dlhill wrote:I used the mactac 8900. I was chicken to cut without a mat, so I made one. I sandwiched a long piece of heavy paper between 2 layers of peel and stick laminate, then coated the top with a mixture of aleene's tack it over and over and water. It has worked great. Its only 40" long, so I would like to make a longer one.
You will find that vinyl on the roll cuts superbly without a mat, if anything it actually cuts better - I get less of the tiny bits lifting when cutting larger detailed vinyl without a mat.
Just make sure to pull enough off the roll to complete the cut, and if possible put the cutter on something so the vinyl can just hang down front and back of the machine - the curved shape of the cutter is designed specifically for this purpose and the curve gives the vinyl more stability as the head cuts left & right.
One thing to watch out for is cutting too close to the end of the roll, I always start the cut about 4 or 5 inches in otherwise it may pick up the loose corner and drag it across with the cutting head.
Using the starts as reg marks is a great idea, I never thought about incorporating reg marks as part of the actual design but I will now
They look fantastic, you did a great job with them, especially considering you used a smaller cutter! I started with a 15" cougar and replaced with a 24" specifically for vinyl work, if I had the space I would go for a 48" but its too much for my one bedroom flat LOL