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Post by pblade on Nov 6, 2012 19:12:38 GMT -9
And now a public service message from Unga Khan; My Silhouette SD robo-cutter has finally, with a great gnashing of gears, decided to stop cutting for me. There will subsequently be a slight delay in the creation of the promotional materials for this project. That's really a shame to hear, since I really love mine. I hope it's possible to fix it. If not, at least Silhouette has just released the new version of it, the Portrait, at the old $200 price. - Pb
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Post by old squirmydad on Nov 6, 2012 19:36:05 GMT -9
I'll be cracking the housing open tomorrow morning and finding out if I'm any kind of a Silhouette mechanic. The belt is jumping and slipping so I suspect some part of the system that maintains tension has broken down. I'm hoping I can fix it, or if not, to find another one of the same. I know I don't want a cameo...
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Post by old squirmydad on Nov 7, 2012 7:50:06 GMT -9
Sorry to hear about the silhouette, you probably checked but just make sure the holder hasn't sheared off mine behaved just like that slipping and skipping glued the tip back and back to normal. I'd forgotten about your issue, thanks. I'll check that first.
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Post by Sirrob01 on Nov 9, 2012 19:36:04 GMT -9
any luck with the cutter?
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Post by old squirmydad on Nov 10, 2012 13:49:33 GMT -9
any luck with the cutter? Not really. I removed and checked the blade, still looks intact. Lots of shredded ink and paper jammed up into it though. Cleaned that, tried again, same jumpy result, identical mistake actually. Opened it, checked the gears, no obvious signs of wear or clogging/jamming with debris...I'm wrapping up a show this week, "Monster School Time Tunnel Adventure"-with puppets and music, and once that's done I can get back to my hobbies. I want to try running it once with the cover off so I can watch the gear action. Has anyone else tried running page two of the Undersea Kingdom file? That's the one I've been running through and the skip mistake is identical between multiple runs and all of the alignment data looks correct...to me at least.
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Post by Sirrob01 on Nov 10, 2012 16:42:21 GMT -9
Ill let you know I was going to do a build this weekend of the juggernaut. I've noticed even after fixing my blade holder my cutter seems to be getting more temperamental. IF the carrier is not quiet sticky enough or the blade gets blunt catches more than normal it'll slip on the first cut, which I don't remember it doing and then a whole page will be cut a neatly 1/2inch to an inch off line. I have no idea how much I've cut with mine but maybe it's reaching end of service life. I have noticed that cutting plain shapes it still works perfectly so it's possible scrapbookers dont notice a slight catch and shift were as for us it's terminally bad... Hence my curiosity as I might be running through the same process with mine shortly. I have started to stick money away for a replacement and I noticed something called the portrait is coming soon which looks like a re-faced SD: www.silhouetteamerica.com/silhouettePortrait.aspxSpec sheet: www.silhouetteamerica.com/files/portraitSpecs.pdf
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Post by mproteau (Paper Realms) on Nov 11, 2012 5:27:33 GMT -9
Consider trying to run it through with the blade set to 0 or 1 (whatever the smallest setting is) so you can let it do the tracing work without having to cut too. I replaced my cutter blade the other day and immediately ran into problems with the cutter head getting stuck in places. It turns out, I had been setting my blade WAY too deep, and it was getting stuck in the cutting mat. I have no idea why I thought "7" was a good setting, when "3" was the right depth. Also, if you're using the cutter's plastic cutting mat, try making one out of cardstock instead. This is what convinced me I had my blade cutting too deep - the cutter sliced through both layers of cardstock...
