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.
Can a GX-24 cut cotton or polyester fabric that has a thermo adhesive backing? I use the Stalh's Thermo Adhesive material that I heat press to fabric, then die cut. I am planning to buy the GX-24 anyhow, but this would be a plus.
I have a heat tip cutter I bought from Stahls years ago, and it does NOT cut the thermo-adhesive backed fabric. I am hoping a cutting blade will do the trick, otherwise I will continue die cutting the fabric.
Smith
When I posted this two days ago, on Nov 26, it is Nov 28 now, I meant using cloth fabric that people use to make dresses, shirts, and blankets. A craze hit a few years ago, that people wanted shirt fabric sewed on the tee shirts in different fabrics. Inprintables Warehouse sells an iron-on Zebra Fabric, and Dalco sells a sew-on twill Zebra Fabric. The problem I had was ironing cotton patterned fabric onto thermo-adhesive, then cutting with a heat tip. Heat tips cut Twill and Flock fine, but not the fabric stuff. I had hoped that the GX 24 with a blade could cut the adhesive backed cotton fabric. That was really my question, and Dan basically said no.
The Stahl's Thermo Adhesive has a paper backing that is pealed before you heat press apply to, then sew to the shirt.
I must say that I have learned a lot so far from my first post, and thanks to one and all, so far.
Smith
Last edited by st258; November 28th, 2008 at 01:32 PM.
Reason: To clarify what I was asking at first.
I don't undertand the "Thanks" button, so
Thank you for responding to my question. I'll just keep die-cutting, I guess, though I will check out laser cutters. Thanks again.
Smith
I cut PSA Twill with my cutter, all of the time. Note that this is Pressure Sensitive material and comes on a roll with a mylar backing. The adhesive is on the underside of the twill and is tacky enough to adhere to fabric. This is normally used in applique sewing on embroidery machines.
Since you already use Stahls, check out their PSA Twill offerings and see if this will do the trick for you.
In order to cut something with a cutter, it needs to be 2-ply (one to cut and the second one to allow the grip rollers to feed the material forward / back). As Hugh mentioned above, he gets his material on a carrier sheet that allows you to cut the twill (i.e. twill is the cutting material and the carrier sheet pulls the twill back and forth in the cutter). Without the carrier, the material will be cut to a certain point before the cutter will not have enough material to move it anymore. It is posible to purchase carrier sheets and apply the material to the carrier sheet to cut it.
The Roland GX-24 has a cutting force of 250 grams. Thus, the material has to be cuttable with this force or below. Ask your supplier if the material you are buying has a cutting force? If you want to try it, slow down the speed on the cutter and use a 60 degree blade (designed for cutting thicker materials). You might have to seal the edges of the material if it frays over time. You can do this by putting a stitch line around it (this is what baseball jerseys do) or use heat applied film.
In order to cut something with a cutter, it needs to be 2-ply (one to cut and the second one to allow the grip rollers to feed the material forward / back). As Hugh mentioned above, he gets his material on a carrier sheet that allows you to cut the twill (i.e. twill is the cutting material and the carrier sheet pulls the twill back and forth in the cutter). Without the carrier, the material will be cut to a certain point before the cutter will not have enough material to move it anymore. It is posible to purchase carrier sheets and apply the material to the carrier sheet to cut it.
The Roland GX-24 has a cutting force of 250 grams. Thus, the material has to be cuttable with this force or below. Ask your supplier if the material you are buying has a cutting force? If you want to try it, slow down the speed on the cutter and use a 60 degree blade (designed for cutting thicker materials). You might have to seal the edges of the material if it frays over time. You can do this by putting a stitch line around it (this is what baseball jerseys do) or use heat applied film.
The Stahls PSA Twill that I cut, I use only 130 grams of down force, but I slow down the cut speed to around 9-12 cm/s in order to not overheat the blade. Some people use a cutting speed that is much faster, but I am overly cautious.
I don't know about the GX 24, but I cut heat seal twill all the time with my GCC Jaguar IV. I purchased some of the Ioline 300 carrier sheets to use and it works out great.
I use a 60 degree blade, slow down my speed and increase my force. No snags...
In Mark's post, above, he mentioned carrier sheets. I see that Stahhl's ID Direct has those backing sheets you were talking about, called Tack Adhesive Sheets in Medium, Heavy, and Ultra Low. Do you recommend one, or does it make no difference which one. When I read Mark's post, I immediatelt thought of the paper backing of pressure sensitive vinyl, or kitchen wax paper.
Smith
They are tacky on both sides. I've been using one side daily for about 3 months. When I can't use that side anymore, I'll flip it over. Mine came in a pack of 3, so I still have two other sheets available.
When I'm cutting really small pieces, I grab a piece of mylar, like the stuff they use to make stencils. I got a piece from the local craft store and use spray adhesive to adhere my fabric.
I joined this forum specifically to ask about small vinyl cutters and fabric.
I am also interested learning if a GX 24 (or other similarly priced machine) could cut shapes out of small sheets of thermo adhesive-backed lightweight quilting cotton. I use Fusion 4000 (Seal) applied to the fabric with a dry-mount press. The cut fabric is used for embroidery applique.
Whenever I run my embroidery software (Tajima Pulse), I look with envy at all those laser cutter icons. I dream of sending my Illustrator files to a cutter instead of to a printed template for the scissors!
Yesterday I saw some small craft cutters advertised for cardstock and wondered if a small vinyl cutter might be suitable for my application. Using an carrier sheet (such as Mylar) and spray adhesive for the adhesive-backed fabric would be an easy thing to do.
My original question was whether a GX 24 could cut adhesive backed cotton fabric. Initial responses, so far, say no, it is not possible. I have looked at other systems, only through internet search and reading, and what you are asking for with the quilt pieces is close to my original question. My early research came down to, if they have the neccessary down force, and versatility. Most did not have the down force, and could deliver on the versatility, but could not state just what, on their pages. Buying a GX 24 and mating it with the the font disc from Stahl's tells me what I'm getting. Adhesive backed fabric snags, so I may not can get all that I want, but I will be happy anyhow. In 1986 I bought a system that uses steel rule dies, the kind that Accucut sales, and I can make do with that for fabric cutting.
I hope I have been helpful. Keep looking, as someday, maybe now, there will be a machine that cuts adhesive backed fabric, and maybe I will read about it in this forum.
Smith
I will be sending out a couple of test samples of my backed fabric and Illustrator files to vendors to see how their machines do. In addition to a Roland GX-24, I will be testing a new craft cutter: a Gazelle. The Gazelle is quite a low-end machine, but it supposedly has sufficient downforce (500g) to cut chipboard.
There may not yet be an affordable solution that performs well enough to replace scissors even for very low-volume applique (my environment).
I try to check out the developments every few years to see if things have changed. Eventually there will a machine that will work.
Thanks for responding. I will let you know how the cutting test runs go.
Can a GX-24 cut adhesive backed fabric 
Re: Can a GX-24 cut adhesive backed fabric 
Daniel Slatkin 
