Vinyl cutter user guide
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Shop Area: Rapid Prototyping Tool: Vinyl Cutter Requires in-person training: No |
Procedure Number UG 120-03, Rev. 0 |
Date DRAFT |
GENERAL
We have a 28" USCutter MH721 and a Roland SV-8 vinyl cutter. It's used to cut adhesive-backed vinyl for stickers, sign making, and screen printing. It can also cut heat press vinyl for use in printing on shirts, hats, mugs, etc.
TuxPlot is the software used to control the vinyl cutter. It is installed on the computer in the rapid prototyping area, which is connected to the vinyl cutter. TuxPlot only works with vector format files, so the general workflow is to design something in Inkscape, save it as an .svg, then import that svg in to TuxPlot where it's sent to the cutter.
The vinyl cutter will press the knife into any location that isn't white. This leads to a common mistake for new users, which is that they'll draw a black circle, filled with black, and the vinyl cutter will proceed to obliterate the entirety of the circle. What you need to do is turn off the color fill, and turn on the stroke outline in Inkscape. This way your design is just the outline, which is the path that you want the knife to follow. The picture to the right shows what your design should look like.
SAFETY
REFERENCE
PROCEDURE
This procedure is written assuming the use of the MH721 vinyl cutter. The SV-8 works very similarly, and any differences can be found in the manufacturer's manual.
- Lift the three roller levers on the vinyl cutter to open up the clamps.
- Load your sheet of vinyl into the cutter so that it overhangs the ruler located on the front of the machine. Set the clamp levers to the middle position, locking the vinyl sheet in place.
- Open Tuxplot
- Click File->Open and select the .svg file that you would like to cut. Loading the file can take a few minutes depending on complexity.
- Once the svg image is displayed in the preview window, you can send it to the vinyl cutter by clicking the SEND button at the bottom left of Tuxplot.
TROUBLESHOOTING
- Communication Error: If you're hitting SEND and nothing's happening, TuxPlot may be sending to the wrong port (/dev/null). Click "Profile" in the left column and check that the port is set to /dev/usb/lp0
- Wavy Lines wavy lines and not cutting through all of design: check that the white wheels are on the track. If not, see http://Www.USCutter.com/static/PDFs/carriage_off_track.pdf
- Default Parameters Suggested parameters for vinyl are cut speed of 200mm/s and cut press of 200g.
- Cut Already in Progress: If you shut off the vinyl cutter in the middle of a cut, everyone gets confused. When you try to start a new cut, TuxPlot may give an error saying that it's already cutting. Close TuxPlot and run the script on the desktop named cleanTuxPlot.sh. Then rerun TuxPlot.
THIS IS THE END OF THE PROCEDURE