Papercrafts are attractive because paper is cheap, versatile, and ubiquitous. People are commonly doing projects involving paper (scrapbooking and card-making immediately come to mind), and the vinyl cutting machine is being increasingly used to speed up the process. It’s also wise to do one every time you change from one type of vinyl to another or switching to another material altogether, for instance paper. I would perform one of these test cuts before starting every project iteration. You’ll want everything to be right so that when it comes time to start weeding the material (removal of excess material unused in the final design) you won’t have any problems. By playing around with the settings during a test cut you can tailor everything to your project.
Common problems that arise during vinyl cutting projects are jagged lines, superficial cuts (the blade is not cutting deep enough), perforated skips, rounded corners, or incomplete corners. I would also do a quick run on the machine as well.
You should do a manual test cut on a small piece of vinyl, or whatever material you’re using. A lot of the common potential problems that occur when a machine is cutting a project can be completely avoided - or at least LESS likely - if you simply perform test cuts beforehand. The only way you’re going to really know how much pressure to apply to your material is to test each and every material individually. You’ll also want enough pressure so that all cuts are completed correctly facilitating the weeding process.
Thicker materials will need more pressure. Just know that it means the same thing as blade pressure. I’m not exactly sure for this bizarre naming, but it’s misleading and perhaps confusing to some new to vinyl cutters. On some Silhouette cutters it’s not called “blade pressure” but blade “thickness”. It may even be called something different depending on your machine.
There are usually settings on desktop machines that allow for you to adjust this to suit your project. The blade pressure on your machine is basically how much downward force it applies to the blade to cut through materials.
In general you’ll find the sweet spot for your project through trial and error. The suggestion that you be conservative about the pressure usage of your machine applies to every material you’ll run through it.īe sure to consult the guidebook or manual that comes with your machine as a starting point for what pressure setting you should use.
Although there may be general guidelines, it varies from machine to machine, even within the same model.Īlthough vinyl cutting machines are obviously most often going to be used to cut vinyl for various projects like decals, t-shirts, signage and much more, one of the great advantages is that they can cut a great variety of materials, even some exotic ones you may not have considered. I’ve found that the main reason you need to be doing regular test cuts is that there actually is no one short answer to how much pressure you should apply to the vinyl you’re using. Trust me, I looked hoping there was some chart out there with specific pressure settings for specific materials. There are other things that can affect the quality of your cut that are easily overlooked like blade depth, cutting speed, and blade angle. One thing you should always get in the practice of doing before any new project and when using a new material is performing test cuts. How much pressure you apply very much also depends on the thickness and tackiness of the vinyl you’re cutting. So how much pressure should you use to cut your vinyl? A good rule of thumb is that you should always use just enough pressure to cut through the material but not so much that it begins to cut into the support surface (usually just a cutting mat). It’s quite amazing that these things can cut through so many materials, but naturally I was wondering about the pressure settings used to cut through various materials (especially vinyl) so I looked it up. They are used to cut a large range of materials from vinyl (obviously) to paper, fabric, foil, and even balsa wood (which is a lightweight wood easier to cut and commonly used for crafts and model-building). Vinyl cutting machines have become increasingly popular over the years as the technology has improved.