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  1. 1. Do you currently own a cutting machine?

    • Yes
    • No, but I want to in the next 12 months
    • No, I have no plans to buy one
    • I'm undecided at the moment


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Thank you both! I'm surprised that Wills sheet is possible - I generally prefer that to the thin Slaters stuff but I'd just assumed it was far too thick and dense for a machine like this.

 

I've just done my first cut, getting decent results on a very simple cut with ordinary .20 styrene using ChrisN's settings and breaking it out afterwards. I tried 3 passes and 5 and didn't notice much difference between them. I'll keep experimenting while I build up the courage to try the Kraft blade and 2mm chipboard.

 

Thank you also for reminding me of Mikkel's blog. I was surprised to see he was able to cut foamex. Like the Wills sheets I hadn't even considering that but it might be a better alternative to chipboard for what I want.

 

There's a bit of a learning curve with this, isn't there?

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13 hours ago, Siberian Snooper said:

I have never been able to cut Slaters 4mm embossed brick sheets, SEFinecast sheet is marginally better, but needs to be broken out. I have a Cameo 3.

 

Yes, that's my experience too. The SEF sheets cut well enough on both my old Portrait and the Cameo 3. I find it helps to start with a low blade depth and force, then increase for each cut. Makes the cut a bit neater in my opinion (but not critically important). But as Snooper says, you still have to cut the last bit with a scalpel or similar.

 

This is the cut (scribing really) made by the Silhouette on the right:

 

003b.jpg.373582fa196aeaf9857d02ecf1cbf758.jpg.b8e427c5423aa75432e72f480838df0b.jpg

 

And cut out with the scalpel:

 

004.jpg.b636e3105883d8aa67ae35756afa7199.jpg.bdc559829560d17e5b3a2730446d8352.jpg

 

Edited by Mikkel
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1 hour ago, Siberian Snooper said:

Sorry, not the Wills sheet, but the SEFincast sheet. I will edit my original post.

 

 

 

Thank you - that makes a lot more sense! Do you just get the SE Finecast sheets from their website? I don't think I've ever seen them in an actual shop.

 

41 minutes ago, Mikkel said:

 

Yes, that's my experience too. The SEF sheets cut well enough on both my old Portrait and the Cameo 3. I find it helps to start with a low blade depth and force, then increase for each cut. Makes the cut a bit neater in my opinion (but not critically important). But as Snooper says, you still have to cut the last bit with a scalpel or similar.

 

This is the cut (scribing really) made by the Silhouette on the right:

 

003b.jpg.373582fa196aeaf9857d02ecf1cbf758.jpg.b8e427c5423aa75432e72f480838df0b.jpg

 

And cut out with the scalpel:

 

004.jpg.b636e3105883d8aa67ae35756afa7199.jpg.bdc559829560d17e5b3a2730446d8352.jpg

 

 

Thank you! What settings do you use for the foamex, incidentally? If I can't get any success with the chipboard I'd definitely be interested in giving that a try.

 

Thank you for all the help - if I ever get this station building built then I will owe a lot to this thread!

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I think that the sheets went to Squires along with the kits,  so online and at shows where they attend, plus the shop in Bognor.  You  may want to contact them to confirm, their online catalogue has not been updated since 2020.

 

 

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5 hours ago, Janjy Giggins said:

Thank you! What settings do you use for the foamex, incidentally? If I can't get any success with the chipboard I'd definitely be interested in giving that a try.

 

I start with depth 5 force 15. Then 3 cuts depth 10 force 30. All at speed 1. 

 

I haven't had particularly good success with traditional foamboard, as the outer paper layer tears. But it works nicely on the Foamex from  Green Stuff World. 

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1 hour ago, Mikkel said:

 

I start with depth 5 force 15. Then 3 cuts depth 10 force 30. All at speed 1. 

 

I haven't had particularly good success with traditional foamboard, as the outer paper layer tears. But it works nicely on the Foamex from  Green Stuff World. 

