A Guide to using the Silhouette Cameo Cutter

[Biased turkey]

Today I tested  the CB09 blade holder  and several  blades received last week.

2 different blades with the same cutting angle ( 60 degrees ) have different offsets:  0.45 mm and 0.25 mm respectively.

What is the purpose of that offset ?

Why  2 different offset values for the same cutting angle  ?

 Which offset value is the best  ? 

 

Jacques

Edited September 5, 2016 by Biased turkey

[MikeOxon]

...........2 different blades with the same cutting angle ( 60 degrees ) have different offsets:  0.45 mm and 0.25 mm respectively.

What is the purpose of that offset ?

...........

The offset is to ensure that the tip of the blade trails behind the centre-line of the cutter, so that the blade turns automatically when the cutting direction changes.  My blades are marked 0.45-0.75 mm, so I guess it is not very critical.  It may affect how readily the blade turns at a sharp corner.  I can only suggest you try a few experiments and see if there is any difference.  I'll be interested to know what you find.

 

Mike

[Metalhip]

The offset is to ensure that the tip of the blade trails behind the centre-line of the cutter, so that the blade turns automatically when the cutting direction changes.  My blades are marked 0.45-0.75 mm, so I guess it is not very critical.  It may affect how readily the blade turns at a sharp corner.  I can only suggest you try a few experiments and see if there is any difference.  I'll be interested to know what you find.

 

Mike

The amount of offset will determine whether square corners are square or rounded or out of shape.

Sorry,can't remember which way increasing or decreasing the offset changes things,not sure if you can change the offset in the Silhoutte cutters software.

 

Allan

[etendam]

Offset is critical if you are cutting printed media and using the registration marks.

 

Ed

[Rob Pulham]

I was really thrilled that I was awarded Runner up and Commended for some of my entries into the Rolling Stock category of the modelling competition on Saturday. It was especially satisfying that my efforts were placed from such high quality entries in the Guilds 60th Anniversary year.

 

It's also a first for me, not being interested in sport or other competitive pursuits, the only thing that I have ever won before this, was a tin of biscuits in a raffle

 

The commended  award was for my Condemned ex NBR  Jubilee van.

 

 

Besides the Condemned Van, I also submitted an LNER (ex NBR) goods train broken up into five seperate entries (comprising: models built from Connoisseur kit's, models built from Parkside Dundas kits, models built from Dragon Models kit's and scratch built models).

 

The runner up award was for the scratch built section of the train. Most of which are pictured below (there is one of the beaded jubilee vans missing because I couldn't fit it onto my diorama).

 

 

Apparently, it was this particular model from the selection that carried the day,  and although I have put it in the Silhouette thread because the others were silhouette cut, this one was built before I received the cutter.

 

 

[jaylaudeman]

I've been using the Cameo for a year now and wonder if anybody after using theres for a while wish they had bought something different. It works ok for the stuff I try to cut but having to run it threw multiple times to get to cut and then still having to take a knife to it to still get it to come out gets old.  I was thinking about it and wondered if anybody has used any of the CO2 laser cutters before.  I see you can get a cheaper one for about twice the price I paid for the Cameo, it makes it seem like that should be the way I go, anybody have any experience with them?

[MikeOxon]

.......................  I was thinking about it and wondered if anybody has used any of the CO2 laser cutters before.  I see you can get a cheaper one for about twice the price I paid for the Cameo, it makes it seem like that should be the way I go, anybody have any experience with them?

There's a whole forum on laser cutting - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/forum/180-3d-printing-laser-cutting-cad-cnc/

 

You might be interested, too, in the Darkly Labs solid-state laser cutter - see http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/108310-darkly-labs-emblaser-affordable-laser-cutter-review/

 

Mike

[Biased turkey]

Thank you  Mike, Allan and Ed  for taking some of your valuable time to reply. Before asking the question I  did some googling but with no result.

Today I did some googling again  entering "vinyl cutter blade offset" in the search window.

First there is a picture that compare 3 different offset values.

