New Cutter has arrived! MH-721

Cutter arrived today, incredibly quick delivery. Very well packaged. Bought from Cutter Plotters (www.cutterplotter.co.uk) for £225 delivered.

Everything I need included in the box, power/serial & usb cables (yes this cutter has usb connection!) software cd's, 3 roland blades. Even a dust cover.

Initial thoughts, I'm surprised by the build quality, it's better than I had expected. Yes, it's a budget machine but certainly looks and feels more than it's price tag.

Assembled the stand with relative ease, sturdy enough for the job but I won't be sitting on it. Stand has 2 rollers at the back to hold the vinyl roll which will be very useful.

Set the needle up, different from others I've used in the past so took a little time to get this right. Plugged in, switched on and ran a test using the onboard test facility, worked a treat. This model has a small screen which shows usual info. and controls proved very easy to use straight away.

Connected it to my PC via the USB cable and installed supplied software. Again, pretty straightforward. Yet to try it through my usual software but this shouldn't prove too difficult.

Close up inspection of the cut material and the edge doesn't always appear to be perfectly straight, perhaps a little jagged but I'm really nit picking here. I think I can cure this through pressure and speed adjustment, maybe even adjustment on the needle.

Overall I'm really pleased so far. Time will tell over reliability etc. but so far so good! Here's a few stock photo's:


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well done mate!
with what cuting software this cuter arrived Justin?

Easy Cut & Flexi Sign....just working on getting it to cut direct from CDraw.

Have to say that initial setup has been hampered a little by poor instructions, bad translations. If I'd never worked with cutters/software. it would be a struggle. I've emailed support for help and whilst the response has been quick, again this has been quite confusing so far. Pretty much expected this, it's not a major problem, just a little frustrating.

I love to cut dtright from corel but I have flexe so is good too. how comes you can print from corel ? :) have you got some magic plug in? if so can I have it as it looks like we gotsame cutters. :) well... same mother boards :P

Supposed to be able to install a driver and cut direct from CDraw. Supplier has emailed me links to download drivers as I'm struggling to get them working from the CD. I have the video showing me how to set-up CDraw but the other links aren't working.

ooooo so I think i know what you trying to do :) cut through the corelDraw as a printer :) I would not bother if I'll be you :) better use propper soft.

Why? This is how I used to do it with my Roland cutter. Doesn't matter either way, easy enough to import into other software, just like to get it working :-)

It may be of help to you I've been using the 360 version of this machine for the last 3 years at speed of 310 and pressure at 70 it cuts quite smooth.
Reg

Cheers Reg. At the moment its set at 300, pressure I seem to be getting away with 30/40 which seems a bit low. Not 100% sure I have the needle right but it's cutting very well right now and not going right through.

I've sorted printing direct from CorelDraw and this works well also.

To set the needle take it out of the cutter and drag across a piece of vinyl and adjust till it just marks the backing paper it saves a lot of messing about in testing.
Reg

Thanks Reg, just done that. I had it a bit far out, it now hardly shows past the end of the holder but is cutting fine. What is the purpose of the spring loaded push section at the top of the holder? The bit that moves the needle further.

I use that when some vinyl dust is stuck there so I think is for cleaning the knife :)

I think it's a shock absorber the pen holder has the same set up.

Not sure I've got this set up right, I lowered the pressure to 10 and it still works as well. It's not going through the backing but surely it shouldn't still cut at such a low setting?

Just tested my cutter at 10 and it dose not get through the vinyl I think you need to back the blade off a bit more.

I've just received the same cutter too!

Using signblazer, I've written some simple text and sent to the cutter, allbeit using the pen rather than the blade.

I've been reading on this and other forums about the need to design in Corel Draw (I have version 10), export to .EPS, import into signblazer and cut. Simple! Well.... I have no experience with Corel Draw so must be doing something wrong. In Cdraw I've imported a clipart image of a deer (it looks like a stag for a stag-do shirt!). It's a colour clipart. I've exported to EPS, imported into Signblazer but it's still a solid coloured image. Will Signblazer cut the outline, or do I need to do somthing in Cdraw first (Vectorise? - whatever that is).

Any help gratefully received.

Barry

You can cut direct from Coreldraw with this cutter, I have the plug in. Not sure if you bought it from the same seller as me but I no longer have anything to do with him as the service was so poor it was beyond belief.

Thanks Justin. I got this from the same eBay seller as Paul. Support has been great so far (I was on the phone to him at 11:30 last night!!).

I think I may have the plug-in on one of the CDs which the cutter came with. I will take a look.

As for cutting from Corel, do I need to do anything with my "stag" clipart image?

OK, best of luck then. Support from this seller was excellent for me at first but soon turned bad. Maybe you'll have a good experience the same as Paul but personally I won't be recommending anyone buys from this seller.

How do you geting on with conour cutting on your cutter justin??

barry, are you saving you images in the right format in corel they need to be CMX or the cutter wont see them

Quote:

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Originally Posted by barryslip

I've just received the same cutter too!

Using signblazer, I've written some simple text and sent to the cutter, allbeit using the pen rather than the blade.

