1) Remove plug from vinyl cutter (Always the first step when servicing your cutter)
2) Remove endcaps (four screws on inside plates)
3) Remove the top cover plate (carefully so you don’t pinch the wires on the right side). It is best to remove it, rotate it 90° to the cutter and lay it on the right side. Be very careful not to damage the wires that connect through to the LCD display.
4) Loosen the drive belt by loosening the fastener on right side.
5) Loosen or remove the front fastener of the carriage cover plate. This fastener locks the carriage in place. When it is removed, the carriage can be pushed down and tilted out. You can also remove the carriage cover plate by removing the fastener on the left side of the carriage as well however, it is not necessary to remove the cover.
6) Push down on carriage and rotate the bottom wheels off the track. Do this very carefully so you don’t pivot the carriage too much. If you rotate the carriage too much you will damage / bend the optic sensors attached to the PCB on the top of the carriage. You may want to remove the small PCB on the top first. If you do, the nuts are under the PCB and they are very difficult to get to so you will need a small screw driver and needle nose pliers. Try not to lose the nuts or the small fasteners in the process.
7) Once the carriage has been tilted off the rail, it will be free from the cutter. Lift it up to clear the optic sensors from the rail without damaging them.
8) Unfasten the four wire connections from the carriage to the carriage board on the top (unless your new carriage has another sensor board already attached, you will likely need to reuse this one. There may be some hot glue on the wires which can be removed by a pair of pliers or by pulling it off with our fingers.
9) Extremely important – Make sure you note the sequence of red / black and solenoid / laser connections. When you reconnect them, they must be in the same sequence. Switching + and – on the solenoid wires will fry the main motherboard if you power it on with the wires reversed. (frying the motherboard with the leads reversed is practically guaranteed) If you look at the sensor board carefully you will see little +/- marks on it. The collars on the little wires should be red + and black – to correspond.
10) Remove the sensor board from the top of the carriage bracket. It is much easier now with the carriage separated from the cutter.
11) On the back of the carriage ther are fasteners that hold the belt to the carriage. With enough slack in the belt, you can loosen those fasteners enough so that the belt clips unhook from the heads of the fasteners (no need to completely remove the fasteners).
12) Reverse the process
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