Cutting multilayered athletic tackle twill lettering?

I run a small but growing shop that cuts multi layered tackle twill athletic lettering for sports jerseys.I am practicing on a friend’s glow Forge, and I am wondering if there is anyone else here who is using a machine like this in a semi- production environment? My experiments have worked, but I’m finding that the cutting goes rather slowly compared to the old-fashioned knife-based cutters that I am accustomed to using. Is there a discussion forum thread or anyone else doing this that I could chat with to determine what the best machine to purchase would be? I’d hate to make a big mistake. I’ve done some searching through the forms here, I have not found very much on this topic. Thank you in advance.

Slow is relative. Do you know what settings you’re using?

I’m not familiar with the material you mentioned but generally I find that lighter fabrics cut very quickly.

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There are those who use the machine in a semi-production environment, but it really is a hobby class machine. I would think for your uses, you might want something a bit more robust. This, of course, isn’t the best place to research other options. :slight_smile:

If you want a GF, though, I’d get a Basic. It’s technically not as fast as a Pro, but you could buy two of them for ballpark similar cost and that might be the speediest option yet. (I have absolutely no idea what tackle twill is, though, so grain of salt)

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Thank you for your reply. Tackle twill is the type of fabric that is used to put letters and numbers on the back of baseball and other sports jerseys. It’s a very tough but polyester cloth material. I also had the same opinion that this might be a “hobby class machine” it’s hard to test out lots of options because these things are not so common yet, the production machines advertised that do this sort of work are generally for larger shops., are floor standing in cost many times as much.

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Thank you for answering me. I guess my perception of speed is related to the knife based machines that I have been using, which operates like a pen plotter, except with a knife in place of the pen. When I used the glow Forge it seem to cut about half speed as that, I don’t have all the settings in front of me, and I am certain that I could learn to do it faster.

some stuff is best left to traditional cutting plotters.

One method that has worked for me (for simple designs) is to cut a template from wood, lay it on a folded up yard of cloth, and cut multiples at once with with a hand-held rotary fabric cutter.

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If you poke around on FB, you’ll find some laser groups that will be able to give you suggestions for something that’s faster but not $20K.

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