posted
I am weeding a lot of 6 mm high letters cut in 3M 5525 dusted vinyl. Picking the the insides of A, B, R and so on is a nightmare. Seems like my cutter leaves a tiny, tiny gap in the cutline, so a little flap connect the parts. Could I solve this by either: setting the knife pressure to higher, set the "overlap of cuts to higher og do I have to get a sharper knife ? I am aware of the trick to put premask on first and then weed the tiny parts from premask instead of from the backing paper, but hopes for a simpler solution
posted
There is an alternative solution: in the plotter driver, tell it the blade offset is 0.4mm instead of the usual 0.25mm
That'll make it overcut the little joins you're having problems with. It can create other issues, but you should be OK with that.
Another idea is to use an alphabet that has very few 'holes', or an easyweed alphabet - there are a couple, eg like the curve of the P doesn't go right round to the stem, so the inner bit is open to the outside, ditto with the R...
Also, just weed out the letter centres, then apply the letters and the background to the substrate, then weed the background off the substrate.
Arial Round is one font that is not bad to work with at tiny sizes, I've found.
Some programs have a centreline weed option. That makes it easier too, with small letters, but 6mm letters are horrible to deal with - can it be a digital print instead?
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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posted
Tnx Ian, sound advices ! But logo was given, cant change font, it is to be applied on glass outside in about 0 Celsius so I cant weed from background substrate either, but before I tried the offet solution I though I might adjust the knife pressure, changed it from 115 to 140, now it is all smooth
-------------------- Stein Saether GullSkilt AS Trondheim Posts: 1183 | From: Trondheim Norway | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
Maybe everybody knows this...maybe not. I know many use a little picker to pop off insides of letters like "A"s, but I prefer tweezers. On very small letters I will grab the inside of the letter with the tweezers in the middle of the part to be removed. Leaving it on the tweezers I go to each same letter push down and just wiggle it ever so slightly. The center of that letter will stick to the previous center. Keep doing this to all like letters. Eventually you will have enough of a build up that the stack is too flexible and you won't get any wiggle at the bottom piece. Remove and start over. I can pull a center out at the rate of about one per second. Of course you can match similar letters like D's O's & B's.
-------------------- Dave Sherby "Sandman" SherWood Sign & Graphic Design Crystal Falls, MI 49920 906-875-6201 sherwoodsign@sbcglobal.net Posts: 5396 | From: Crystal Falls, MI USA | Registered: Apr 1999
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"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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