A Guide to using the Silhouette Cameo Cutter

[Rob Pulham]

Hello all,

 

The demo was a great success (it must have been a success since I have been invited back to do another demo next year on loco building) with lot's of interest and quite a few fellow members stopped to say hello. Sadly I only got the name of one of them and it was really nice to meet and chat with David (aka Runs as Required). 

[Robin2]

 I have been invited back to do another demo next year on loco building

Using the Silhouette? - which would be great.

 

...R

[runs as required]

I was most grateful to Rob Pulham for posting that he would be demonstrating  styrene modelling  using a Silhouette cutter at this year’s Stainmore Railway Company’s annual Model Railway Show housed in the surviving part of Kirby Stephen (East) station.
It proved a thoroughly worthwhile Sunday visit for me – 50 exhilarating miles of moor-hopping over between deep Durham dales from Blaydon via Parkhead (Stanhope & Tyne), Middleton-in-Teesdale and finally over to Brough in the upper Eden valley.

 

I found Rob (a hero of mine already for posting about his brass loco building) sitting with Inkscape running on his laptop linked up to a big A3 Silhouette cuttter nibbling away at a 10 thou sheet.  

For me, as a bonus, his wife Christine, a Guild of Railway Artists star was by his side; another hero of mine. http://www.railart.co.uk/gallery/pulham.shtml  

On the shelves to Rob's right were beautiful examples of his 0 gauge (7mm) wagon building in styrene with, in some  cases, his own finely cut stencilling.

 

I ought to explain that I’ve had a Silhouette Portrait since my birthday 3 months ago. Although I found it very easy mastering Inkscape and the Silhouette programme I must admit to limited success with my 4mm modelling attempts in styrene.

so I arrived having thought out 4 questions:

Q1
Was I using the right styrene sheet bought from Durham Trains of Stanley.? Some post about ensuring it is matt on both sides.

A
Rob uses the same matt one side/gloss the other as I do - and never has questioned this. He uses a solvent called Limonene (thanks jweallean #1954 below)
He had some very impressive thick laminations of up 5 mixtures of 10 (and I think) 20 thou sheets.

(Everyone was talking about his Gresley laminated-up coach sides on show in this staunchly LNER outpost in Settle-Carlisle land).

 

Q2 
I always have a lot of frustrating corrections to do in Silhouette Studio after DXFing across from Inkscape

A 
Rob uses Silhouette Studio ‘Designer Edition’ which enables him to transfer directly from  Inkscape into Silhouette Studio. Basically this is accessed using  a ‘key’ available on the internet .  I'm about to go to the Silhouette site and get for £20 using Paypal.

 

Q3

Does he prepare brass etchings with this equipment or pre- print complicated colour livery card or styrene (like the guy modelling chocolate/cream panelled GW coaches above)?
A
Yes he does but sends away his (Inkscape ?)  files to a specialist etcher.
He doesn't need to pre-print coloured up styrene or card sheet. He uses acrylic applied with an airbrush for all his painting.

 

Q4

I haven’t have much success with my 4mm acrylic project (a futuristic 1930s art-deco Northern General S6 open topped touring charabanc),
   a)   By repeatedly not cutting deep enough in the acrylic Maybe through fear of damaging my cutting mat (though I'm more successful in card).

   b)   Then my results prove too fragile and I damage the delicate pieces while trying to ‘prick’ details out of the sheet.

 A
Rob kindly gave me details of his cutting of A3 10 thou sheet: Speed 1 (for this demo, though speed 5 normally) thickness 20, blade 1

Then thickness 33 and blade 1

He repeats cutting without releasing the work from the cutter and losing registration until he achieves ‘break through’ (presumably by gently prising a corner from the backing sheet to check).

 

I also noted two other things
    1) Rob is obviously at an advantage working at 7mm, with a general min cut width of 0.5mm compared to my 4mm attempts.
        (Maybe I should try a 7mm version).
    2) Rob (and Christine his wife) both possess exquisite hand/eye co-ordination. Far, far more precise than I could ever aspire to 
        in these near octogenarian days.

 

I was most grateful for their very helpful advice (and very conscious that I was the 'bore' hogging their 'interview' chair when others were hovering, anxious to ask their own questions.)

Many thanks Pulhams

dh

 

Ed of typos and a couple of additional details (and helped about recollecting RP's solvent glue - mine is plastic weld from emc model suppies)

Edited June 26, 2017 by runs as required

[jwealleans]

I'd guess the solvent is Limonene, as recommended by Geoff Kent and supplied by Wizard Models (Major Clanger of this parish).

[Rob Pulham]

Many thanks for such a glowing endorsement David.

 

I am really glad that it was of interest and that you got something from it. I will also add that both Chris and I thought that you were far from being boring and hogging the seat.

I'd guess the solvent is Limonene, as recommended by Geoff Kent and supplied by Wizard Models (Major Clanger of this parish).

 

It is although I bought a litre via eBay and I suspect it will see me for a good few years.

[Rob Pulham]

Using the Silhouette? - which would be great.