I found a video about that subject:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wfibwv02PSQ

 

But  maybe in our case it doesn't matter because as Allan mentions there is no offset value setting on the Silhouette Portrait.

 

Jacques

Edited September 9, 2016 by Biased turkey

[MikeOxon]

.................

I found a video about that subject:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wfibwv02PSQ

 

and thank you to you, for airing this important subject in more detail than I knew!  It seems it really can make a difference, especially when using different blade angles. 

 

After watching the video you suggested, my player went on to another one, which adds a bit more information, with some good demonstrations:  see

 

Since the offset on the Silhouette cannot be changed, it's a bit academic but it does show what to look out for, if experimenting with different types of blade.  So far, I've not noticed any problems with my CB09 60deg blades but now I know what to look out for!

 

Mike

[JCL]

Hi Mike

 

You're correct about there not being a setting, but I've a couple of thoughts. Silhouette America (UK) didn't even know that their machine was being used for modelling until I contacted them when this thread started. It's always worth putting in a feature request with an explanation for it.

 

Secondly, perhaps now that this information is available, with a bit of experimentation it might be that the offset could be worked into drawings if it's particularly important to the cut and the modeller. By that I mean, in Jacques' diagram, if your output is square number 2 (rounded), would drawing square number 1 in Inkscape cancel out the roundedness and force the cutter to cut a square with sharp corners?

 

If someone wants to try, I'd advise creating an accurate drawing first, and then making a copy that can be "adjusted". This would be insurance in case you get a different type of cutter in the future.

 

cheers

 

Jason

[allan downes]

I've just been thoroughly entertained without understanding a single word of it by Monkeysarefun on  http://www.rmweb.co....-cutter-review/ and vote him, unconditionally, best writer on Rmweb and it's content like his that makes railway modelling all worth while.

 

Superbly written with a typical Oz sense of humour, up there with Bill Bryson, lazer cutting with a sun scorched smile - and a spider .And here's a delightful Monkeysarefun line   "just need to refine my painting technique - or at least have one" 

 

I demand more !

 

Allan.

Edited September 10, 2016 by allan downes

[monkeysarefun]

I've just been thoroughly entertained without understanding a single word of it by Monkeysarefun on  http://www.rmweb.co....-cutter-review/ and vote him, unconditionally, best writer on Rmweb and it's content like his that makes railway modelling all worth while.

 

Superbly written with a typical Oz sense of humour, up there with Bill Bryson, lazer cutting with a sun scorched smile - and a spider .And here's a delightful Monkeysarefun line   "just need to refine my painting technique - or at least have one" 

 

I demand more !

 

Allan.

 

 

Wow, thanks Allan - that's very humbling considering it was you writing in the Railway Modeller back in the '70's that sparked my enthusiasm for modelling buildings. Dad got it on subscription and when ever it arrived in its buff envelope in our leterbox (3 months late - the Christmas issues with the model layouts covered in festive snow we would get in late March) I'd straight away search through for an Allan Downes article. If it wasn't there it would be a long wait for the following months delivery.

 

Some of my attempts to use your ideas have become family stories, two that pop up are 'borrowing' the pebbles in my dads aquarium to mix with PVA and pack into wooden moulds to make some peanut brittle style dry stone walls, and 'borrowing' the expensive wool that mum had bought intending to knit a fancy jumper to use as thatch on a cottage.

 

So if in any way I've been able to return some of the entertainment you gave me back then then I am really happy. Thanks again!

[JCL]

I agree Allan, if he wrote a book I'd buy it.

[allan downes]

Wow, thanks Allan - that's very humbling considering it was you writing in the Railway Modeller back in the '70's that sparked my enthusiasm for modelling buildings. Dad got it on subscription and when ever it arrived in its buff envelope in our leterbox (3 months late - the Christmas issues with the model layouts covered in festive snow we would get in late March) I'd straight away search through for an Allan Downes article. If it wasn't there it would be a long wait for the following months delivery.

 

Some of my attempts to use your ideas have become family stories, two that pop up are 'borrowing' the pebbles in my dads aquarium to mix with PVA and pack into wooden moulds to make some peanut brittle style dry stone walls, and 'borrowing' the expensive wool that mum had bought intending to knit a fancy jumper to use as thatch on a cottage.

