Siser Easyweed HTV Engrave Settings

Beyond the Manual
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I spent a lot of time today dialing in settings for the Easyweed product from Siser. We have a cricut, but the limitation is the ability to weed the excess material from intricate designs. I was intrigued to learn that you could engrave away the design on a laser, not having to weed at all. It is also a lot easier said than done. There is a fine fine line between engraving away the excess HTV and keeping the backing in tact. However, with a lot of trial and error, I did get great results:

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IMG_20181221_181707
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(Donā€™t ask about the design, itā€™s an inside joke for my brother in law)

What looks like remaining black flecks in the final design are actually small imperfections in the backing material which should have no effect on the iron on results. I have not put this on the shirt yet, but will add a photo when I do. I developed three profiles for three different resolutions:

Engrave:
High Quality
Speed: 1000
Power: 15
Lines Per Inch: 270
Passes: 3

Regular:
Speed: 1000
Power: 19
Lines Per Inch: 225
Passes: 3

Quick:
Speed: 1000
Power: 22
Lines Per Inch: 195
Passes: 3

Score:
Regular
Speed: 300
Power: 5

Quick:
Speed: 500
Power: 15

Cut:

Regular
Speed: 300
Power: 15

Quick
Speed: 500
Power: 35

The secret sauce for me was using 3 passes. The product likes to melt at higher power, doing it in multiple passes allowed for the material to be removed without melting. I have to stress how fine a line this is. Changing a power setting by 1 makes a big difference. I imagine other uses would have to adjust the above numbers by 1-3 power settings to account for machine differences. Maybe somebody can come up with settings which donā€™t require multiple passes and can print faster. For me, I will only use this on smaller designs which are ā€œun weedableā€ so I donā€™t mind it taking awhile.

Note: To do the print I taped the product to a piece of MDF which allowed for a solid flat surface.

Hope this helps.

65 Likes
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Thanks for putting the time and effort into this product and sharing it with the rest of us. We appreciate you!

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It looks like thereā€™s a bit of residue in the ablated areas. Does that transfer with the rest of the decal?

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@cjbissonnette you have become my new HTV hero! I worked at a vinyl shop for a few years and just left recently. I always enjoyed making the shirts because they were always unique since most were oneoffs, but the really detailed ones always became a pain. I was curious how the GF would handle Siser or other brands, and thought about trying my hand soon once I get the hang of things since mine just arrived today.

Kudos, thank you for the hard work and field testing trial and error!

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@evansd2 It actually looks worse in the picture, most of what looks like residue is just how the backer looks when it is engraved by the laser. Iā€™m planning on making the shirt this weekend and will post the results. If anything does transfer, Iā€™m sure I could do it again with 1 more power. Iā€™m confident itā€™s possible to get perfect results.

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@Goobdoob
Thanks! Make sure to use Siser HTV, most HTV is not laser safe. Iā€™ll try to update if I find better settings.

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Very handy! (Iā€™m going to shift the post to the Beyond the Manual section where we keep the settings information.)

Thanks for sharing the settings! :grinning:

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Excellent. Canā€™t wait to see the final results!

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Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

YES! I am sitting on some Siser Easyweed HTV, Iā€™m low on gifts, and short on time. I think the sharing of your work is one of the very best gifts I will receive all year!!

Thanks @cjbissonnette!! Yay!!

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Finished the project. Disregard the left side of the image, I over heated it when ironing, and the text shifted (and the ā€˜Iā€™ got damaged). Sighā€¦ But otherwise it turned out great. I donā€™t see any artifacts from where the engraving took place. I think this is a viable option for intricate designs. I want to dial in kiss cut settings, so when conventional weeding is an option the two methods can be combined.

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8 Likes
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Just to finish up the topic I dialed in some score and cut settings:

Score:
Regular
Speed: 300
Power: 5

Quick:
Speed: 500
Power: 15

Cut:

Regular
Speed: 300
Power: 15

Quick
Speed: 500
Power: 35

This will allow me to mix and match doing the engrave, and doing a score with manual weeding. Canā€™t wait to see if anybody else is able to reproduce. All of the test were done with black Siser HTV (bought in a tube from michaels).

18 Likes
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Wow. Very cool. I, too, have a Cricut Maker and a drawer full of easy weed.

How is the smell?

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@bbum Smell is surprising not bad. I thought it would be worse. Iā€™d say itā€™s better than cutting acrylic, and way better than leather.

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Sorry for the odd question but this is coming from me using HTV in a vinyl shop and having a press at hand, and I no longer have constant access to the shop. Were you using a standard household iron? If so what setting and how do you compensate for the pressure they normally ask for? Also do use a teflon heat protector sheet at all?

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@Goobdoob Yes I just use a household iron set to cotton and make sure not to use steam. Place a piece of parchment paper over the design and push down fairly hard for 10 to 30 seconds. Usually it comes out great. The above picture shows that I left the heat on too long on the left side, so the design shifted a little. I was so worried about the delicate text not sticking I over compensated. The Siser website has great info and video tutorials. Essentially after the engraving is done on the laser it is the same application as if you were using a vinyl cutter.

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Thanks! When I worked full time at the graphic shop we used Siser Easyweed and SEF FlexCut Sweet(my 100% favorite for texture on the finished product). I however was able to use a heat press, so I wasnt sure how well a standard iron would work on my own.

Side note which Iā€™m sure youā€™ve seen or used, but if not it works wonders on boo-boos:
HTV Removal - USCutter
TRW Brand HTV Remover

Iā€™ve used both and remember the AlbaChem working slightly better, however I see they have ā€œupdatedā€ the formula.

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No I hadnā€™t even thought to look for a removal product. Thank you! Iā€™ll definitely get one of those for future mistakes.

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Thank you for the write-up after all your testing!

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Would you say the laser is better then vinyl cutter for this medium? I didnā€™t know sister HTV was laser safe

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Just finished testing Siser easyweed white and easyweed gold ā€¦ different thickness so needed to make that adjustment ā€¦ worked perfect. Thank you !

Used sugar skulls for test subject, very detailed, amazing

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