 

Thank you! I will definitely try it when I get hold of some! Your results with it look stunning.

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Different people find different ways with these machines.

 

I cut 10thou/0.25mm plasticard with the autoblade, and 20/0.5 with the 3mm kraft blade.  40thou is also possible with the 3mm kraft blade, but not all the way through.  Cutting with the kraft blade takes some planning/patience, as SS will insist on inserting "smart cuts" in order to turn the blade.  Regretfully, I find these "smart cuts" can cause the blade to stick in and ruin the cut, so I minimise them and manage their placement.  I posted about this previously.

 

I've only cut a little Slater's embossed, but couldn't be bothered with using the cutter.  I couldn't see a satisfactory way of getting the cuts to line up with the embossing.

 

Edited by aardvark
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Yes, I was impressed with how you managed to make the 3mm kraft blade work for modelling purposes. I have tried it a number of times now, but haven't succeeded to make a satisfactory clean cut yet. Your approach is clearly the way to go with the 3mm blade, but as you say it requires quite a lot of preparation and insight into how the smart cuts work.

 

Edited by Mikkel
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I did try the 3mm Kraft blade on the chipboard last night. As expected, initial results weren't great, but I'm not ruling it out yet. With the smart cuts disabled and a very low force it seemed to work OK. I think it might be possible to get through the card by using lots of passes with very gradually increasing blade depth. Realistically, though, I'd only be using it for big shapes - walls etc. - so if I can just get it to score through enough to mark it out for me to finish off by hand, that will probably be fine. I do think the foamex might be a better bet overall though - will try some after payday!

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I'd read (and posted) that you could disable "smart cuts", but came to the conclusion that you do need them in order to turn the blade.  Without them, the blade will turn anyway, just on one of your cuts, and will therefore probably make a mess of the the first cut in each direction as it turns.  Autoblades don't need "smart cuts" as they're a point rather than a blade.

 

There isn't anything that SS does automatically that you can do manually in your design, including ordering of cuts, "smart cuts", overcutting, etc.  It just takes more work, which I suppose is exactly what computers are meant to be saving us.

 

In regards to the 3mm blade, I tend to be quite cautious, preferring to take my time in order to reduce the percentage of screw-ups.  My cuts start at depth 1 and go up in steps of 2, so 20thou has cut depths 1, 3, 5, and 6; 40thou 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, then finish by hand. Everything is cut at speed 1 and force 1.  I had thought I would use make use of the higher force provided by the second carrier, but I don't.  More force + greater depth increments = higher chance of the blade digging in and ruining everything, but exactly what you can get away with varies by material, so you have to experiment.

 

I come to accept the addition time as I'm sure that SS can cut more accurately, straightly and squarely that I can by shaky hand.

 

I also position my designs at the bottom of a sheet: that way the "Return to Origin" setting pushes the design out of the machine so you can see how it's going without the need to unload the sheet.

 

Edited by aardvark
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On 17/01/2024 at 15:19, Mikkel said:

 

I start with depth 5 force 15. Then 3 cuts depth 10 force 30. All at speed 1. 

 

I haven't had particularly good success with traditional foamboard, as the outer paper layer tears. But it works nicely on the Foamex from  Green Stuff World. 

 

Thank you! Tried this this evening, with excellent results. I was using 2mm foamex so it didn't go all the way through, but it did cut it very well and it was by far the easiest to finish off of all the materials I've tried so far.

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Glad to hear that! I like working with the Foamex, apparently the warhammer community use it a lot for building structures. It also takes scribing well.

 

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8 hours ago, greslet said:

Why are all the pictures missing on the early pages of this thread?

 

The Web Host that RMWeb was with at the time had a crash, and all the pictures across the whole forum were lost.

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On 26/01/2024 at 08:35, ChrisN said:

 

The Web Host that RMWeb was with at the time had a crash, and all the pictures across the whole forum were lost.

As the COO of a big online business I find it unbelievable that there was no backup?

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