Wizard Weirdness

alacrity8

SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
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I just tried to cut a 37.5" x 21.5" mat with an even 2.5" border.
I hit cut and walked away, as I did not expect any problems.
What I came back to was a 37.5" x 20.875" mat with a 2.5" top and sides, and a 1.875" bottom.
Also the final side did not cut all the way through the mat.

I am really hoping this is a one off glitch, as I have thirteen 8 PLY mats to cut tomorrow.
 
It sounds like the Wizard hit a snag on the second to last cut. Did you hear it make a grating sound like gears slipping on the downstroke? This happens occasionally on our machine. It's usually on 8-ply mats. I think it might be a blade depth/ settings issue. We haven't figured out how to solve it 100% of the time. One guy here seems to have less trouble than the rest of us. We call him the Wizard Whisperer. I have no idea what he does differently.

Good luck with the 8-plys.

James
 
Lot of stress on the machine cutting thick material. On 8ply I always made multiple cuts adjusting the blade depth deeper with each additional cut.
Works for me, never a problem.
 
The 8000 is a bit of an enigma in that regard.
I have been cutting 8-ply from the get go with no issues. Most of the problems I have had were carbon based, and I figured out what I did wrong, sometimes with the aid of tech support, and tried to never do that again.
I have heard from some 8000 owners that they can't cut 8-ply at all, and now Dave's revelation that he cuts it in stages.

James' observation may be the ticket. If there was an inclusion in the board that slowed the movement, it probably also damaged the blade, which would account for the incomplete cut on the final side. Check the blade to see if the tip isn't missing. This happened to me years ago when cutting a mat that had a piece of thin wire in it.
 
I have never had any 8 ply problems on my Eclipse.... nor on any 4 ply, either.
Blades are cheap. Replace often and get fewer cutting problems.

I do have a glitch when I leave the program open for too long. It will give me what you had happen. I close it and let it sit for 5 or 10 minutes and reopen and it works good again. Been like that for a long time.

It only happens if it has been sitting for a day or so, not an hour between mat cutting sessions.
Best to close it out if not being used. No need to turn the computer off, just the program.

Try cutting a practice mat with the same parameters and see if it still does it.
 
A broken tip wouldn't account for the cut being 5/8" less.
 
It sounds like the Wizard hit a snag on the second to last cut. Did you hear it make a grating sound like gears slipping on the downstroke? This happens occasionally on our machine. It's usually on 8-ply mats. I think it might be a blade depth/ settings issue. We haven't figured out how to solve it 100% of the time. One guy here seems to have less trouble than the rest of us. We call him the Wizard Whisperer. I have no idea what he does differently.

Good luck with the 8-plys.

James
On the final side cut, there was a bit of a grating sound, which we usually get when a catastrophic failure occurs (matboard falls into itself as if it is a black hole).
But only briefly.

My main concern is that it made the initial cut .625" lower than programed, and cut the outside .625" lower than programmed.
I believe the final grating sound was it trying to cut 21.5" where it only had 20.875" to work with.

text from Framah "I do have a glitch when I leave the program open for too long. It will give me what you had happen. I close it and let it sit for 5 or 10 minutes and reopen and it works good again. Been like that for a long time."

We used to have some weird glitches early in the day.
We found that turning it off overnight fixed whatever that was. Possibly letting it reset itself.

Regarding 8PLY: The mat from last night was a 4PLY.
It was my last sheet of 32x40 in the proper color, needed for a project due today.
Fortunately I have some 40x60 of my most used whites on hand, and finished it up on my C&H Advantage.
We've not had a problem cutting 8PLY boards on the Wizard.
I personally hate cutting 8PLY on the C&H. It hurts my arms. And yes, I have to cut it it multiple passes.

Let's hope the machine woke up on the proper side of its stand.
 
If the first cut started lower than it should have, it sounds like your driver box lost power. It would have had to have happened before you started cutting and the head went to the resting position. If you didn't power the head down in the software, it wouldn't know that it is starting in the rest position and needed to be reset. I'm guessing the grating happened at the end of the last down-cut when the cutting head rammed the bottom rail. This would result in a mat that was shorter than was programmed.
 
A broken tip wouldn't account for the cut being 5/8" less.
Didn't say that.
It would account for the last cut not being all the way through the board.
I've had the blade hit an inclusion that was hard enough to make the head stammer in place and break off the tip of the blade. The machine attempts to carry on but the parameters are thrown off. Best to hit the Abort button if you can and start afresh.
 
In order to prevent communication errors between the control box and the machine, every now and then I disconnect and reconnect the large black cable at both ends. This helps ensure all the pins are properly seated. Doing this has corrected any behavior issues I've ever had with my 8000.
:cool: Rick
 
Those who mentioned issues after the computer has been on for a long time may want to consider adding more RAM (memory chips) to your computer.

The memory requirements have increased over the years several times, with new updates to the software. They also completely rewrote and renamed the software 4-5 years ago. Matdesigner was the original program, and FrameShop is the current software. Our wizard 8000 Originally came with only 256 memory. We upgraded her software about a dozen times, replaced the computer 3 times over those years, and eventually even replaced the software with the new version before we sold it. It was always a very reliable CMC, and is still in use at another nearby shop.
 
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