Wizard....Arrgghhh

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MiterMan

CGF II, Certified Grumble Framer Level 2
Joined
Aug 7, 2001
Posts
227
Loc
Bessemer, Alabama
Is anyone else a little peeved with Wizard? I just tried cutting a complex mat out of a Bainbridge Alpharag. I know they're alittle on the thick side so I adjusted my blade depth to 11. Not one of the cuts made it through the board.

Set it at 12. Same thing. Same for 13. This stuff is not that darned thick. Wizard's reply usually seems to be along the lines of "Idon't know, try setting it deeper. How deep? Just play around with it. Sorry Wizard, I don't have the time or board to "play around."

I've vented, I feel better.

[ 01-18-2004, 12:50 PM: Message edited by: MiterMan ]
 
We have only had ours for 6 weeks, but are very happy.

We had an issue last week where it was "hooking" slightly, and our first call to support was painless. Matt had us re-calibrated in about 10 minutes and it has cut perfectly since. We did over 6000 'corners' the first month and the belts needed re-tensioning.

I find that we have to adjust it a bit deeper than suggested (11.5 instead of 11, etc), to get a perfect cut every time. Crescent, Bainbridge, and Artique require different settings - as do different finishes on the mats. (suede, linen, etc) It involved a lot of trial-and-error and we had to make a chart - so we don't waste a lot of mats. We ran it with only ONE backing board for the first two weeks, before realizing there should be 2 per the documentation.

Some random suggestions the tech passed on to us:
-It is possible to encounter small runs of bad blades with issues, so it's best to jump ahead 5 or so blades in the pile when you suspect this might be the cause. could you have had a broken or bad blade?
-the software has to be told what the dial depth is set to, because it makes a calculation allowance for the blade depth and angle. The dial # and screen must match.
-make sure the backing board is of a similar density as the material being cut, so the friction is similar.
-it's a healthy idea to reset the belt tensioning assemblies every 6 or so months, with the provided allens wrench. This will keep the springs doing their job to keep the belt at it's maximum, so there's no play in the assembly as it moves.

I realize I didn't answer your question. Playing around and learning/documenting your machine's tolerances is probably sound advice. Every machine they ever made probably has slight variations for the depth settings.

Mike
 
Miter man from the sound of your post you have the newer model cutter(8000 Ithink0 .I don't but some problems that i have encountered that might cause the same problem are; Is your blade seated properly. I know you think you did it the same way but it is possible to insert it TOO far into the holder with my model and adjuting the depth might not produce enough of a change to make a difference if it is too far back to beging with.(I was told there are at least two different type of plates that lay on top of the blade. One has a very small heel at the end ,where the blade's end is supposed to rest . However the other model doesn't have this heel or stop nad it is pssible to insert the blade too far in makeing it too short to cut properly.
still another problem could be your air pressure .iknow this sounds silly but do you have enough pressure? with out the right amount pressure or any air pressure the plunge apparatise won't opperate and the blade will not extend and only the rollers will contact the mat. It is possible to have a good compresor pressure but a leak is robbing the head.
But most importantly have you called the help desk? I haven't found a problem yet that they can't solve with just a coversation with you.
BUDDY
 
MiterMan, I appologize for your frustration. One of the early design desicions we made with the 8000 machine was to fix the head to the side of the gantry so it could no longer be swivled back to expose the blade (like our older 5000 model does). This feature allows a much tighter tolerance with the head, but unfortunately it's difficult to know how deep you're going to cut at a certain dial setting unless you profile your cutter ahead of time like Mike did.

Unfortunately, it would be difficult to train our help desk to know the thickness of every mat made by Crescent, Bainbridge, etc, so there's not much else they can tell you to do right now other than to just dial it down some more.

So, we're definately aware of this problem, and we plan on addressing it in the next major release of our software.
 
Also, while we're on the subject, I should mention that if you're attending either the upcoming Florida, Vegas, or NY tradeshows we will be showing a preview of the new 5.1 MatDesigner features...

[ 01-18-2004, 08:50 PM: Message edited by: WizSteve ]
 
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