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Post by Sirrob01 on Nov 12, 2012 22:48:11 GMT -9
Page 1 cut okay although the lower right rectangle (bottom) perforatted right around the outside instead of cutting but I opened in studio so maybe it scrambled on open Page 2 Cut okay no slippage and good alignment, well one volkite had a slight white border but thats probably my cutter and nothing a black marker wont fix on edging. I need to replace my blade again this double side matte photopaper eats them up.... Hope to get my builds finished up tonight
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Post by old squirmydad on Nov 13, 2012 16:31:44 GMT -9
Page 1 cut okay although the lower right rectangle (bottom) perforatted right around the outside instead of cutting but I opened in studio so maybe it scrambled on open. Could just as easily be my sleep-deprived mistake. Thanks I'll check my originals. I'll drop the score line a touch in Robomaster. Thanks for running page 2 through your cutter. Still haven't had time to play with my machine as I've been dealing with a sick chameleon.
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Post by Sirrob01 on Nov 16, 2012 21:43:01 GMT -9
Thanks Squirmydad I think my cutter is going the same way the slipping is getting worse and worse. I have had 3 failed pages in a row which is getting a tad annoying.... Likewise I cant see any wear on the belt so I'm guessing its on the little cog in the head housing.
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Post by Sirrob01 on Nov 16, 2012 22:51:24 GMT -9
I just pulled the left and right ends of my cutter as you face it. As far as I can tell the cogs and belt are all in reasonably good condition. However under the left end is a self tensioning mechanism for the belt, mine still seemed to be working okay but my guess is the springs are getting slightly tired. so I pulled the belt of the pully and lifted out the plastic cover I then dropped some really small slithers of mag sheet down around the little knobs at the bottom of the plastic holder. Then I reassembled the whole lot (you'll need 4 hands to reassemble I borrowed my wifes hands . Hard to say at this time if its a permanent fix but I've gone from 6 failed pages in a row to three cut near perfectly in a row. I have messed up my head alignment a little as it's now cutting a consistent 1/64 or 1/2 mm to the left but I'll live with that until I'm sure I don't need to apply more stuffing under the springs. So I'd give that a try squirmy you should only need to remove the left end of your cutter to carry out the fix and its only held on by 2 screws and 2 plastic clips. The mag sheet strips I used are the cheapest thinnest stuff and were cut into small strips 1/32 wide and about 1/8inch long but when you look you'll see what I mean hopefully.
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Post by Sirrob01 on Nov 16, 2012 23:33:37 GMT -9
I've cut a few more pages and I racked the thickness way up and got it slip again so it's not a perfect fix but it is definitely helping, but I may just be prolonging its life a little. New springs might help but I suspect I need a whole new belt. Anyways I had it a part again and took a couple of pictures, reassembling the 2nd time only took 3 hands, so the wife was much happier. Tension mechanism when side is off, If you push on the big white rectangle you can then slide the small plastic wheel and bearing bar out. After I pulled the Plastic bit out You can see the little bits of mag sheet I stuck down there I made sure I jammed them in tight this time as when i checked the second time 2 had fallen out so I must have cut them to loose. I'll keep cutting and let you know how I go but I'm seeing an improvement if not a 100% fix.
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Post by oldschooldm on Nov 17, 2012 8:00:18 GMT -9
Thanks for this. I continue to see slipping in my unit. Now I've isolated into a specific quandrant of the cutting area, so I suspect the belt as well.
I'm following your exploration with rapt interest. Please continue.
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Post by Parduz on Nov 17, 2012 10:46:35 GMT -9
I don't know how that cutters works, but i'd bet a new one that the problem is not on the springs.
Instead, i'd say that the belt (seems made by a sort of rubber, am i right?) have gained some lenght. The springs are now too short to keep "pulling" and so keeping the belt in tension. They're short 'cause if they were more long the tension would have been too much. If i'm right, the spring should have been very little "compressed" when you opened it....
If i'm right, it seems to me that the belt tension is critical. For this reason, what i'd to is to take two screws, make two holes in place of that "bumps" you put the paper around, and then pass the screws in the holes, with one bolt on each side and a shower as a "spring stop". You should then "fine tune" the tension by screwing the screw and fixing it tightening the bolts.
