In order to use the Vinyl Cutter in the Idea Factory, you must complete our Safety Training and Assessment.
Vinyl Cutting Basics
- A vinyl cutter cuts designs out of vinyl and other supported materials.
- Although vinyl cutters often behave like desktop printers, they use a blade to cut the designs into the material instead of printing the design on the material.
- The vinyl cutter is attached to a computer and a computer program tells the cutter how to cut the design into the material.
- The program that comes with our vinyl cutter, VinylMaster, can be used to prepare your design or selected image to cut.
Vinyl Cutting Safety
- The vinyl cutter uses a sharp blade to cut. Keep body parts, clothing and other personal items away from the space where the carriage arm operates.
- Do not leave the vinyl cutter unattended while it is cutting your image.
- When you have finished using the vinyl cutter, turn it off.
- Only the Idea Factory librarian is allowed to change the cutting blade and the cutting pressure on the vinyl cutter.
How to Use Our Vinyl Cutter
We have the USCutter MH Series 871 34 inch vinyl cutter.
Although the vinyl cutter can cut materials other than vinyl. Do not attempt to cut your own material without getting approval from the Idea Factory librarian first.
USCutter MH 871 - MK 2
Steps for Vinyl Cutting in the Idea Factory
- Prepare your cut in VinylMaster
- Before cutting, have the Idea Factory librarian approve your cut.
- If using a material other than the vinyl provided by the library, ask the Idea Factory librarian to approve your material.
- Make sure the material you’ve selected is loaded between the pinch rollers, the pinch rollers are locked, and the blade origin is set properly.
- Start the cut.
- Monitor the entire cutting process.
- If the cut is failing, stop the cutter.
- Notify the Idea Factory librarian when you have finished using the vinyl cutter.