Kevin Futter

Well, blade depth certainly wasn't the issue, as when I pulled the vinyl off the cutting mat, I discovered that in some areas it had cut right through both the vinyl and the backing sheet! Kev

Woody pointed me to the following article, where point #1 seemed to be the best fit for what I'm experiencing: https://silhouetteamerica.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/35000206362-vinyl-lifting-off-backing-during-cut-job So the first thing I did was check the blade, and lo and behold, there was a big ole chunk of vinyl stuck to the assembly: This was from the immediately preceding cut job, however, and not the cause of the original problem. The next thing I did was slow the speed down to the lowest setting as suggested in the article, and use the 'test' function to see if the triangle-in-a-square was behaving properly - and it was not. So I slowed ratcheted the blade depth up a notch and tried again, but initially couldn't get the test cut to locate properly (hence the cut lines in the mat in the photo below). After sorting that out and doing a successful test cut, I decided to try printing the design, and if anything, the result was worse: At this point I'm going to abandon this approach, as even if it's solvable, I don't feel like wasting the time and vinyl on it. Instead, since the outside border needs to be white, I'm going to use the successful outside cuts I've already done to paint in the white, and then use the inside designs to print decals to go over the white painted sections. As long as the decals print at the correct size relative to the masks (and I locate them properly on the model!), it should do the job. Thanks everyone for your input! Kev

Thanks for your input, fellas. A bit of adhesive build-up on the blade certainly makes some sense, as it only has to happen once for the problem to be self-compounding. All my other cuts on that same sheet so far have been fine in that respect, and it's only the latest cut involving the thin border that seemed to trigger the issue. I'll take a look at the blade in the morning and check it for detritus. Stand by! Kev

I managed to figure this one out for myself: basically, the settings in the "Send" panel had defaulted to 'cut edges' without me realising it, and making sure that it was set to 'cut' instead, fixed that particular problem: However, the cut still had some issues, with lots of lifting and displacement of the cut shapes: I'm not sure if this is completely salvageable to be honest, but also don't know what caused it, or how to prevent it happening again. I suspect I might be better served printing these particular examples as decals, rather than masks. Kev

Some of you will be aware of my 3D-printed BOMARC build happening on LSP. I'm at the point where I need to create some paint masks for its various markings, but have hit a bit of a wall with regard to creating the required US Air Force text. Creating the text itself was easy enough: just download the required Amarillo font and get the sizing close enough. The problem started when I tried to create the thin border that needs to go around most of the text. I used Silhouette Studio's 'offset' function to create the narrow border to produce what you see in the image below: The problem is that only the offset border gets cut! The internal lines are ignored completely. Then I read somewhere that if I use the "release compound path" function, I can separate out the internal elements (bottom example in the image above). This worked, but I had the same issue with the internal lines not cutting (i.e., the open elements in A and R). So, I'm at an impasse now. Ideally I'd like the upper version to cut with all lines in situ, but have no idea how to get Silhouette Studio to recognise all lines as cut lines. Can anyone offer any suggestions? Kev

Welcome aboard, John! Good to see you here. Kev

Welcome aboard, sir! Kev

Welcome aboard! Kev

Welcome aboard, sir! Would love to follow your investigations into laser cutting. Kev

Thanks, Danilo. I've added a screenshot of them to the upload. Kev

Thanks for posting this. Can you let us know what's in the file? I have this kit, so an overview or description would be handy. Kev

Welcome aboard, Benoit! Kev

Welcome aboard, Lime! I think @Mozart might be our most experienced practitioner here, so we might beseech his wisdom and expertise. Just to clarify, however: are you experiencing difficulties with cutting the blue mask due to the 0.593mm size, or are you having trouble placing them once cut because they are 0.593mm? Kev

Welcome aboard, sir! Kev

Excellent work all round, chaps! Kev