A Guide to using the Silhouette Cameo Cutter

[JCL]

A quick one to let you know that apparently the new beefed up Silhouette cutter is being launched in the UK on 14th August. The blurb says it can cut materials up to 2mm thick. I don't know about styrene.

Edited July 24, 2015 by JCL

[BG John]

A quick one to let you know that apparently the new beefed up Silhouette cutter is being launched in the UK on 14th August. The blurb says it can cut materials up to 2mm thick. I don't know about styrene.

Probably about the time I get round to setting up my new Portrait .

[PaulCheffus]

A quick one to let you know that apparently the new beefed up Silhouette cutter is being launched in the UK on 14th August. The blurb says it can cut materials up to 2mm thick. I don't know about styrene.

Hi

 

Is this the curio?

 

Cheers

 

Paul

[sleeper]

The newest model is called the Curio. Apparently they are going to bring out a deeper cutting blade to fit the earlier models. If the Curio cuts 2mm deep that will be great, no more warped laminations

[Smiffy2]

The newest model is called the Curio. Apparently they are going to bring out a deeper cutting blade to fit the earlier models. If the Curio cuts 2mm deep that will be great, no more warped laminations

The retro-fit deeper cut is an interesting development.

[Steadfast]

Hi everyone, I wonder if anyone can help with this please?

I've created an artwork in inkscape to cut on the Silhouette. Saved as a DXF, it imports into Silhouette Studio fine.

The window frames, horn grill frames and roof hatches all cut fine, the bit I'm having trouble with is the long ribs. Now it may just be that I'm working at too small a scale for the cutter to work reliably, but the blade seems to wander off course on some of them, rather like trying to draw a straight pencil line on wood and the grain drags it off course. 

Has anyone else encountered this and any solutions? I'm also wondering, if at a fraction of a mm wide, the ribs are just too fine to cut reliably. 

Any thoughts? Any help and experiences would be appreciated!

Thanks,

 

jo

[jonhall]

Jo,

 

I think I would suggest turning them from rectangles to simple parallel lines and see if that still has problems?

 

Jon

[Smiffy2]

I just can't get Inkscape to work.

I'm running MacOS 10.10.4, and so I've also loaded XQuartz. If I try to open Inkscape it simply opens XQuartz which just sits there. Inkscape doesn't open. No options to open it in XQuartz.

 

Is this normal?

[ian_g_griffiths]

Suggest you make sure that the lines are exactly horizontal. If the problem still occurs try an initial cut at lighter pressure to establish the scribe mark in the plastic and follow with heavier cuts in the established groove.

 

Ian

[JCL]

Yes, It's the Curio - here's the text of the email that I received:

 

Meet the Curio!

 

Meet the Silhouette Curio™. More than just a cutting tool. You can cut, emboss, sketch, stipple, and etch—and much more

The Curio is taking giant leaps forward with its new features. Along with the new stippling and etching functions, Silhouette is proud to introduce three types of embossing methods—Path Emboss, Score & Emboss, and Print & Emboss. Silhouette’s new dual carriage means you can also emboss and perform other functions, like sketching or cutting all in one pass.

With Curio, you can now cut thicker material.  Using Silhouette’s new deep-cut blade, you can cut materials up to 2mm thick . The Curio boasts a 5mm clearance from base to head which allows you to feed thicker materials through the machine. The higher clearance allows users to utilise entirely new project pallets, such as wood to sketch stencils onto, or to cut thicker materials, such as foils, leather, and foam.

It’s all driven by the powerful yet easy to use Silhouette Studio® software and the Silhouette Design Store. Every design in your library can now be re-purposed for embossing, stippling, and etching projects. The Curio is the only machine that can unlock the embossing, stippling, etching, and dual carriage options that will now be available in Silhouette Studio®.

Distributed in the UK and Ireland by Graphtec GB, the Silhouette Curio is the perfect accompaniment to the popular Silhouette Cameo and Portrait digital cutting tools.

Available from the 14th August 2015

 

And here's the linked video https://vimeo.com/127695789

 

 

The retro-fit deeper cut is an interesting development.

 

Hi Smiffy, I only hope that the current machines have enough oomph to push through styrene. I'm not so sure simply because I can cut thicker card than I can styrene. Unfortunately I can't find any kind of information about the downward force that each machine creates.

