Weeding

Weeding is the process of getting just the imaging or letters you want from a piece of cut-vinyl. When are working with cut-vinyl you start with a whole piece of vinyl to put into the cutter. The graphic design sets up the image that needs to be set up and tells the cutter when to start cutting. The cutter uses dimensions of the vinyl in order to make exact cuts. The machine is very quick and precise, it uses a tiny blade connected to the “head” which stores the dimensions and controls the cuts on the vinyl.

Once the machine is done the process of weeding begins. Depending on the color of the vinyl the cut lines can be easy or hard to see. Use the lighting around you in order to find them. When weeding you have to remember that you want to leave the image that you cut out on the paper, meaning that you are “weeding” or peeling away the outer parts of the image. At the end of the process you should be left with the image that your machine cut out still on the paper. This allows you to transfer the image to a wax paper, then from there place it onto the substrate you want.

An example that shows how important this type of installment is name, number, and office hours on doors of business. Have you ever wondering, wow how did they get all these letters so strait? They didnt, the machine cuts them out strait and then they are just transferred from the wax paper to the door. This gives the installer the ability to make all the letters strait without having to apply them one by one.