# vinyl not tracking straight



## moment (Sep 30, 2008)

Hi I have a CX24 Roland and when I am cutting long lengths of vinyl, the vinyl slowly gets off track of the pinch rollers even though before I proceeded to cut I made sure the vinyl was straight. so the longer the piece the more off track it gets almost to the point of coming out from the pinch roller. Is there a way to put more tension on the pinch rollers?
Any help would be great!


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## gspotstudio (Nov 11, 2008)

It may not be the tension on the roller but the roller itself. Check to make sure it's not flattened or cracked. How long have you had your cutter?


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## LogoDaddy (Sep 26, 2007)

You can feed out the entire length that you are wanting to cut before you cut it, if it tracks wrong, you arent wasting vinyl.


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## moment (Sep 30, 2008)

I've had the cutter for almost 4 years


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## moment (Sep 30, 2008)

LogoDaddy said:


> You can feed out the entire length that you are wanting to cut before you cut it, if it tracks wrong, you arent wasting vinyl.


I've tried that but it seems to continually go off track sometimes more some less so I usually try not to cut anything more than five or six feet at one time but sometimes I have to cut longer so it's becoming a real hassle.


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## nascarbob (Mar 29, 2008)

I have a gx24. It does the same thing with heat vinyl. With sign vinyl I can cut forever. I always thought it must be the way they put it onto the roll. Curious what others say.


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## deenastee (Mar 31, 2006)

i have the same exact problem with my gx24 as nascarbob does.help any1?


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## gailevans (Aug 9, 2008)

I have had that problem also, but haven't had my cutter very long. In fact, a short enough time that I thought it was operator error. The only media I have cut so far has been the type that is used on garments. I wonder what's different between this and sign vinyl? Since more people are experiencing the same thing, I will be interested also to know how to remedy this.


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## deenastee (Mar 31, 2006)

just like gayle i havent had my cutter very long. ive actually had vinyl come off the pinch rollers several times,ruining the entire job. what kind of vinyl has everyone been using when this happened? the only vinyl i have ever used is from imprintables. it is a great product i love working with it so i hope its not that.


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## nascarbob (Mar 29, 2008)

I 2nd the Imprintables, I mainly use Eco film.


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## moment (Sep 30, 2008)

For heat press vinyl I've only used stuff from Joto paper; multicut, tuffcut, glitter but I've had the same problem with sign vinyl, use mostly Avery,but I don't think its the Vinyl, maybe I'll have to contact Roland for this one.


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## moment (Sep 30, 2008)

gspotstudio said:


> It may not be the tension on the roller but the roller itself. Check to make sure it's not flattened or cracked. How long have you had your cutter?


 Thanks for the help, I did check my rollers and they seem to be in good shape.


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## Spot_Worker (Oct 22, 2008)

Yes it can be fun at times. My boss still has this problem. After it falls off the machine,if set wrong, can cut the understrip. We now keep the rolls tight. For large job if I'm not feeling lucky. I'll pull the amount out of the roll through the machine. Do a .....forget whats its called. Make the machine pull the amount back to see the travel,and it lines up at the beginning of the roll. My machine is a back feeder. If it rolls to the left as it comes out, Its at an angle left to right. To fix hold the left position and move the right side in a little,to the back. Do the thing on the machine so it finds the pinch rollers and pulls the vinyl in to the beginning. Repeat to check the travel. If the job itsn't going to the edge pull in the pinch roller in some. This well help so you don't have to be dead on. hope this helps


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## Spot_Worker (Oct 22, 2008)

........and if you got the big machines. The pinch rollers have two settings, Light and harder. Harder goes on the outside edge and the light goes on the middle. The machine I use is 60". But have been using that big of vinyl. 24" mostly so no middle rollers.


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## LogoDaddy (Sep 26, 2007)

I have a Graphtec...sometimes when I feed out the job (before I cut it) it will track wrong, but i just adjust the roll and straighten it up and it is fine, my machine is approaching 2 years old and is a great little cutter.


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## brentonchad (Aug 24, 2007)

I have GX24 and have the same issue. What I did find though was that for the most part the vinyl is not perfectley straight on the rolls - sometimes it's not even cut square. However I started purchaseing Thermoflex with the punched holes. Now I can use the holes to line the vinyl up perfectly straight by using the white cut bar as a guideline - if half the hole is white on both sides then we are good to go. However when your talking about 15yds - a 1/16th of inch can turn into a lot (think of it as a 1 degree angle - close to the point of origin the two lines are very close but the farther you get down the lines the farther they are apart.) - so I still will only cut no more than 1000 - 1200mm at a time. 

This hasn't solved the problem all together - but it has really helped. BTW - Does anyone have cutter that uses the punched vinyl? I assume there's one out there since they sell the vinyl punched. If so I bet this is a non-issue for them.

Chad


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## Spot_Worker (Oct 22, 2008)

Graphtec here too


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## cmyk (Dec 3, 2007)

i own a 24' 'Copam CP 2500 and sometimes i face the same problem.
sometimes it can cut 10 feet long sheets of sign vinyl with a little deviations of the sheet (but wich doesn't affect the cutting) , sometimes it almost comes of the pinch roles after 6,5 feet.

heat vinyl is most difficult to work with, i believe because the carier plastic side is glossier than sign vinyl so the pinch roles have less grip.

i thought this problem woulnd't appear with rolands and graphtecs


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## jmj (Feb 24, 2008)

I also have a GX24 and it does the same thing. I think it's the rolls becasue I get some that are rolled straight and others that are way off which makes it hard to line up. I have a stand for my Roland that have the 2 things on the back to keep the rolls straight but when the roll is off you can not use the guides. I've found that the bigger rolls I got from Imprintables was rolled way off to the point that one edge was wrinkled and I lost about 2" on that side. It just so happens that I found a local supplier of Siser easy weed that sells 10 yard rolls with the punched holes, I have purchased 7 rolls and all are rolled very nice and neat but I still have the problem with it getting a little off track if I try to cut a long piece.


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## JOAT (Nov 12, 2008)

This is amazing...I thought it was me and got use to wasting and redoing. I have been looking at wider rollers to hold the vinyl farther away from the cutter. I have a buddy that has the older Roland and he cuts yards and yards at a time.


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## moment (Sep 30, 2008)

Hi, I just got an email from Jesse at Roland tech support and he said if I haven't replaced the pinch rollers in over a year then that would be the first thing to do, even if they look fine they may be weak. But the comments from others that if the vinyl hasn't been rolled straight it could cause the tracking problems definitely makes sense too! So thanks to all who posted


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## JOAT (Nov 12, 2008)

Where do you get replacement parts?


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## moment (Sep 30, 2008)

tech support said to contact local roland dealer to order replacement wheels


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