Discuss the various aspects of heat pressed vinyl transfers. Popular and new types of vinyl media, suppliers, vinyl cutters /plotters, press times, quality, how to instructions and more can be found in this heat press sub forum.
After reading many threads here I decided to buy a Roland Stika. It's been a great little unit so far for my needs but recently I've run into a problem with cutting circles. I simply CANNOT get them to line up which not only leaves a nasty look to the cut but also means I have to be very careful while weeding because the circles (mainly 0's and O's) hang.
I've tried playing with the offset, cut speed, changed blades, tried different vinyl and I'm kind of at a loss. I'm completely new to vinyl cutting so if anyone could offer some insight I would greatly appreciate it!!!
Me too - I've been talking with Roland technical support, and I am going to send my cutter to them for repair or replacement. It worked fine for the first two months, and then I started having the exact same problem. I've tried everything too! If I find out what's wrong, I will post it!
Me too - I've been talking with Roland technical support, and I am going to send my cutter to them for repair or replacement. It worked fine for the first two months, and then I started having the exact same problem. I've tried everything too! If I find out what's wrong, I will post it!
Shoelover - thanks a lot! If you find out what's wrong with it, I would definitely like an update so hopefully I can get mine back to cutting perfectly again. It's a shame that such a new unit, at nearly $1000, has this problem.
Shoelover - thanks a lot! If you find out what's wrong with it, I would definitely like an update so hopefully I can get mine back to cutting perfectly again. It's a shame that such a new unit, at nearly $1000, has this problem.
k2 02 - I'll let you know what I find out. If your machine is still under warranty, call Roland at 800-542-2307 and press 2 for technical support. They walked me through several steps to try to repair it over the phone. Unfortunately, the changes didn't correct my problem, so I am sending my machine to them tomorrow for repair or replacement. They may be able to fix your machine over the phone, but if not, then you could send it to them.
1. Reinstall the CutStudio software and driver. They can become corrupted from other programs, Windows updates, etc.
2. Check the condition of the white cutter protection strip that runs the length of the machine under the blade. If if has deep grooves cut into it or it is sticking up in areas, the quality of the cuts can be affected.
3. How long have you had the cutter and how much use is it getting? The blade holders eventually wear out and need to be replaced. Worn out blade holders affect the cutting quality also.
Pop the blade out and look inside the blade holder. There may be small pieces of vinyl and/or adhesive that has worked its way into the blade holder. Clean in out if necessary. A can of compressed air works well.
4. What kind of blade(s) are you using? If you switched brands or cutting angles, the cut starting point and ending point may not match up. The offset in this case would need to be adjusted.
I used to have a Stika and it would do that. I found out on my own that it needed to be oiled. The medal bar that has the rollers on it has to be oiled every once in a while. It does state this in the manual for it, but only mentions one sentence about it way in the back I believe. I haven't had one for about a year not and moved up to a GX-24. Try just putting a small amount of sewing machine oil on a cotton ball and wipping it on the metal roller. That should help.
Just wanted to post a quick update for anyone that may run into this similar problem. I found that cutting from Illustrator rather than the Roland software greatly reduced the frequency and extent of the problem. So, if you have access to Illustrator, I would highly recommend using it over the included software.
With a cutter-plotter, the hardest thing to do is a circle. Both axis have to be working in perfect sinc. If anything is just a little "sticky" you can see it right away. This is a test that we used to do back when plotters were first used. (showing my age) It could be a problem in the software or hardware but will show up clearly right away.
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DK-20 auto-open press, Graphtec 5000-60, Epson 1900 & WF-1100 and my fingers always crossed.
Roland Stika won't cut circles 
