Easier ways to weed vinyl?

So I've made about a dozen stickers now that I got the cutter working properly. I'm using Oracal 651 vinyl of that makes a difference.

My issue is, I'm going crazy trying to weed out letters and small shapes. I bought the pick set at harbor freight, and keep a fresh razor blade on hand, but it's really trying and time consuming. Doesn't help I don't really have a brightly lit hard surface to work on.

How do you do it? Maybe some settings to run while the machine cuts that could make it easier?

I'm thinking about one of those lighted magnifier things that sits on a table, or one of those tracing boards like they have at the tattoo shop that is like an iPad that shines white light, as they're portable enough I can use them on my coffee table which is where I do most of the work. 

A mixed set of tweezers and a scalpel are also on my shopping list.

Making this post AFTER I spent an hour bent over the coffee table with my phone's flash as a light source.

Cricut makes a little backlit light table for weeding.  If you keep an eye on the sales and coupons you can find it for around $30.

I guess I just found a use for the old x-ray view box I have in the garage.

Not that I have a vinyl cutter.

Pointy long tweezers. Buy the ones the vinyl supplier sells. 

We used the tips of the vinyl knife that we all carried. They were the Olfa brand with the breakaway blades about 1/2" wide.

The other secret is getting the cutting pressure set right so it cuts all the way through the vinyl. You should see the trace of the cut on the backing paper but not cut through it. The test cut setting on the machine is a start but cutting letters is the final test.

With a fresh blade and the right pressure cut you can often pull all the scrap up at once if you're careful, particularly with letters an inch or taller, then go back and pick the edge of each remaining letter center with the knife point.

Adjust the cutter properly. Get a side light, makes it easier to see the cut line. Use an Xacto knife.