpg[/media]


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## mfatty500

is that image in vector format? Looks a little rough to me.


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## vadan

mfatty500 said:


> is that image in vector format? Looks a little rough to me.


Yup, artwork is fine as i've done many vinyl cuts of the same logo fot t-shirts, that's how it cut to card though, saying that, see the image below, the internal cut is ok but looking at the oblong..you will see its off, by the way, the card is duplexed. (This was done earlier).

The 2nd is a vinyl test cut after resetting the unit just now.

I just reset the unit incase i'd changed a setting and didn't realise, made no difference either.

[media]http://s11.postimage.org/5elxquper/photo5.jpg[/media]
[media]http://s11.postimage.org/w9vz5r6eb/photo4.jpg[/media]


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## Gilligan

rico192 said:


> ...hen I had to basically give them 2100 dollars on my credit card that took them over a month to refund only after several emails to them. They did replace the plotter but I will never buy another grqphtec product because of the process to replace a defective item .
> 
> Sent from my PC36100 using T-Shirt Forums


I'm not taking up for them as I have had my trials with Graphtec as well... but they did refund you you profit that Ryonet made... that means not only did they have to refund and lose that money they lost the money that Ryonet pocketed. I would be more frustrated with them and not buying from them again.

Graphtec isn't one of the major players because they are that bad. You just had a bad experience... it happens.


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## Gilligan

vadan said:


> Yup, artwork is fine as i've done many vinyl cuts of the same logo fot t-shirts, that's how it cut to card though, saying that, see the image below, the internal cut is ok but looking at the oblong..you will see its off, by the way, the card is duplexed. (This was done earlier).
> 
> The 2nd is a vinyl test cut after resetting the unit just now.
> 
> I just reset the unit incase i'd changed a setting and didn't realise, made no difference either.
> 
> [media]http://s11.postimage.org/5elxquper/photo5.jpg[/media]
> [media]http://s11.postimage.org/w9vz5r6eb/photo4.jpg[/media]



One thing that was wrong on my machine was the blade type. Inside the machine it was set to a completely different blade type. This was causing me all sorts of issues, some I didn't even know I was having.

It's something to look at.


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## vadan

Here's an update.

I've updated my firmware from v2.6 to v3.7 in the hope that it gives me a better idea of what's going wrong.

The cutting has improved a bit, but as you will see from my offset test below... i'm getting the feeling it's more than a settings problem?

None of the test cuts weeded away without catching.


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## vadan

Gilligan said:


> One thing that was wrong on my machine was the blade type. Inside the machine it was set to a completely different blade type. This was causing me all sorts of issues, some I didn't even know I was having.
> 
> It's something to look at.


Hey Gilligan,

Is this the blade offset angle you're talking about?

For the 45 it says factory default 30 and for 60 it recommends 28 in user guide.

The test cuts were with factory reset settings using 45 blade. 


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## Gilligan

No Raj... there is a "blade type", I'll double check when I get to my shop in a few.

It isn't an "adjustable" setting per say, you pick the blade type that you have (not 45 or 60, it's the holder type).


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## vadan

Gilligan said:


> No Raj... there is a "blade type", I'll double check when I get to my shop in a few.
> 
> It isn't an "adjustable" setting per say, you pick the blade type that you have (not 45 or 60, it's the holder type).


Hmmm not seen that anywhere, would really appreciate if you can when you get time, thank you.


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## Gilligan

Ok, Sorry "Tool" type.

"09U" is where it needs to be. Mine was set to "15U" when I got my machine.

Gave me small fits till someone at Graphtec pointed that out to me.


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## vadan

Gilligan said:


> Ok, Sorry "Tool" type.
> 
> "09U" is where it needs to be. Mine was set to "15U" when I got my machine.
> 
> Gave me small fits till someone at Graphtec pointed that out to me.


Ohhh, yeah I use the cutting master 2 controller to adjust blade settings, 9U for the 45d and 15U for the 60d.

I've had a bit more of a play around and randomly, offset -1 on the 45d seems to be pretty close to 100% now but not quite spot on, passable i'd say. I don't get why though, because it didn't require offset 2 days back! :/

Not tried the 60d yet, which is really important for me to figure out for cardstock.

