A Guide to using the Silhouette Cameo Cutter

[allan downes]

Hi,

 

I have managed to cut mesh in 10thou for a small item on the Sri Lanka project. The minimum width that could be achieved of the bars was 0.5mm with the holes also 0.5mm wide

 

I aligned all the horizontal lines - left to right, and the vertical lines - top to bottom. Cutting at speed 1

 

The finished mesh was a little warped but dipping it in hot water for a minute or so, and drying it pressed flat under a small weight cured the warping

 

Ron

Try Scalelink. Masses of brass etched options to suit your task.

 

Cheers.

 

Allan

Edited November 22, 2017 by allan downes

[Siberian Snooper]

Hi All

 

I thought that I saw a method of getting the length of a line on here, last week, but I can't seem to find it now, can anyone please point me in the right direction.

 

Thanks awfully.

 

SS

[MickRalph]

On the Menu Bar - Extensions > Visualise Path > Measure Path

 

Mick

[Siberian Snooper]

On the Menu Bar - Extensions > Visualise Path > Measure Path

 

Mick

Many thanks Mick.

[The Fatadder]

Another question...

 

I see a lot of mention of using d-limonene as a solvent to avoid warping he laminations of thin plasticard.

 

 

I’ve been looking for a source on eBay, but a lot of the listings keep calling it D limonene / Orange terpenes. Is this the same thing?

[BG John]

Another question...

 

I see a lot of mention of using d-limonene as a solvent to avoid warping he laminations of thin plasticard.

 

 

I’ve been looking for a source on eBay, but a lot of the listings keep calling it D limonene / Orange terpenes. Is this the same thing?

I hope so, as I've just bought half a litre of it! The container is just marked as Orange Terpene.

[dhjgreen]

Wiki but looks right

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limonene

[The Fatadder]

Perfect,

 

Once it arrives there is no excuse not to get started making buildings!

[The Fatadder]

Not sure what I am doing wrong.

 

I am using a dxf exported from autocad into the silhouette software

 

My plasticard is aligned with the top edge of the grid (by arrow) and drawing is aligned about 5mm from the edge

 

On two different cutting jobs so far it has started cutting about 5mm before the start of the grid (missing the plasticard and damaging the base sheet

 

What am I doing wrong?

[BG John]

Not sure what I am doing wrong.

 

I am using a dxf exported from autocad into the silhouette software

 

My plasticard is aligned with the top edge of the grid (by arrow) and drawing is aligned about 5mm from the edge

 

On two different cutting jobs so far it has started cutting about 5mm before the start of the grid (missing the plasticard and damaging the base sheet

 

What am I doing wrong?

Are you feeding it in far enough? I've managed to do the test cut on the backing sheet!

[The Fatadder]

I’m pushing it against the roller then pressing the load button once

[jonhall]

I’m pushing it against the roller then pressing the load button once

 

And you've realised that there are two load buttons, one with a grid on for when you are using the mat, and one without for not?

 

Jon

[jonhall]

Actually a question from me. 

 

Is it realistic to expect the Portrait to cut cereal packet card cleanly? I realised at my last demo that it was a material that a lot of people use, and that I ought to do some experimenting with, but I've been really disappointed with the results - at least the raw material is cheap enough to experiment with, but it keeps tearing where the blade runs, or the cut isn't all the way through. I've bought a second CB09 holder and the range of 30/45/60° blades so that I can preserve my plasticard scoring settings, so the blades are all new, but not 'premium'.

 

My machine has never been very good at cutting through sheet material even with new blades, if will not do 10thou plasticard, yet it will take 40thou on the carrier - I wondered if in a machine-to-machine production variability I have one that's well suited to thick, but not so good at thin?

 

Jon

[The Fatadder]

Thanks Jon, I hadn’t realised that. Should have re was the instructions before starting!

 

 

Issues aside I’ve been finding it an interesting learning curve so far. Having used both 20 and 10 and got some good results (cutting the curved beams for a river bridge for the new layout I’d have never got such a good curve by hand). And some less good, the arches above windows on the SE finecast brick just didn’t work well, I’m guessing here it would be better to cut in the back of the brick sheet.

 

I did have one odd result where the windows on one layer don’t match the layer below, but the ten thou underneath tore when removing from the sheet so it could plausibly be a miss alignment from the repair gluing the two parts together.

 

Next job will be drawing up sides for a clerestory full break for my TPO to convert a Hornby model, then maybe a try scribing the back of a sheet of evergreen sheet for a building for the clay works, or maybe having a go at some clay wagons...

[Ray H]

I found something similar.

 

I have been laminating O gauge (platform) running in boards. I created the art work for the first layer and then copied and pasted the initial "drawing". I snapped one drawing to another with the intent of being economical with the 0.5mm plasticard. However, when the cuts were made - five boards of four layers (to get the rigidity) - I found that the layers were of minutely different sizes.

 

I wonder if sharing a cut line between two identical drawings is what causes the size variation as the thickness of the cut obviously has some effect.

 

I shall experiment with keeping each drawing free of its neighbours next time.

 

I can cut 0.010" plasticard cleaning, 0.020" plasticard scores deep enough to bend/snap. Are you setting the force to 33, speed 1 and number of passes to 2 and the blade depth - both mechanically and in the program - to 10? (You can get away with a blade depth of about 4 for cutting 0.010" plasticard)

[The Fatadder]

Base was at 5, speed 1, force 33 and double cut.

