Operating Roland GS24

Description

This page will help you with all the technical aspects of using the Roland GS24 vinyl cutter. Specifically we will be going over the print and cut process of printing a slightly modified image that the cutter can process and cut on certain lines.

Setting the Origin

The origin is the spot from where the cutting position starts. You want to put this as close as possible to the edge or other cuts so you don't waste any material.

You can move this by using the arrow keys to move the knife to the new location. You want to move the top of the cut inline with the blade protector (black plastic with hole in the middle under the blade). Holding down the ORIGIN button for at least one second will reset the origin with the ORIGIN SET message being flashed in the display.

Loading/Removing Material into the Cutter

To load material into the Roland:

• Lower the Loading Lever (Without excessive force) to release pressure
• Insert the material through the front of the machine (with short edge going forward, long edges on the side)
• Ensure the edges of the paper are inside the grit marks (white markings above the material)
• Move the pinch rollers (wheels below the grit marks that move the material up and down) to the edge of the materials - with each still inside the grit marks.
• Check that your material is straight by comparing it to the guide lines (straight lines on the base of the printer)
• With everything in place, raise the loading lever to lock the material in place

To remove the material from the Roland:

• Press Menu until you see UNSETUP show up on the screen
• Press ENTER to return the cutting carriage to the home position
• Lower the loading lever to release the pressure on the material

• Now you have two ways of removing the material, all or just the cut part

1. Remove all the material by pulling it towards you
2. If you would like to continue cutting on the same piece of material or just to remove the whole cut area, you can use a knife to cut along the knife guide (the line farther down horizontal across the guide lines). Before cutting you should pull your cut area just below the knife guide to ensure no wasted material.

Printing and Cutting

This process is very important as it allows you to print anything you want with custom lines to designate where the Roland should cut. You must ensure that the printed image is clear or else the cutter will not be able to read the lines correctly, resulting in a failed make.

The first step is printing on the material. This can be done on a few different programs, explained here are CutStudio and Adobe Illustrator. Preparing and printing the material can be done at home or inside sandbox. This does not require you to have Cutstudio on your system but it is easier to do it on the computer provided in the sandbox with everything already set up.

Preparing Print with Cut Studio

CutStudio is Roland's software to provide you with custom graphics to print on their vinyl cutter.

• Open Roland's CutStudio
• Change the printer to Roland GS-24 in File -> Cutting Setup under the name property.
• Select File -> Print & Cut to display the print area and crop marks.
  • Printing area displayed with dotted lines, size specified by the settings in Printing Setup
• To set up the sizing, click File -> Printing Setup then "Set up the printer" at the bottom left of the tab.
• Then click "Fit into shared area for cutting and printing" to automatically set the crop mark locations.
• After setting values, check the crop marks are within the printing area (dotted lines)
• Now you can import the images that you would like or draw them using CutStudio
  • Applicable file formats are JPEG (not in CMYK format), BMP, AI and EPS (version 8.0 or lower, can try using newer but probably wont work)
  • Can import by clicking the import button at the top
• Then position this data inside the cutting zone as close to the bottom left as possible (to save material when printing)
• Now you want to draw the cutting lines. You can use this using the circle/square tool or other applicable tools. Then save by using the save button.
• Next, print the page to your material by clicking the print button and selecting the printer you want to use (Actual ink printer, not vinyl cutter). This will print a page with the crop marks and image on it.

Preparing Print with Illustrator

In contrast, you can also prepare prints with Adobe Illustrator. Beforehand, you must install the CutStudio Plugin for illustrator to prepare it correctly. You can access it here. To download it, you must also have creative studio installed on your device.

• Firstly, to enable the plugin you need to start it at Window -> Extensions -> Roland CutStudio.
• Next, you'll need to set the machine settings by clicking on the triple bar at the top right and selecting Crop Marks. Then choose GS-24 (our machine) as the type and 4 crop marks.
  
• Then you take your image and put it within the crop marks. You should try and put it as close as possible to the bottom left while still within the crop marked area. The origin of the print is the bottom left (corner with an arrow) so it will use less material to print there. And if printing multiple things, line them up as close to the bottom.
• Then to draw the cutting lines, create a new layer and draw the cutting lines there. (Hide layer containing cutting lines???)
• Print the design onto your material in a normal printer

Cutting with Printed Material

Now that you've printed your material using one of the methods above, you will be using CutStudio on the computer connected to the vinyl cutter and the keypad on the cutter to finish cutting. Everything up until now can have been prepared beforehand for setting up the material.

• Insert the material into the printer with the origin (circle with arrow pointing inward) on the bottom left. If it is in the wrong direction, the cutter will not be able to read the crop marks.
• Position the pinch rollers on the sides of the material outside of the crop marks (inside of the roller should be outside of the arrows/90 degree angles)
• Ensure the edge of material is straight, parallel to guide lines
• Raise loading lever to secure the material in place and turn on the machine
• Select the type of material and press enter (the cuttable width and length should be displayed on the screen)
• Move material up using the arrow keys to position the crop marks over the blade protector (as close as possible)
• Use the left and right arrow keys to move the tip of the blade as close to the center of the bottom left most black circle (the origin point). The blade is inside the cylindrical like metal to the left of the box that moves across the Roland.
• Ensure that the material is straight and not curled at all and that the crop marks are aligned with the blade cutter and actual blade. If any of these are misplaced, the print will fail and material might be ruined.
• Set the alignment method to sensor mode:
  • Press menu until SETUP is displayed in the screen
  • Press down until <SENSOR MODE> is displayed
  • Then press the RIGHT/UP/DOWN keys to select the mode when it displays *SENSOR MODE
  • Press enter to set the setting and menu to return to the main W/L screen.
• Set the size of the material (TO BE FINISHED LATER when I have access to the machine)
• Click "Cutting" button inside CutStudio. It should display the name of the connected printer and status being Ready.
• Then click OK to start the cutting
• After it is done, remove the material.

Testing the Cutter

A general rule is whenever you are putting a new material into the cutter to use for the first time in one instance, you should test the current settings to ensure the highest quality print.

This is the pattern it will cut out

After loading your material and setting your settings:

1. Ensure the PEN FORCE slider setting is set to "0" (center)
2. Hold down the TEST key to print out the pattern (Where the blade is at that time is the start of the cut)

Now the test pattern is printed, this part will tell you if there are any problems will your settings.

• Firstly, peel off the inside of the outer circle (between the circle and square)
  • If it doesn't peel off cleanly, you will need to change the blade force
• Then peel off the inner square.
  • There should be a thin cutting line left behind, if not you will need to change the blade force