Thanks for checking Kevin.


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## Gilligan

No that number represents the blade HOLDER. Not the blade itself.

You should probably never change that setting.


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## RobertG

Hey guys, 

Glad I found this tread. After going trough my settings I still did not figure out why my circles of 2,4 mm are being cut as 2mm. I'm cutting from CorrelDraw 5, shows up the correct size in the cut-plot plug-in. Strangely enough I think I had it right at a certain point, but after enabling tangential emulation things got unclear. 
Any thoughts on this?

Regards, Robert


www.laughingshirts.nl


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## rjim

I have been having a similar problem ever since I had a jam. I did set the tangential emulation on after reading this topic. It greatly reduced the problems, but did not eliminate it. I'm cutting sticky flock for 6ss stones.

I used to be able to cut the test square and triangle without a problem. However the first couple of tests never cut correctly. Usually the 3rd and fourth come close.


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## vadan

Apologies. I should have updated.

Last week the cutting went totally off the ball. Everything went wonky as hell. After a call to graphtec uk, hour or 2 with tech guy on phone, sent him pics etc. Bubbled down to a possibility.

Now, they said £300+ to come out, inspect, repair and service, I rolled my eyes and said no thank you lol.

He happily guided me over the phone though. The cutting head was loose, looser than I had assumed it should be, it shouldn't be at all loose.

Opened it up, took the head off, cleaned all the nooks and crannies, the wheels, rails etc, everything. As I was reassembling I noticed the back wheels plate is very slightly bent.

After a few hours to tweaking alignment I found a perfect placement. Done a test print, composted a job and nearly perfect. I say nearly because I can notice its not cutting 100% accuracy. Unnoticeable by a customer.

I've not had the time to tweak settings and see what happens but I'd very highly recommend checking the head mechanisms.

Hope this helps.


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## Pride of Place

mine cuts the triangle perfectly, but when I cut an actual design (both text and graphics) it cut a kinda serated edge rather than a clean one - tried all sorts (new blade, adjusting cutting depth on machine and blade, different vinyls) but nothing seems to work.
Anybody got any ideas?


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## Pride of Place

having had problems with my graphtec cutter i made an impulsive purchase of a cheaper cutter - works great.........my only problem is that it's not compatible with my magicut designs - does anybody know of a way to convert magicut designs to another format?


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## lben

I don't have a clue. But I will tell you that your blade holder might not be securely locked down. You might also need to check out the lines that you're trying to cut to make sure they're straight in your artwork and not jagged. I just wish I could get mine to remesh with corel. But since the computer shop erased my hard drive and reloaded the OS nothing seems to work right.


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## Pride of Place

Thanks for the advice - the lines are fine on the image - blade holder appears to be secure - it'll cut fine on some but not on others of the same design.....beats me!!!


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## lben

You might not have the pressure settings correct for the material you're trying to cut. Or you could be using a 45 instead of a 60 blade or visa versa. Your clamps might not be down on the grippy part of the roller and your film might be shifting a tad, too.


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## Pride of Place

Thanks Loretta - will check all these things out and hope I can find the cause of the problem


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## lben

There's a metal rod that has a smooth surface and then a few areas of rough texture spaced out across the rod. Your film holders have a rubber wheel on them. Those wheels have to be placed on top of the rough areas on the rod. Otherwise the film doesn't feed properly. This is especially important if your design has a lot of tight turns.

That and the pressure settings have to be right. I hope you are able to find out what the issue is. I love my CE5000-60.


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## Chris0214

I had a similar problem and solved it by changing the blade holder with a new one and the problem was solved


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## djque

Pride of Place said:


> Thanks Loretta - will check all these things out and hope I can find the cause of the problem


 what are your settings and blade your using.

also post a picture of what your cutting or file.


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## sridrof

Hi I'm using Graphtec CE6000-60 Plus, i'm having problem when i cut a template from one time and another, the result will not have the same size

May someone help?


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## webtrekker

sridrof said:


> Hi I'm using Graphtec CE6000-60 Plus, i'm having problem when i cut a template from one time and another, the result will not have the same size
> 
> May someone help?


Have you tried all the above suggestions?


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