 

...R

 

Sorry to disappoint but it's brass loco building. I may return to the silhouette if they ask me back again in a couple of years, I wouldn't wish to bore anyone by doing the same thing year on year.

[allan downes]

What exactly is Limonene and how does it work as a solvent glue ?

 

Then, in what way does it compare performance wise with Plasticweld and Mek-Pak ?

 

Thanks.

 

Allan

[Siberian Snooper]

What exactly is Limonene and how does it work as a solvent glue ?

 

Then, in what way does it compare performance wise with Plasticweld and Mek-Pak ?

 

Thanks.

 

Allan

I started using it a year or so, recommended by Mike Trice, on here. It's less aggressive than Plasticweld and Mek-Pak and gives you a little room for manoeuvre before it sets, it's also very good for laminating.

[chris p bacon]

^^^What he said

 

http://www.hobbyholidays.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=LIMONENE

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Laboratory-solvents-d-limonene-dipentene-5-litres-/162434640471?hash=item25d1dbea57:m:msSvtJTpRH_sKu6IFkNxSjQ

 

I like it, it's much better for laminating than Mek or similar

[Rob Pulham]

^^^What he said

 

http://www.hobbyholidays.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=LIMONENE

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Laboratory-solvents-d-limonene-dipentene-5-litres-/162434640471?hash=item25d1dbea57:m:msSvtJTpRH_sKu6IFkNxSjQ

 

I like it, it's much better for laminating than Mek or similar

 

I have just looked back and I paid £15 for a litre.

[Buhar]

It's a very gentle solvent, it creates the same kind of welded joint (and will create fingerprints if spread too widely) as those others but is helpful in not inducing warping in laminates.  You could use it for butt joints and the like, but it would need a jig or clamps as it takes a while to work.  You don't need to apply more because it's gentle, you just need to be patient.  It smells nice too.

[MickRalph]

I have used the Portrait machine to mark out nickel silver sheet with the parts for a tank loco - frames, footplate, cabsides, tanks, etc; just like an etched kit, without the tabs.  I used the diamond dresser which I used to score the cuts in plasticard before using the blade.  However, I haven't yet got round to cutting out the parts with a piercing saw, but that will be no different to marking out the parts on metal by hand and then cutting them for scratchbuilding.  I have used the same file to cut the parts to make the body of the loco in plasticard, but I can't make the chassis until I cut out the parts from the nickel silver sheet.

 

I got the idea from this post by Mike Oxon when he built a wagon in brass.

 

Mick

[MickRalph]

There are two points I meant to post a few weeks ago about the software we use.

 

Silhouette have released v4 of the Silhouette Studio program - this is supposed to be more user-friendly, with wizards to guide you through use of the program, though since I only use it (Designer Edition) to load the svg files from Inkscape and then cut them, it doesn't make much difference to me. 

 

Recently, version 0.92 has been released for Inkscape.  In this version there has been a change in that "The default resolution was changed from 90dpi to 96dpi, to match the CSS standard."  This results in drawings when opened in SSDE being too large.

 

I have previously been using SS Designer Edition to import and cut objects created in versions 0.48 and 0.91 of Inkscape. In this post I reported that I found that to ensure the drawings were the correct size when imported into SSDE it is necessary to edit the document properties to set the general units to mm and the "custom size" units to px (if the custom size units are set at mm then the size of the object is reduced by about 20%).  Now, with files created in v92 and imported into SSDE, the drawing increases in size such that a rectangle 100mm x 50mm is recreated at a size of 106.67mm x 53.33mm (note that for the increase in resolution referred to above, 96mm is 1.0667 x 90mm)'

 

Consequently, I have had to stop using v92 of Inkscape and revert to v91.

 

Has anyone else updated to v92 and found the same issue?

 

Mick

[Robin2]

I have used the Portrait machine to mark out nickel silver sheet with the parts for a tank loco - frames, footplate, cabsides, tanks, etc; just like an etched kit, without the tabs.

Have you considered using the Portrait to cut out an etch-mask from self-adhesive vinyl and then etching the nickel silver?

 

...R

[MickRalph]

I did the drawing and scribing before I saw your use of the salt water etching process.  I have been thinking about trying it sometime.  There is, I think, some vinyl in the pack which came with the Portrait.  Perhaps when we get into the autumn/winter and we stop rushing about going to France and Northern Ireland, I wiill give it a try.

 

Mick

[Stubby47]

Hi all,

 

Very new to this machine, I've been reading with much appreciation the content of this thread - many thanks to all who have contributed - it certainly helps !!

 

A question - do we have a central repository of forum members' cutting files which can be downloaded ?

 

Supporting questions are of course, would this invalidate any licence agreement with SilhouetteAmerica, would members wish to keep their own drawing/cutting files copywrited (?), would this affect any commercial business who sell bespoke windows ?

 

Ta

 

Stu

[Robin2]

 would this affect any commercial business who sell bespoke windows ?

Assuming you have not "stolen" their drawings I can't see how it could.

