Good Morning Everyone! I hope someone can come to my rescue. IMPORTANT...Please read all, but realize my main question is in the very last paragraph. I gave you all the history up front just in case my resolve at the very end paragraph is NOT GOOD for me to continue to do. Here it goes...
Yesterday, I have been successfully cutting invitations (shaped like onesies, therefore simple cut). I was able to successfully and beautifully cut 5 of them; however this changed quickly into the 6th cut. Below are the stats, and please realize that all correct settings/factors were in place:
1. SB Pro 24"
2. SCAL 4 Pro
3. Software settings "unchecked" in SCAL
4. 65# cardstock
5. 45 degree blade
6. Regular blade holder
7. F = 500; V = 50
8. Test worked great
Now, after the 6th "messy" cut, I checked and noticed that the blade was chipped. THREW THAT ONE AWAY and started with a new one (45 degree). At this point I couldn't get blade into the holder...just won't fit for some reason even after many failed attempts. Soooo, I tried to put this new 45 degree blade into the "click blade" and it just wasn't happening there either ( )! This prompted me to try the 65 degree blade and this successfully inserted into the click holder (this is where I'm discovering that I think I prefer the click holder over the regular blade holder ).
Now, at this point I just can't get a good cut at current F & V; so I up the force, change the "click" setting, MANY different tries at different settings, etc. Fast fwd about 1 hour ahead of trying different things to no avail so I now want to just give the 45 degree blade a try again to see if it will fit into the click holder....and for some very strange reason, I am able to get the 45 degree blade inserted into the click holder this time. I'm really baffled as to why it doesn't easily go in to either holder previously???? Nonetheless, and after many MORE attempts at different settings, etc., I have found the magic setting that is working just fine. And so here is my final question.....:
NEW, VERY HIGH BUT WORKINGS SETTINGS:
1. 65# cardstock (same as mentioned above)
2. 45 degree blade (new and not chipped)
3. Click blade holder...set at "4".
4. V = 500; F = 171 (for some reason the force set to 17"1" is a cleaner cut than just 170 force???)
The problem in my mind is that it is a VERY high setting for this type of media....so I "think". This is the rub for me and what I want to find out from seasoned users...is this new and VERY HIGH FORCE setting okay for this media and for my machine? I do realize that everyone's settings, etc. are indicative of their own machine and style of operation, but my mind is telling me this might be a little too high and I just want someone to either reassure me that it is okay to have this setting or tell me that it is waaaay too high and provide me with an alternative measure to take to correct this. Please advise.