I've been reading on this and other forums about the need to design in Corel Draw (I have version 10), export to .EPS, import into signblazer and cut. Simple! Well.... I have no experience with Corel Draw so must be doing something wrong. In Cdraw I've imported a clipart image of a deer (it looks like a stag for a stag-do shirt!). It's a colour clipart. I've exported to EPS, imported into Signblazer but it's still a solid coloured image. Will Signblazer cut the outline, or do I need to do somthing in Cdraw first (Vectorise? - whatever that is).

Any help gratefully received.

Barry

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I know this is an old thread but you can't just import a JPG/BMP/GIF or whatever and just export it to another format, it doesn't make it that format. A cutter will only cutter a vectorised image which contains nodes etc, a jpg is made up of pixels which is fine for a printer but a cutter can't interpret pixels into lines. Basically you can't import a JPG and export it to .MPG to make it a movie!!

Thankfully i'm just about to ditch my MH721 to replace with a graphtec. Its a reasonable machine for the price but is really only suited for small graphics, try running something 610 x 2000 and you will see its very poor at tracking, thats if it doesn't run out of memory half way through and just start slicing where it wants. These machines are very hit and miss I don't think they have any quality control over them what so ever. The Uscutter forum is one of the best for support I have found as they sell the same cutter, infact lots of people sell exactly the same cutter but just rename it. In all seriousness this is a hobby cutter but at the cost there is no reason why you shouldn't make your money back several times over, its almost a disposable item lol.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Paul

How do you geting on with conour cutting on your cutter justin??

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Never done any Paul. The so called 'optical eye' packed up soon after purchase. The waste of space eBay dealer I bought off said it wasn't an optical eye anyway and you don't need it to contour cut. This after I paid slightly more to get the eye! He tried to talk me through the process of contour cutting but got very confused, much the same as when he tried to talk me through setting the cutter up.

I've not used the cutter itself for months anyway but would like to have a go at contour cutting on it when i get a spare fortnight to work it out!

:) yeee seller was righ that they dont have optical eye :( they use laser point thingy. you need to direct laser on reg marks and off it gooo :) not bad but need to train my eye to position it accurately.

It was sold to me as having an optical eye. I could see immediately it wasn't an optical eye! This is what packed up Paul. he claims you don't need it...so how on earth you do contour is beyond me! Don't think I'll bother which is a shame because I'd like to be able to do small transfers again.

I need to save and get hold of a better cutter longer term, as we always say, no substitute for decent equipment! This one has at least paid for itself.

well.. you can contour cut with no laser but you need to position the blade damn spot on on the reg mark. i think it will be dificult but can be done...
o well... thanks god it payed for itself so you got free cutter now :D

I think this is what he was trying to tell me. I miss my Roland cutter......sold 2 of them now...why oh why! lol.

Never done contour cutting but this may be a way round it if you don't have an optical eye - not sure how to set the origin as 00 though!

http://www.wraptips.com/poor-mans-contour-cut-for-vinyl-decals/

i think is worth to mention there is no such a chinese cutter that got optical eye. I this this is only reserved fo roland and graphtec. rest of them got laser point.

@Justin
can I ask how you MH721 is performing please? I'm thinking of getting one to get started, I know it won't be the same as the Roland I use in work but I just want it to get me going..
it seems (ebay: rising_computer) seems to be selling quite a few..
did you ever find a manual for it also?
cheers

TBH I've had very little use, it just sits here at the moment. I bought it for a particular customer and after the first couple of jobs they decided to go the screen print route....having let me buy vinyl and shirts for them, thanks guys.

When in use it seemed to do the job fine. Not on a par with your Roland or Graphtec and I'd very much like to get back to something like that but I'm not doing any vinyl/transfer route right now.

I might have a manual, will have to take a look. Can't remember the eBay seller, may have been that one, again I can try and check. The seller I dealt with was a major pain in the backside and I'd never recommend him at all.

If your bought of this same guy as me justin his nick was anothergoodseller or something like this. Contact him recently with question and had answer to my email within 24h so i might be the lucky one :-)

Yeah, I remember when I bought it you mentioned it was the same guy. I know you had a good experience with him but mine was nothing short of awful. I ended up having to speak to him on the phone and he was extremely rude.

Hi Guys!
isn't a bitmap the ideal thing for cutting on a plotter, or a vectorised image? I always relate the way that a blade cuts on a plotter as the same layout as those colouring books kids get at Christmas, basic outline images.
I use Signlab, admittedly all of my work is set out in Signlab then either cut from that direct, or export Ai files to print AND cut on a Gerber Edge using the Omega programme....I certainly don't understand the science behind much of it, but I just know the two programmes I use all the time and where to 'click'
Plotter blades have different angles for different materials, and 'drag knife' blades have always worked for me..in fact, my Ioline plotter, at 17 years old, is spot on!, no frills, forwards backwards, left & right..not the same work as a lot of folk on here, but I bet I've put hundreds of miles of vinyl through it, and the Gerber plotter..I came to the conclusion 20 years ago, that fast isn't the best, it's the quality of the cut..my machines are 'plodders' and perfect for my work.

Hope I've not sabotaged the topic here..just trying to add some imput..tell me to shut up if need!
Titch