 

So if in any way I've been able to return some of the entertainment you gave me back then then I am really happy. Thanks again!

 

 

Well now I'm really honoured !

 

Here's me thinking you can walk on water and there's you almost implying the same of me !

 

I'm still ploughing through the 24 pages of your inspirational thread and currently up to page 8 and if I could take my computer to bed I would and read my self silly ( at 80 that's about all you can do in bed without  fear of a double hernia at best and a total seizure at worse . 

 

And to think you remembered that flexible stone wall method where I used cat lit mixed with neat PVA packed into a hardboard mould - in fact, it was my first ever article and it was the J Ahearn inspired cottages in the background that caught Cyril Freezer's eye and that kick started me off as a professional modelmaker for the next 46 years, the need for bifocal glasses,  wearing out 3 wives and developing a 52 inch waist !

 

Nice to have met you Monkeysarefun, don't ever stop posting.

 

Cheers.

 

Allan.

Edited September 10, 2016 by allan downes

[monkeysarefun]

 

And to think you remembered that flexible stone wall method where I used cat lit mixed with neat PVA packed into a hardboard mould - in fact, it was my first ever article and it was the J Ahearn inspired cottages in the background that caught Cyril Freezer's eye and that kick started me off as a professional modelmaker for the next 46 years, the need for bifocal glasses,  wearing out 3 wives and developing a 52 inch waist !

 

Nice to have met you Monkeysarefun, don't ever stop posting.

 

Cheers.

 

Allan.

 

Dry stone walls made from cat litter (or in my case aquaruim pebbles), I also remember a church made from budgie grit? I wonder if pet shop proprietors noticed strange surges in demand for certain products at various times and if so, if they linked it to the publishing of your articles in the Railway Modeller just prior? Of course, canny ones would have and thus would have been able to gain a commercial advantage over their opposition - "Better triple the Hedgehog order this month dear, Allan Downes has just published a new way of making fence posts".

 

It is a strange quirk of memory (but more likely a tribute to your writing) that although the 70's were my school years, I now remember very little of what I was taught back then. Quadratic equations -completely  forgotten; Huygens principle - no idea any more... But, I can still remember the titles of most of your articles from the same years, -  and what they were  about.  'All of a Twist" - an article about curved station platforms; "Whats his names yard" - All about building one of those mysterious forgotten junk yards that are dotted in back streets. "Budgie grit string and so a church" - ok, I forget what that one was about. How crestfallen was I when 'Mastermind' was canned and my dream of cleaning up with my special subject "articles by Allan Downes" came to naught. In fact, my crest has still not recovered from that fall.

 

Actually, such is the effect that your articles have on my memory that it often spread to any  other articles that happened to share a page with yours. I remember  your windmill article shared the page with  one asking "Whats wrong With That Cow?" and still remember that it was to do with bovine regional differences - something to do with their antlers or whatever their pointy bits are called.

 

The only other thing that comes back to me from the past  in a similar way are advertising jingles. I'd always thought that if Kirchoff's Law of Electric Circuits had had a snappy jingle I'd have done a lot better at exams, but now I'm thinking that an even better result would have come about  by reading an article written by you  on say Newtons Three Laws Of Motion, preferably with a sharp punning title, set to a toe-tapping jingle. Result - Total Recall!

 

Edited September 11, 2016 by monkeysarefun

[Londontram]

I must have caught a button on my silhouette as yesterday I imported from file some drawings and cut them fine but this morning the same drawings when opened on the silhouette are over scale and all the grid and move scales are now in inches not mm. Have I inadvertently hit a setting or default button by mistake?

 

    I usually do my drawing in inkscape and save the files as both svg and dxf and use the dxf files for the silhouette I did a test drawing this morning and made sure the page set up was in mm not px and followed my usual procedure but this also come out over scale.

