# Desperate for help with cutter settings!!!



## DivineBling (Sep 14, 2010)

Please help me!
I am going to have to be institutionalized very soon if I don't figure this thing out!

I have a Vinyl Express R31 (Redsail RS800C) cutter. I have CorelDRAW X4 which I have been told cannot be used with my cutter so I'm having to export all of my designs as EPS files an then import them into either the LXi Master software the cutter came with or the WinPCSIGN Pro 2010 that I purchased separately.
I'm using a Roland 60 blade at 250g of downward force and lowered the speed to 50mm/s. 
My template material is much thicker than most of the template material I've seen out there. I think it's 60.

The problem is that the holes are not cutting in perfect circles and they are cutting too small even when I increase the size of the circles. For example, I use 2.5mm for ss6, 3.2mm for ss10, etc. So I increase the ss6 size to 2.6 or 2.7 and they still cut too small and cut in little ovals.

So what should all of my settings be?

You people could literally be saving the sanity of my children's mother.


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## SandyMcC (Jul 23, 2009)

I'm only familiar with cutting from KNK Studio to Redsail cutters, but there are a couple of things that you'll need to make sure are set in order to get good accurate circles. First of all, the cutter needs to be calibrated. In other words, if you were to draw a 7" square and send it to cut, you might end up with a 6-15/16" x 7-1/8" square instead. So see if you can find out about machine calibration in either software program... should be in there somewhere. And this CAN affect the sizing of the circles.

Secondly, you need to locate the blade offset setting which compensates for the angle of the blade. This is usually increased quite a bit above normal when cutting rhinestone motif materials... especially the thicker ones. 

Apart from the circles being ovals... are you getting clean cuts otherwise?


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## DivineBling (Sep 14, 2010)

Yes, the rectangles cut around the templates are perfectly straight. I don't know about anything else because I'm only cutting circles!

What should my knife offset be?


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## SandyMcC (Jul 23, 2009)

Not straight... but rather ABSOLUTELY perfect in size. You need to check the size you show in the software and then measure with an actual ruler that has 1/16" markings at least. Again, this CAN affect the accuracy of your circles. Also, make sure your blade isn't extended too far. If it's cutting through the material too far (and through the backing sheet), then it can be dragging on the Teflon strip and also cause the circles to be off.

I don't know how the knife offset values work in the software you're using. IF you can find the setting in the software, then just experiment with it. Try cutting just a single row of, say, 10 circles and see what affect you get by increasing it.


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## DivineBling (Sep 14, 2010)

I just cut a test rectangle and it is PRECICELY 6 inches. Not even off by 1/16".


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## SandyMcC (Jul 23, 2009)

Okay... well, that's good news! It could be that you'll need to purchase a template material that's thinner if the Offset doesn't fix the situation. The ovals could be the result of the cutter struggling to cut through the material. I have noticed that when cutting plastics, like styrene. You can't get perfect circles because it's just too dense.

But first, trying the Knife Offset. In Win PC Sign, when you click to cut the project, the Cutting Control Panel window will open. Click on the Options button and there you will find Knife Offset. It appears the default is 10... try 50 and see what happens. Again, just try a short row of circles. 

I also see "Curve Resolution" as a setting but I don't know what it does. Maybe someone else here can make some suggestions to help you.

Oh... and also be sure to use 2 passes. That might help with the shape some if the circles are cut twice. And definitely increase the size of your circles, too. I use 3.5 on my Maxx and my 10SS fall in perfectly.


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## DivineBling (Sep 14, 2010)

Thanks! Those are definitely things to consider. I know about the offset and stuff but I just don't know exactly what my calibrations should be!


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## Twanabee (Sep 14, 2009)

First I would start with an offset of zero. Remove the holder and look at the blade length. It should be extended to the thickness of the material. Just the material and not the backing. Lower your downforce and try a test cut with some circles. The thicker the material and the more downforce you have will tend to make ovels as the downforce of the holder is compressing the material and not allowing it to move. It is a combination of blade length and downforce. You should not have to use much downforce if your blade is at the right length. also remember that if using winpcsign you need to cut 4 sizes larger for the stones you are using. I use winpcsign and if I need 10SS then I cut 14SS.


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## DivineBling (Sep 14, 2010)

Twannabe,
I did all of that when I first set up the cutter. The blade sticks out just enough to cut through the material but not the backing if I push really hard. The problem wasn't that it wasn't cutting through the material... I read somewhere on here that someone used a knife offset of 100 so I gave that a try and voila! Perfect circles!
I only tried it with ss10 because it was midnight last night so I'll be trying it with ss6 this morning.

I don't actually design most of the time in WinPCSIGN. I do my designing in CorelDRAW and export as an EPS file into WinPCSIGN to do my cutting because my cutter doesn't have a plugin for CorelDRAW.
However, when I do design with WinPCSIGN, I change the size of the circle underneath the stone size options to match what size circle I want cut.


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## paliborja (Mar 12, 2016)

check if you expanded the stroke, maybe yo have a small circle with a thick stroke, and when you export it to winpc it only cuts the size of the circle without the stroke.... maybe it helps....


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