Throughout my years of using plotters, I have come to realise that I can help optimise the longevity of my blade and avoid cutting problems by doing certain checks and setting it up properly.
Believe it or not, every material is different in characteristics so each blade and blade holder needs to be adjusted accordingly; different colours also need to be set up differently.
How to set up your plotter blade:
1. For genuine blade holders and blades the knife only needs to be showing the thickness of the material you are cutting. The easiest way to check this is by adjusting the blade in the blade holder to what you think is correct so it is just showing a fraction.
2. With the blade holder in your hand take a scrap piece of material and manually draw a square. If you can weed the square correctly and the blade has not cut right through the backing paper then it is set up correctly.
3. If the blade has cut too deep through the material and backing paper it could also cut into the machine hich can take the tip off the blade, ruining it and maybe damaging your machine. It should very slighly indent the backing paper but not cut through it.
4. Once you are happy put the blade holder and blade into the machine and adjust the knife pressure to suit the material you need to cut.
This depends on:
1. What meterial you are cutting.
2. If the blade is set up correctly.
3. The quantity of cuts your blade has done.
Different types of blades...
There are different types of blades for cutting speciality materials and reflectives.
Standard Blade:
This has a 45 degree angle which is suitable for cutting vinyls and garment films.
Reflective Blade:
This has a 60 degree angle which is ideal for cutting sandblast, flock and glitter.
Quick Tips...
Knife pressure
Roland, Summa and easiCUT knife pressures are all in gram/force. Graphtec knife pressure is in points.
Blade wear
As your blade wears your knife pressure will need to be increased to compensate.
Blade holder
The blade holder need to be regularly maintained, there should be no adhesive residue on the holder. We recommend spraying WD40 inside the holder which can be left overnight. This can free up the internal bearings inside the holder.
What can I do to check my blade and blade holder?
• It is recommended that you set your blade up as advised above before cutting each material.
• Carry out regular checks of your blade. If the tip of the blade is rounded the blade is wearing out and will work better if you replace it.
• The end of your blade holder should be flat. This prevents the blade holder from pushing through the material and damaging the blade and the machine.
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you say that:
ReplyDeleteKnife pressure
Roland, Summa and easiCUT knife pressures are all in gram/force. Graphtec knife pressure is in points.
but if you have the graphtec knife pressure how would you convert this to roland (or the blackcat cutter that I have)?
Thanks-Perfect help !
ReplyDeleteKonst
London
@ gaz.
ReplyDeleteDepending on model of Graphtec cutter you need to subtract the lower and the upper gf stated in the spec sheet and divide by the total number of steps available on the cutter
i.e. for a Fc8000 Graphtec cutter has a range from 20gf to 600gf in 48 steps 600 – 20 =580/48 =12.8gf per step
but on average you can round up or down the results due to machine variation and approximately state 10gf for every step.