Craft Robo

[John G]

Thats an extractor fan to stop the insides overheating. It doesn't have any force at all to effect the way the vinyl goes through, just extracts the heat away from the parts inside.

[mrs maggot]

yes i know that, but as the guy pointed out to me, it also helps to keep the vinyl running smoothly through

[accdave]

the pinch rollers, will be fine, i normally lift them up, pull through at least a couple of inches of vinyl, shut the rollers, now roll a lot through, lift one of the pinch rollers and straighten the roll, then feed it back, sometimes it takes a couple of goes, but if the roll is not rolled straight - which can happen if you buy in 5 & 10mtrs - it works fine.

make sure you put the roll central to the cutter not off to one end, the cutters have a fan in the centre which pulls the vinyl towards it acting as another way of helping to hold the vinyl straight.

pop the cutters on the forum forsale bit first, im after another one

What mark do you line the edge of the vinyl up to ?

Do you have a stand or the desktop roller. I only have the desktop one and I think part of the problem is becasue the vinyl doesn't drop properly at the back.

[mrs maggot]

i have a bit of plastic guttering, and i screwed it through the shelf my cutter sits on (the scres are domed so as not to scratch the vinyl) this keeps it pulling through straight - you could also use a cut down the centre cardboard tube - just beware of any sharp edges - perhaps run tape along the edge ? i also have run a peice of red insulating tape down the front of the cutter - top to bottom, which helps me line up the vinyl.

[Stitch Up]

it also helps to keep the vinyl running smoothly through

The Graphtec plotter has a suction underneath the leading part of the vinyl - it sucks the vinyl down to the cutting bed.

[John G]

I haven't seen a graphtec plotter in action but I can't understand where the suction would come from, if indeed it did have suction this would impead the vinyl which would defeat the point.

The fan under my plotter is definately a cooling fan, to get any suction at all you'd need something more powerful than a cooling fan. I've checked graphtec website and it doesn't say anything about suction - unless your talking about a flatbed plotter. Or is this a special function on the craft robo?

Cheers John

[John G]

Just did a test on my plotter with a sheet of paper - there is smidge of suction. Tried it with a sheet of vinyl and it was barely noticable - wouldn't effect the way it tracks.

Maybe your plotters are better built and have stronger fans on them - and mine was built on a friday

Cheers John

[bms]

Or is this a special function on the craft robo?

There's no suction (or cooling fan) on the Craft ROBO. It just pulls material through on the 2 rollers. Even on our large cutter there's no suction fan. As you say it would need to be very powerful to work and the rollers keep the material flat on the cutting base.