 

On the blades, a quick check on amazon.com gives the price of the deep cut as $25 and the previous blade $8. I'm sure they'll come down as they go along though, as the original ones were twice that price at one point. Sorry about the $ instead of the pounds!

 

I'm afraid my wife's Apple Mac is like a foreign country to me I'm afraid.

[BrushType4]

I just can't get Inkscape to work.

I'm running MacOS 10.10.4, and so I've also loaded XQuartz. If I try to open Inkscape it simply opens XQuartz which just sits there. Inkscape doesn't open. No options to open it in

Is this normal?

I run Inkscape in X11 but I did have the same issue as you. I eventually reinstalled and that cured the problem.

[frankw]

Hi Dick,

 

I have had the same trouble getting Inkscape to work on my Mac - even after multiple re-installs of both Quartz and Inkscape.

 

What I did was this.

 

Install Quartz(X11).

 

Install Inkscape.

 

Launch X11.

 

Click on "Applications"

 

Click on "Customize"

 

Click on "Add Item"

 

Type "Inkscape" under the "name" column.

 

Type "/Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/Resources/bin/inkscape" under the "Command" column.

 

Add a shortcut key under the "Shortcut" column (although not really necessary).

 

Then, when you want to launch Inkscape: open X11, navigate to and click on Inkscape under the "Applications" tab.

 

This worked for me

[Smiffy2]

Sorry, Frank - where are you finding the 'Customize' button?

[JCL]

I've a quick question about the Studio software. I'm using the software to print some livery images before cutting them, which means creating shapes and lines of different widths. For some reason the software seems to display the widths correctly when the shapes are created, but if I group them the widths look like 0.0mm. If I ungroup them or delete and press Undo the widths go back to what they should be.

 

Silhouette Studio 3.0.343ss on Windows 7.

 

Does anyone else find this?

[JCL]

No matter, I've just realised that I'm not on the latest version of Silhouette Studio. Apparently there was a security update a month ago.

[PaulCheffus]

 

Hi Smiffy, I only hope that the current machines have enough oomph to push through styrene. I'm not so sure simply because I can cut thicker card than I can styrene. Unfortunately I can't find any kind of information about the downward force that each machine creates.

 

 

 

 

 

Hi

According to the website the pressure is the same for the Curio and the Cameo at 210 grams.

 

I was originally thinking of buying a Cameo but I am now wondering if a Curio would give me more flexibility. I'm not too worried about the narrower width as I model in 2mm so 8.5" will be plenty for me.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

[frankw]

Sorry, Frank - where are you finding the 'Customize' button?

Open X11

 

Then along the top menu bar:

 

Applications -> Customize... (right at the bottom of the list)

[JCL]

Hi

According to the website the pressure is the same for the Curio and the Cameo at 210 grams.

 

I was originally thinking of buying a Cameo but I am now wondering if a Curio would give me more flexibility. I'm not too worried about the narrower width as I model in 2mm so 8.5" will be plenty for me.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

 

Thanks Paul. In that case, I was confused as to the differences between the Cameo and Curio, but I found this short article which explains it http://personaldiecutting.com/silhouette-curio-vs-cameo/ .

[ian_g_griffiths]

After reading the recent announcement of the new Curio, I emailed Graphtec last night and received the following reply this morning.

 

If you would like to send me a couple of samples of the media you would like to cut I would be happy to test it for you once the new deep cut blade has been released, which I believe to be a few weeks after the release of the Curio. We currently have a Curio here for testing but have not received the new blades and accessories as of yet.

One thing that I should point out: whilst the Curio does have a deep cut blade which allows you to cut thicker materials, this is normally aimed at softer materials such as ‘funky foam’ sheets and I would be surprised if it cut the plasticard any differently than the Cameo or Portrait machines do because the media is so dense, and I suspect it will still likely take many passes to score thicker sheets but I can confirm that once I test the media.

 

Any suggestions on the material thicknesses I should send. I was thinking 20 thou, 30 thou, 40 thou and 80 thou.

 

Ian

[BG John]

The Curio seems more suitable for railway modelling than the Cameo, and it's cheaper. The cutting area is comparable with the Portrait, so maybe that's what it's best compared with. So how will the UK prices compare? Having not set up my Portrait yet, that's what interests me. If the Portrait is a lower cost way to get started, and the Curio is something to aspire to later, that's OK, but I won't be so happy if there's not much difference!