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Post by Sirrob01 on Nov 17, 2012 21:04:32 GMT -9
Parduz that would probably work if you could find some screws with a thin and flat head. I've cut the same page I think 4 times I can remeber with varying results first page no slipping cut fine but pressure/thickness was to low so I couldn't pop the minis out (pressure 19). second page cut through enough for remove the minis but the head slipped on the very last mini (pressure 24). Took the spring area apart again this time I got more aggressive I placed a big piece of mag sheet (1/4 inch square) right across the top of the plastic nodules that hold the springs. It was tough to get it back together that was an extra compression of at least 2mm by my guess. Still needed 3 hands to reassemble although I almost had it back together with 2 just much easier/quicker with 3 hands. I'll need to grow another arm if this keeps up . Third page cutfine but I forgot to calibrate so everything was offset by even more, some were usable (thanks Jim for the thick black border). however at least they all cut evenlly offline recalibrated two clicks right .1mm by the scale but that made a 1mm shift on the page. Fourth page turned on double cut and set the pressure to 22, no slipping and the page cut to the end minis fall out okay. So it's still not perfect and I might be stuck using double cut for the time being. I think I'm definitely going to pickup and Silhouette Portrait when they become available. frustratingly I'm sure if I could get a new belt the cutter would be as good as new and it dosent look to be to hard to replace although not to sure how to release it from the head.... edit Squirmydad not to sure if there might be some value in splitting these posts into its own thread on the robo forum? I think admin/mods can do that.
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Post by old squirmydad on Nov 18, 2012 10:13:08 GMT -9
Thanks for trying all of that. I know I can get new springs locally, just replaced the tension springs in an emergency firewall gear setup, they were being stretched instead of compressed though. But I believve Parduz is right; any re-tensioning fixes for the SD will only be temporary as the true culprit most likely is the belt itself. Putting more tension on the belt will only stretch it more and hasten it's demise. I'm going to search around and see if there are any parts available and hopefully find a new or "gently/used" belt. A Portrait is somewhere in my future though, sometime after Christmas. The videos of the Portrait show the little black corner block in use for the registration marks, so another change to the process that I've been putting off.
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Post by Christopher Roe on Nov 18, 2012 13:58:37 GMT -9
Huh. So I guess what I heard about the Portrait using the same drive mechanism and regmark sensor unit as the Cameo is true.
Could be worse, I suppose. At least they didn't change the corner regmark to something else again.
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Post by pblade on Nov 18, 2012 14:10:44 GMT -9
I've been following this thread, since this is somewhere in my future. It's sad to hear some machines are nearing end of life, but from what I've seen in these forums it looks like that the machines have been used quite a bit.
Squirmydad, one thing you'll like about the Studio program is that you can create your files with the "Auto" setting for registration marks. This means that the file will look for the style that is appropriate for the user's installed machine.
I'll keep my fingers crossed that a more robust belt was one of the improvements made to the Portrait.
- Pb
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Post by Sirrob01 on Nov 18, 2012 21:54:14 GMT -9
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Post by old squirmydad on Nov 19, 2012 7:56:55 GMT -9
Ebay has a few Silhouette's for sale at $100.00-$130.00, not too bad. The Mitsubishi site says they sell those belts for sewing machine repairs, there are two local shops that I used to deal with for sewing machine repairs that I can check with this week to see if they could potentially order the belt for me. Cool find, thanks.
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Post by oldschooldm on Nov 19, 2012 9:23:21 GMT -9
I'm glad we have this thread to work on our challenges with our machines. I'm taking a different approach hoping that one of us will succeed - I just sent this to support@silhouette.com:
Honestly, the 3 of us are all seeing this failure all at the same time is a bit odd to me. Makes me wonder if software is partially to blame. Are any of the rest of you seeing the strange new "load media" behavior as well?
[I'm wondering if there's an eprom in there that I can reset...]
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Post by oldschooldm on Nov 19, 2012 10:15:06 GMT -9
Here's the summary of my response:
The short-loading problem was me not knowing how to set the silly LCD deplay to "Load w/Carrier" instead of "Load Media." Duh.
They don't sell belts.
I pointed them to this thread for a description of our problems...