  

     Help please as I've run out of ideas to try Steve

 

  As a foot note when I opened the silhouette up there was a box on the right with a recovered file which was one some one had sent me and had previously been used and this opened fine and seemed in scale  on the page but the grid and move scales are sill in inches when each one was brought up

 

Edit update - found the section I need in Edit - Preferences and its now in mm again but the drawings are still loading overscale almost like if I draw a box 110mm by 30mm it opens up 11 inches by 3 inches

Edited September 11, 2016 by Londontram

[allan downes]

Well Monkeysarefun, how do I follow that when you know more about me than me does about I !

 

That windmill, along with the shared 'cow' article, has often appeared on the forum more to illustrate how it shouldn't be done than as a " Look what I 've done mum " feature and the guys on here really gave me some stick over it !

 

In those days when I first started with the intention of turning the model railway world upside down on its head I set out to solve the problems folk were having with 'poke to go' Triang locos by spraying Flieschmann engines GWR green and sticking GWR transfers all over them .So, with all the excitement one associates with when about to be knighted, I send the photo's in to Cyril Freezer who immediately sent them back with a note attached saying " Stick to stone walls, buildings and budgie grit " accompanied with a tin of Olive Green and a Flieshmann 2-10-0 ! ( or at least that's what I was expecting...)

 

But, have things really changed for the better ? Well, a Stanley knife ain't ever gonna match a lazer cutter so I'd say yes but, a lazer cutter will never have the same sense of achievement but I suppose it's a toss up between electrocuting yourself or bleeding to death though in the pursuit of this hobby I've come pretty close to doing both - but, with practice and old age, I will succeed one day I'm sure !

 

Cheers.

 

Allan.

Edited September 11, 2016 by allan downes

[monkeysarefun]

Allan, I've always considered your windmill as your "Yellow Submarine", compared to all the other "Sergeant Peppers"  that you have created. I'll always remember eagerly waiting for articles from you  all those years ago, , and am still enjoying your input here on this site today, and  I know that many others will join in thanking  you for the enjoyment you have and are still giving to us all. 

 

 

..( Do I get a free building now!)

[allan downes]

Allan, I've always considered your windmill as your "Yellow Submarine", compared to all the other "Sergeant Peppers"  that you have created. I'll always remember eagerly waiting for articles from you  all those years ago, , and am still enjoying your input here on this site today, and  I know that many others will join in thanking  you for the enjoyment you have and are still giving to us all. 

 

 

..( Do I get a free building now!)

 

It's a possibility although a bit more sucking up might help...

 

 

Cheers.

 

Allan.

[JCL]

Hi Steve, PM sent.

[Londontram]

Hi Steve, PM sent.

Thanks Jason email sent with the requested information. Steve

[MikeTrice]

I might be barking up the wrong tree but under "Edit->Preferences:General" my default setting for unit of length is "mm" which matches the "mm" setting in Inkscape". Any chance this has been changed?

[Londontram]

Not barking up the wrong tree Mike but just not quite on the right branch. I don't know how it happened but my PC must of had a bit of a brain storm as two settings seemed to have changed them selves with out me being near them and as you have to go via "Edit" then "Preferences" its not the sort of thing you can catch by accident.

 

    Any way it seems now that two unrelated settings had changed and the one mentioned in the original message said that the scales had changed from mm to inches I had already found and changed as you suggested, but looking around on preferences I looked at import options and under importing dxf files it said either "As is" "centered" or "Fit window" and it was set to "Fit window" which I changed to "centered" which has fixed the problem completely.

 

     So thanks for your help following your lead led me to look around that area and stumble on the problem which seems to be sorted now I'll just have to keep my eye on it.

                                   Thanks Steve 

[JCL]

That's great news Steve.

[MikeOxon]

....... I don't know how it happened but my PC must of had a bit of a brain storm as two settings seemed to have changed them selves with out me being near them and as you have to go via "Edit" then "Preferences" its not the sort of thing you can catch by accident.

.......

A major problem with modern software is that the programmers increasingly want to impose their 'defaults', rather than the user's wishes!  I find that recent versions of 'Windows' keep re-setting my selected options.

 

Mike