 

None of my Silhouette working uses any part of Silhouette's software apart from whatever happens to be inside my Portrait cutter.

 

I would be perfectly happy to share my drawings if I had any worth sharing. That would seem to be a reasonable "pay-back" for my use of the Open Source software that I use to make my drawings.

 

...R

[newbryford]

www.yolo.co.uk have a 10% discount on everything until midnight Saturday. Discount applied at checkout.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[Londontram]

Pick your brains chaps if I may. Whats the simplest way of dividing a simple circle into say sixteen equal segments on Inkscape? I'm sure I've seen someone on here do this but for the life of me can't think how. Thanks in advance.

 

                                                                                       Steve

[monkeysarefun]

Pick your brains chaps if I may. Whats the simplest way of dividing a simple circle into say sixteen equal segments on Inkscape? I'm sure I've seen someone on here do this but for the life of me can't think how. Thanks in advance.

 

                                                                                       Steve

 

From memory  

 

 

I think that you create the circle, 

 

Then choose the star tool, and in the menubar change no. of points to 16, spoke ratio 0.01. The  smaller the spoke ration, the thinner the star spokes.

 

Create a star of about the same size as the circle..( I usually make it a touch bigger to ensure the spokes bisect the circle, to make sure the 'difference' step below works correctly.)

 

Select both and align the vertical and horizontal so that the star is centred inside the circle.

 

 

At this point you will have a circle with 16 spokes all equidistant. If you want to create actual segments that you can manipulate then - 

 

Change the star to a path, (Path -> object to path) then do the same to the circle.

 

Select both and do path-> difference.

 

Then path->break apart

 

This will give you 16 pieces of cheese that you can seperate from each other.

 

 

Edit - Because I had a thought that this being the cameo cutter thread you might want to cut out a 'wheel', ie have a cutline running around the inside of each segment.

 

In that case,  do everything above up to and including the difference step, but instead of the break apart, select the wheel (everything should be one path now).

If you click on the node tool and move the mouse over the wheel you'll see that each spoke is a single cut line down the centre, so if you tried cutting this out you'd get a pile of 16 equal size segments. 

 

If you want a 'wheel' though with the segments cut out between each spoke, select it  and choose the path->stroke to path option.

 

This time if you move the node tool over the wheel you'l see each spoke has a cutline running along each edge, so the cutter would give you a spoked wheel.

 

Hope this is understandable, its much easier to do than explain!

Edited July 12, 2017 by monkeysarefun

[Londontram]

From memory  

 

 

I think that you create the circle, 

 

Then choose the star tool, and in the menubar change no. of points to 16, spoke ratio 0.01.

 

Create a star of about the same size as the circle..( I usually make it a touch bigger to ensure the spokes bisect the circle, to make sure the 'difference' step below works correctly.)

 

Select both and align the vertical and horizontal so that the star is centred inside the circle.

 

 

At this point you will have a circle with 16 spokes all equidistant. If you want to create atual segments that you can manipulate then - 

 

Change the star to a path, (Path -> object to path) then do the same to the circle.

 

Select both and do path-> difference.

 

Then path->break apart

 

This will give you 16 pieces of cheese that you can seperate from each other.

Thanks that's exactly the advice I was looking for, I've just got up here in the UK so I'll give it a try in a bit. Thanks again steve

[BlackRat]

What exactly is Limonene and how does it work as a solvent glue ?

 

Then, in what way does it compare performance wise with Plasticweld and Mek-Pak ?

 

Thanks.

 

Allan

Basically it's a natural fruit oil found in the skins of citrus fruit ( so I'm told!).

 

It smells quite pleasant and is very good at 'welding' all the various types of plastic sheet I use, and I have used it quite successfully on Wills sheets etc to.

 

I bought a litre from EBay, free delivery, and at a fraction of the cost of the small plastic bottles.

 

It was delivered in under 24 hrs.

 

Cant recommend it highly enough.

[Londontram]

Thanks that's exactly the advice I was looking for, I've just got up here in the UK so I'll give it a try in a bit. Thanks again steve

 

monkeysarefun your a star, that worked perfectly. I wanted to draw some Mansell wheel inserts for a large number of standard steel carriage wheels I have in stock and this has worked perfectly thanks its going to save me a fortune as well.

 

                                                                                                       Steve

[BG John]

monkeysarefun your a star, that worked perfectly. I wanted to draw some Mansell wheel inserts for a large number of standard steel carriage wheels I have in stock and this has worked perfectly thanks its going to save me a fortune as well.

 

                                                                                                       Steve

I think I'd better try to make sense of it too. I want an encoder disc something like this:

[monkeysarefun]

I think I'd better try to make sense of it too. I want an encoder disc something like this:

 

 

 

 

TO do this you do everything above up to and including the 'difference' step.

 

Then draw the smaller circle, and select solid fill. Select it and the original wheel and align vertically and horizontally.

 

Select all, then do path -> difference again.

 

Then with it still selected, do the path _> stroke to path option.

 

I think!