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Post by oldschooldm on Nov 19, 2012 12:53:23 GMT -9
More from support: Thank you for your follow up. We have reviewed the thread in question, which looks fairly in-depth. The following may seem overly simple according to what had already been performed by one user who disassembled the unit partially, but we have had reports that it generally corrects concerns where the belt appears to be “slipping” or “off track”:
Please attempt to manually move the motor to ensure it is on the track properly. Turn the Silhouette off and manually push the motor all the way to the left of the machine, and then all the way back to the right. After doing this, please turn the machine back on. Once turned on, the motor should travel back to the left and then return to the right properly, and should be ready to cut normally. As a final resort if the motor is off track, you may seek to put oil (WD40) on the metal bar that holds the motor of the Silhouette. Even though this bar has nothing to do with the belt, we have received reports that such action may resolve the concern due to the motor catching at some point as it slides back and forth on this bar.
Another concern which may display similar results and cause a noise and/or misalignment during the cutting process is if you have an older mat where the edges are curling upward and thus catching on the motor as it travels along near the edge of the mat. If such is the case, you may simply need to replace your mat as the edges become compacted and warped over time.
My mat is warped. I'm definately going to test that theory, as mats are MUCH cheaper than new belts/machines. :-)
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Post by old squirmydad on Nov 19, 2012 13:18:50 GMT -9
Thanks, I'll conduct an experiment tonight. It's funny, I've had so many bad support conversations in the past that it doesn't occur to me to call them for help anymore. I'll have to rethink that part of my personal philosophy. edit> Not that I've ever called Graphtec or Silhouette, just wanted to clarify that from what I've seen in others dealings with them they have been very supportive and informed. Unlike Strand Century, may they rot in Hell.
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Post by oldschooldm on Nov 19, 2012 14:31:19 GMT -9
Interesting. I just flipped my left-edge-curled carrier sheet over, removed the adhesive from the original side and applied Spray-Tack to what-was-once-the-back-and-is-now-the-front. This moved the curved edge to the right and now it is curving "downward."
I then cut out The Observatory (by Dave Graffam and TommyGun) a free model that I would have expected to slip up the same way way I've observed lately and observed no problems whatsoever.
"Catching" on the curved carrier sheet is consistent with the area I was seeing this problem (cutting near the left edge). The Observatory definitely had a LOT of cuts/perfs near the left edge.
So far, so good. This may have been my problem.
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Post by pblade on Nov 19, 2012 19:09:36 GMT -9
Customer Service that checked an internet forum, offered additional possible solutions, and didn't use those dreaded words "void" or "warranty." THAT is good CS. - Pb
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Post by Sirrob01 on Nov 19, 2012 20:56:29 GMT -9
Have to agree, good feedback, not sure I'm covered under warranty anymore either way, I think my cutters coming up on 3-3.5?
I'll give the left right thing a try, nice if solves the problems.
I tried 3 different carrier sheets when ti started slipping and all slipped, card carrier, stock carrier and a home made plastic carrier similar weight to stock plastic one.
I got some feedback from the company they are indicating the belts normally supplied as OEM only, although they did ask me a few other questions and didn't flat out say not possible.
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Post by hackbarth on Nov 22, 2012 4:59:30 GMT -9
Amazing customer service. I was afraid of buying it and then it getting some problem and let me standing with 300US$ (after shipping and taxes) of derelict equipment in my desk.
Sometime next year I'm buying a Silhouette.
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Post by oldschooldm on Nov 22, 2012 8:02:11 GMT -9
Customer service solved my problem. Since I inverted my carrier sheet I've cut three different models with lots of horizontal movement with no failures.
I lucked out and am glad I contacted them.
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Post by Sirrob01 on Dec 3, 2012 21:07:04 GMT -9
Mines been working okay since the above fix (about 12-18 pages cut, running double cut), no more slipping.
I do get some odd alignments sometimes but I think thats me not feeding the sheet in straight.
No idea how long it'll hold but I just need to get a few months out of it while waiting on the profile.
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