Having an awful time withweeding/cutting and Oracal 631

[dublin2]

I don't know what I am doing wrong, but I am having a hard time cutting and weeding with Oracal 631. I love the stuff but I am getting totally frustrated with this. I have cut the same 2 pieces 3 times. Once ws my own fault (the size was off) but the other 2 were the cut seems to be ok and then I go to weed the vinyl and pieces some small too don't seem to have cut all the way and when I go to weed, sometimes the pieces don't let go easily and I have to stop and make sure I don't separate whatever it is I am weeding whether it be letters or objects or whatever. What does everyone use to cut.....blade, speed, pressure etc.??? I'm using a deep cut blade on medium speed and med pressure (a tip I picked up on youtube from a well known person to the cricut/vinyl world). What am I doing wrong?

Thanks for all your help in advance

Jeanne/Dublin2

[jeepers94]

First,you don't need to use the deep cut blade.
As for settings,I use 3,3,3. Others use different
settings. Also,you might try a new blade.Depending
on how small the cuts are,you could try a 60 degree
blade.

[dublin2]

I only tried the deep cut blade (which is brand new just out of the package) because of the tip I got on YouTube. It does do pretty good, but the video suggests you to use the deep cut blade with Cricut vinyl. I don't know if that makes a difference either. You mention a 60 degree blade, where would I find that? Thanks for your help. I'm getting frustrated by the minute.

Jeanne

[lindamac]

You can get 60 degree blades from Ebay and pick them up pretty cheap. Type in Roland 60 degree blade in the Ebay search box. They are not in the craft section of ebay.

[firstcut]

Jeanne,
Try some different settings on a small test cut. If the cut is too deep or too shallow it will be heard to weed. Even when you get the settings optimized, it won't be perfect. What I do is weed with an exacto knife in hand and cut the little bits that are not cut through as I go.

[alncarol77]

I cut vinyl all the time and have never used a deep cut blade. My regular blade is set at 2 and my pressure is on high. I use oracal vinyl all the time. The smaller and thinner the font or item your cutting the harder it is to weed. When working with delicate items I use my exacto knife and remove excess vinyl in sections. I really messed up a lot when I first started weeding but like everything the more you do it the better and easier it becomes. You might try asking a sign shop in your area if they have any scrap vinyl they will either give or sell you for weeding practice. Also Myvinyldesigner.com has a tutorial on weeding it was very helpful to me when I first began. Hope this helps Carol

[jeepers94]

The best thing to do is cut a simple project at the different settings,to see what works best
with your machine and vinyl. Oracal 631 is a breeze to weed,wait until you try some of the
foil type vinyls.They are a real pain! On the other hand,some of the high performance
vinyls (cast) almost weed themselves.
Also to make weeding easier,use a tool to make extra cuts to make the weeded sections
smaller and more manageable. Some use Xacto knifes,I use surgical tools.Scalpels come in
lots of shapes and are easier to hold,for me anyway.Other surgical tools also are very handy
to use weeding.I have some long narrow spatula type tools that are great!

[Sweetness4713]

I use the regular cut blade with the provo craft vinyl.. I don't even own the deep cut blade and mine cuts fine.. I used the 5 setting for my blade depth and it cuts just the vinyl and not the paper..behind it.

[Jax]

I'm finding that it depends on the machine you use...I have a Create and I have the deep cutting blade and the regular. Right now I'm using the regular housing with Roland 45degree blades and it does a great job at 4-3-3. It cuts through the vinyl and lighlty scores the paper, that way I can weed and create a negative of the image if I want to. On my deep cutting blade I used a 5-3-3 and it did the same thing cut the vinyl and scored the paper. It did take a few cuts to get the right output I was looking for. Also if you use different vinyl, I had glow in the dark that was really thick, it can create another testing session.