 

What I found particularly odd in this case is that the issue was only on long lengths, the two ends of the building (same sheet on each cut) were fine. I do wonder how much was caused by the disruption from the bricks, and of redoing cutting on the flat side would solve it.). For now Ive cut the part into 3 sections and then aligned each individually, before filling the gaps between the joints (over the top of doors) with offcuts. I think once the canopy is on you won’t be able to see it.

[allan downes]

I found something similar.

 

I have been laminating O gauge (platform) running in boards. I created the art work for the first layer and then copied and pasted the initial "drawing". I snapped one drawing to another with the intent of being economical with the 0.5mm plasticard. However, when the cuts were made - five boards of four layers (to get the rigidity) - I found that the layers were of minutely different sizes.

 

I wonder if sharing a cut line between two identical drawings is what causes the size variation as the thickness of the cut obviously has some effect.

 

I shall experiment with keeping each drawing free of its neighbours next time.

 

I can cut 0.010" plasticard cleaning, 0.020" plasticard scores deep enough to bend/snap. Are you setting the force to 33, speed 1 and number of passes to 2 and the blade depth - both mechanically and in the program - to 10? (You can get away with a blade depth of about 4 for cutting 0.010" plasticard)

A running in board, from a modelling point of view, is nothing more than an oblong of plastic supported on two legs so why don't you simply cut it out of 40thou styrene by hand and glue say two 60thou square section plastic legs to each side ? Job done in minutes.

 

Cheers.

 

Allan

Edited November 26, 2017 by allan downes

[terrysoham]

I think that I read it in this thread when cutting brick Plastikard make sure that the smooth side is uppermost.

Anyway that’s the way I did it - without any distortion.

[BG John]

Base was at 5, speed 1, force 33 and double cut.

 

What I found particularly odd in this case is that the issue was only on long lengths, the two ends of the building (same sheet on each cut) were fine. I do wonder how much was caused by the disruption from the bricks, and of redoing cutting on the flat side would solve it.). For now Ive cut the part into 3 sections and then aligned each individually, before filling the gaps between the joints (over the top of doors) with offcuts. I think once the canopy is on you won’t be able to see it.

This is one of the reasons given for the advice to buy a Portrait rather than a Cameo. The longer bed on the Cameo means that the drive rods flex a bit in the middle, which is less of a problem on the shorter Portrait. Can this be what's happening here, with the Portrait rods flexing a bit, so the cutter is lifting off the work in the middle. At the ends it's more rigidly held, so will cut deeper.

[Ray H]

A running in board, from a modelling point of view, is nothing more than an oblong of plastic supported on two legs so why don't you simply cut it out of 40thou styrene by hand and glue say two 60thou square section plastic legs to each side ? Job done in minutes.

 

Cheers.

 

Allan

 

Allan

 

I appreciate your logic.

 

It's more about learning how to use the software and the machine and what the limitations are as far as I'm concerned at present. It is also a case of using what you have in stock rather than buying in items that you may only use occasionally if at all in the future.

[Metalhip]

Actually a question from me. 

 

Is it realistic to expect the Portrait to cut cereal packet card cleanly? I realised at my last demo that it was a material that a lot of people use, and that I ought to do some experimenting with, but I've been really disappointed with the results - at least the raw material is cheap enough to experiment with, but it keeps tearing where the blade runs, or the cut isn't all the way through. I've bought a second CB09 holder and the range of 30/45/60° blades so that I can preserve my plasticard scoring settings, so the blades are all new, but not 'premium'.

 

My machine has never been very good at cutting through sheet material even with new blades, if will not do 10thou plasticard, yet it will take 40thou on the carrier - I wondered if in a machine-to-machine production variability I have one that's well suited to thick, but not so good at thin?

 

Jon

 

 I think the rough cut is more likely to be the quality of the card.

I once bought a ream of Xerox card and had similar results, ended up giving it all away.

 

Allan

Edited November 27, 2017 by Metalhip

[MickRalph]

And you've realised that there are two load buttons, one with a grid on for when you are using the mat, and one without for not?

 

Jon

 

Thanks Jon - you are a life-saver (or a mat-saver).  In three and a half years of using the Portrait, I had never noticed that there is a button for feeding in material on the cutting mat!!!  This must explain why I have had to resort to setting the design away from the edge in Studio in order to avoid starting the cutting on the mat.

 

Mick

[The Fatadder]

Tonight’s odd behaviour

I imported 3 dxf files (all extracts of the same source drawing split over 3 sheets of 20thou. The first two base of roof and sides, ended up 9mm short in length but ok in height

 

The other containing the ends and spacers has come out a third too large in one dimension

 

All 3 followed the same approach. And I am now properly confused. More annoyingly it wasted my last sheet of 20 thou so I’m back to cutting by hand in order to build the roof tonight

[Siberian Snooper]

I have always drawn a rectangle around the cutting drawing and check it for size in studio, it can be resized if necessary and usually is.

[newbryford]

^{For anyone thinking about a Silhouette cutter}

 

 

^{*£15 off all Silhouette Cutters online only at www.yolo.co.uk until midnight Thursday 30th November 2017 when you enter the code CUTTER15 at checkout. Not valid in conjunction with any other offer.}

 

^Cheers,

^Mick