[MikeOxon]

Hi

According to the website the pressure is the same for the Curio and the Cameo at 210 grams.

 

I was originally thinking of buying a Cameo but I am now wondering if a Curio would give me more flexibility. I'm not too worried about the narrower width as I model in 2mm so 8.5" will be plenty for me.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

Since the pressure seems to be the same, I would hold out very little hope for the Curio being able to cut styrene sheet any better than the earlier models.  For the last 18 months, I have been using a CB09 blade holder with replaceable blades (see http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1405/entry-13092-silhouette-coach-wip-1a-update/for more details)  I bought both 45 and 60 degree blades, since I had read that the narrower (60°) blades are better both for fine details and thicker materials.  In practice, I found little difference in performance when using either type.

 

There's quite a lot of discussion on the web about the different blade types.  See, for example http://ligayatg.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/aluminum-blade-holder.htmlwho comments "Love love love the 60 degrees blade!!!"   There's also a suggestion for how to add depth calibration to a CB09 blade holder at http://paperpulse.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/calling-all-cb09-blade-holder-and-blade.html

 

I suspect that the new 'deeper-cut' blades from Silhouette may simply be 60° blades (not confirmed)

 

I have taken microscope images of both types of blade and it is clear from these that the actual length of the cutting edge is well over 1 mm, so this is not the limiting factor when cutting styrene.  In practice, I have found that even when using multiple passes with a 60° blade, I cannot cut right through 20 thou (0.5 mm) styrene.

 

 

I have also photographed the blade that I have been using constantly for the last 18 moths, cutting both card and styrene sheet.  Although the extreme tip is clearly worn, most of the blade looks to be in excellent condition and still cuts cleanly!

 

 

I remain very pleased with my CB09 blade holder and the low cost of replacement blades. 

[JCL]

That's really interesting Mike, it's basically what I thought, it's the downward force and the blade together that's important. If it was me Ian, I'd just do .015" (which I think hasn't been tested, or at least mentioned on this thread) and .020" and not bother with the others.

[sleeper]

Jason I too have experienced the problem you have had with grouped components line thickness showing as 0.000. Thanks for the heads up on the newest update, I hadn't realised there was one, where does one obtain this info and would I have to go to the Silhouette website to download it?

 

On the question of blade angles, would it be that the 60° cutting edge is longer than the 45° but that the two blades are equal length overall, has anyone measured this? It's my suspicion that this is the case hence the marginal difference in cutting ability.

 

I haven't bought a new blade yet, do they come ready fitted in the carrier or separate? Why I ask is, on looking down the carrier I can see what looks like a brass collet of some sort. If this is so and it sits in a groove in the blade, I wonder if it would be possible to have the groove modified by someone with a lathe so the blade sits lower in the carrier by say 20 thou thereby increasing the cut depth, just a thought.

[JCL]

Hi there

 

Updating didn't make any difference. Interestingly, it also doesn't seem to correspond to what's printed. That is, if you specify a line width of 1mm and it looks like 0.0mm on your screen, it should still print 1mm thick. (terrible English, sorry).

 

http://www.silhouetteamerica.com/software/silhouette-studio

 

My next challenge is that the registering of the image to the cutting lines is out of whack by about .5mm, so I'm going to have a look at this when I get back in a few days to see if it helps http://angelicuts.com/2014/08/01/calibrating-your-silhouette-cameo-or-portrait-for-silhouette-studio/

[MikeOxon]

Hi there

 

Updating didn't make any difference. Interestingly, it also doesn't seem to correspond to what's printed. That is, if you specify a line width of 1mm and it looks like 0.0mm on your screen, it should still print 1mm thick. (terrible English, sorry).

 

http://www.silhouetteamerica.com/software/silhouette-studio

 

My next challenge is that the registering of the image to the cutting lines is out of whack by about .5mm, so I'm going to have a look at this when I get back in a few days to see if it helps http://angelicuts.com/2014/08/01/calibrating-your-silhouette-cameo-or-portrait-for-silhouette-studio/

If you look at my microscope photos, you can see that the point of the blade is offset from the centreline of the shaft.  The blade must always 'trail' the direction of the printhead, so this may explain the small errors when cutting in different directions.  The box of blades I bought states on the lid "Knifepoint offset 0.45 - 0.75 mm"

 

I don't understand how a linewidth can 'look like' 0.0 mm - surely, that's invisible?