I seem to be having a problem with my GX 24 cutter. I love the machine but appear to be using a cutting force for Oracle / Avery type 2-3 mil vinyl that is much higher than I'm seeing others use. I am using between 140 & 150 grms of force with a new blade and the blade set at about 1 mm extension. I've run across posts where other folks are using around 60 or 70 grms of force. I've done the test cut with progressively higher forces until I get right back to 140 grams before the box will cut clean away from the circle.
Does this force seem high to anybody else oram I in the ballpark?
I seem to have problems with certain small detailed designs / letters either tearing up during cutting or pulling up during weeding and can't seem to get a good middle ground.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated....
Thanks!
John
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I am with Rodney and Lou...seems your force might be a touch too high...also make sure your blade is set correctly..not extending more than half or 3/4 of credit card...try that adjustment...might make a difference
Do you have that pen force slider thing right in the middle?
I just cut my first oracal yesterday, and it started tearing up the paper, then I realized I loaded the vinyl upside down
My force is set at 110gf and my pen force is like a hair over the 0 line.
Hey Rodney..
Yeah...I started out with it just past the "0" but tried to play around with it a bit with not much luck. It's not upside down either..lol. Althought I've done that before too...
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I'm going to play around with it some more today. I'll target 110 and double check the blade extension.
What speed are you cutting at? The default is 20 cm/sec and I've tried slowing it down to 10 cm/sec with marginal success. I'm also using a 45 deg if that makes a difference.
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Oracle and eco film cuts at 90 while eco foils have to cut at 190!
When I first got my cutter I was cutting oracle at 70, that lasted about a week. Could have been that I loaded a roll of foilf upside down once and tried to cut through the backing !!
Seems I do that at least once a week.
I just replaced the blade with a carbide tip and still at the 90/190 point.
I heard about a blade that was superior to the stock roland blades but forgot the website.
maybe that would make a difference.
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I cut at about 130 - 140 with oracle 651 and avery a4. Same force for thermoflex. I was cutting at 70-90 when I got my cutter, but as I used it more I had to increase my force. I changed blades and still the force needed to be at 120 or so.
I seem to be having a problem with my GX 24 cutter. I love the machine but appear to be using a cutting force for Oracle / Avery type 2-3 mil vinyl that is much higher than I'm seeing others use. I am using between 140 & 150 grms of force with a new blade and the blade set at about 1 mm extension. I've run across posts where other folks are using around 60 or 70 grms of force. I've done the test cut with progressively higher forces until I get right back to 140 grams before the box will cut clean away from the circle.
Does this force seem high to anybody else oram I in the ballpark?
I seem to have problems with certain small detailed designs / letters either tearing up during cutting or pulling up during weeding and can't seem to get a good middle ground.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated....
Thanks!
John
Interesting that you're testing with Avery 2-3 mil product. I just cut some Avery 3 mil calendered vinyl last evening and used these settings on my Summa cutter with a 36 degree blade, which worked perfectly:
- 80g (force)
- .43mm (knife offset)
- 10ips (inches per second speed)
So to answer your question, yes, your force seems high. However, how well are your cuts on this material with the force you're using?
If it's turning out well and you're not cutting through the backing but scoring the backing, then that may just be the difference with your cutter settings vs. others.
Interesting that you're testing with Avery 2-3 mil product. I just cut some Avery 3 mil calendered vinyl last evening and used these settings on my Summa cutter with a 36 degree blade, which worked perfectly:
- 80g (force) - .43mm (knife offset) - 10ips (inches per second speed)
So to answer your question, yes, your force seems high. However, how well are your cuts on this material with the force you're using?
If it's turning out well and you're not cutting through the backing but scoring the backing, then that may just be the difference with your cutter settings vs. others.
AB
I've tried dropping the force down to below 100 and it barely scores the vinyl. 110 doensn't do much better. It keeps coming back to the 140 to 160 range for me. Of course, my biggest problem is with smaller..more detailed lettering which seems pretty common. I either seem to get the letters not seperating during the weeding process or the blade tearing them up during the cutting process...
I've read some about the offset but not quite sure how to adjust this...if I even need to do so. Something else to look at next....
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This thread may help a bit on setting your blade depth as a general rule of thumb: Blade Depth For Cutting Tip
Is your blade perhaps too far up in your holder or is the tip of your blade broken? Extend your blade out a tad bit, decrease the down force and see if that improves the cut. I only saw 2 mentions of the blade offset for the GX-24 in the User's Manual. It appears that .25mm was the standard setting but do not quote me on this.
If you want to test changing the offset, increase it by 2 points. Thus, if it's set at .25mm, increase to .27mm and do a test cut. I always run a built-in test cut first.
Also, can you post a picture of how the cut appears after the job (where you see tearing & letters coming up during the weed process)?
I agree on the blade exposure. I'm old and blind and trying to gauge the blade extension by sight was nearly impossible and at least incredibly inaccurate. I bought a cheap digital caliper from Harbor Freight (I think I paid 15 dollars) and now I know how much the blade sticks out. Too little blade exposure and you'll be compensating with pressure, too much and you'll cut too deep, potentially into your cutter strip. Plus when you've got too much exposure you'll have problems at corners as the cutting edge of the blade moves back towards the center point of the cutter as you go deeper (i.e. the offset is from the center of the blade to the point, halfway along the cutting edge the offset is much different.) Too much or too little blade exposure often causes lifting issues.
I've tried dropping the force down to below 100 and it barely scores the vinyl. 110 doensn't do much better. It keeps coming back to the 140 to 160 range for me. Of course, my biggest problem is with smaller..more detailed lettering which seems pretty common. I either seem to get the letters not seperating during the weeding process or the blade tearing them up during the cutting process...
I've read some about the offset but not quite sure how to adjust this...if I even need to do so. Something else to look at next....
I'm definately a girl (can only read maps when they're turned in the same direction as I'm facing - you guys will definately know what I'm talking about!
and definately don't react well to all the intricates of cutting forces etc etc....)
.....but, I too faced a similar problem when I first got my GX-24.
I was cutting a really horrible and thick reflective vinyl used for our safety forces and the like and had to have the force to the max. and the speed slowed right down.
The only thing that worked was to drop the force back down a bit (keep the cut slow) and re-cut it.
Works well, more time-consuming but beats the bejeebies out of wasting all that expensive vinyl.
Oh, I think the "technical" term for re-cutting is
REPLOTTING.
I want to be helpful but need more girly "rhinestone" type posts to sink my teeth into.
ps. rhinestones look really pretty with any vinyl job.
GX 24 Force settings for vinyl... 
