INTRO
I got all my equipment safely delivered from
Imprintables Warehouse (the heat press box is BIG...delivered on an 18 wheeler):
The last couple of days I've been getting to know my new
Roland GX-24 Vinyl Cutter. I don't know all its secrets yet, but we're getting to be good friends
SETTING UP THE STAND
First I setup the stand for the cutter. I should preface this with the fact that I am not "mechanically inclined". I can build a website, but I can't install a ceiling fan. I can install software, but I can't build a computer.
For some reason, my wife is a natural "fixer". I guess that's why we're great together. I break things and she knows how to fix them
So I decided to tackle setting up the cutter stand myself. It wasn't really that hard. They included all the tools needed, and there were only 4-5 steps.
Still, it took me about an hour to go from this:
To this:
Then I opened up the box to the vinyl cutter:
Took it out and hooked it up to the stand:
(pretty shiny, huh?)
INSTALLING THE DRIVERS AND CUTSTUDIO
Next, I wheeled it into my office, and started to install the Roland drivers on my PC with Windows XP.
The driver installation went pretty smooth. I think there was a small typo in the instruction booklet where it tells you which menu option on the CD to click to start the driver installation, but the visuals were pretty self explanatory.
I did get a bit worried about when I was supposed to plugin the USB cord. The manual had all these warnings about not hooking up the USB cord until the driver installation specificially asked me to. When I got to the part where I was supposed to plugin the USB cord, I didn't think it was specific enough, so I had to reread it a few times. But I plugged it in and it installed just fine
I installed CutStudio and the CutStudio CorelDraw plugin. The CD that came with the cutter only had a plugin for up to CorelDraw 12 (I have CorelDraw X3).
After a bit of Googling and forum searching, I found the
CorelDraw X3 plugin for CutStudio (version 1.10) on the Roland website (and version 1.23 of CutStudio standalone program).
INSTALLING THE BLADE
The manual that came with the cutter was actually pretty well written. It walked me step by step through my first test cut.
First I had to install the cutter blade. This sounded a lot more challenging than it was. When I read posts here about changing blades, adjusting the cut depth, it sounded (to me) like a pretty complicated process.
The blade is actually a small cylindrical thing (maybe as long as a thumbnail) that slips easily into this handy dandy blade holder. I had imagined razor blades and special handling gloves, but it was nothing of the sort.
MAKING MY FIRST TEST CUT
The cutter came with an 8 1/2 by 11" sheet of test vinyl to use for the first cut and for adjusting the blade depth.
I just insert the test vinyl, align it in the cutter, and press a "TEST" button on the cutter for a couple of seconds. The cutter then zipped around for a couple of seconds and finished the test cut (a square within a circle) that helped determine if the blade is cutting deep enough.
The Roland has an LCD control panel that allows you to easily adjust the blade force.
After I got the blade working as the instructions said it should (so it cuts the through the vinyl, and just faintly touches the backing), I made my first "sticker".
It's hard to see in the photograph, but above the 3 test cuts I did, there's a rectangle with the word SALE in it. I just followed the instructions. Typed the word SALE in the CutStudio program, drew a rectangle around it and clicked the button that sent it to the cutter.
The cutter package included this application sticky paper that you use to apply the vinyl sticker to whatever surface you need.
I stuck mine to my office fan. With the clear application paper, it was easy to apply:
QUESTION:
One thing I don't understand is if you're selling vinyl signs/cut stickers to customers via mail, how do you make sure that the other sticky side of the application paper doesn't get stuck to the mailing envelope? I'm guessing there is a different type paper for used for mailing cut vinyl?
After that successful run, I was feeling ambitious, so I decided to make a t-shirt...
Making my first custom t-shirt with cut vinyl, a vinyl cutter and a heat press