Origin coordinates on machine

[theblades]

Hello,

Myself and my daughter are new users of a SB 24" cutter. We have successfully cut quit a bit of things so far in the 2-3 weeks that we have had the machine.

That said, as we set the origin on a piece we are going to cut it is not easily done. It takes multiple tries tapping the movement buttons on the top of the machine along with a lot of bending down, pushing down on the blade holder to see if the blade point is at the corner of the sheet (while using a flashlight to see), etc… While doing all of this I see that on the LCD screen of the machine there are X and Y coords. Is there a way on the machine to punch in exact coords? Or if not can it be done within SCAL?

Lastly, as mentioned it takes a lot of button pushing to finally get the blade in the right place (most of the time) as with each tap it sometimes moves a lot or a little. Is there a setting on the machine to slow down the amount of movement while setting the origin? Example, a setting to tell the machine that each tap moves 1mm, 5mm, 10mm etc…

Thanks for your input in advance!
Charlie

[Gigi]

If your speed is set high, your blade holder/blade will move further faster. You can turn down the speed if you want it to slow down.

When you set the origin, the x/y coordinates are always 0/0. You don't have to be on the exact corner unless you are cutting something that uses every bit of the media you are cutting. You just want to get close to the bottom right corner. You are going to way too much work! But as I said, I don't know what you are cutting so I am making a lot of assumptions.

You can always set your blade, then move your mat and paper under the blade, put the pinch heels down and cut, but honestly I don't think you need to be that exact. The only time it really matters is when you are doing print and cut and then you are moving the blade differently and to line it up. Don't want to jump ahead on you.

If I am misunderstanding, please explain further.

[RussPitcher]

I'd like to be able to dial in co-ordinates as well as I tend to be quite mean with my material and I want to use every bit if possible. I did wonder about making a little program that would move the cutter by known amounts and maybe allow me to use the laser to set an origin point and then have the material move so that the blade is right under that point, minus a little margin. Unfortunately I can't find out how to communicate with the device. Would you know of any link to the methods and protocols used by the Silver Bullet to help get me started? If I came up with something useful I could post it for all to use.

[Gigi]

You can certainly contact Brandon@craftedge.com and see what he has to say. He is the creator of SCAL. The laser is only used for print and cut, so honestly I don't know.

I don't find it that difficult to get the corner of a material. Sometimes when I am in a hurry ANd have a critical cut (not often) I will set the origin without the mat and media, and with the pinch wheels up I will manually place my mat and media under the blade and then secure the pinch wheels. It's not my normal way of doing things, but it's pretty easy.....

Good luck.