A Guide to using the Silhouette Cameo Cutter

[MikeTrice]

Is there a way to feed the sheet further into the cutter? I can only use the feed in and feed out keys after the cutter has finished.. It would be quite handy to be able to feed the sheet in further, while it is still in the machine. any ideas?

What are trying to achieve? Theoretically the machines can take up to 8ft length (but you would need a really long carrier sheet ),

[uax6]

I was wondering if you could have a sheet in the machine, cut it, and then (because the machine goes back to the start), feed it in until the previously cut bit was out the back of it, so you could cut again.

 

Andy G

[MikeTrice]

Can't you just either double up the artwork into the other position or move the new bit into the unused area of the drawing?

[MikeTrice]

The door frames assembled with their backing pieces together with a revised window frame. It is only at this magnification that is it obvious that additional clean up is still required.

 

 

I used Deluxe Plastic Magic for the first time and was impressed. The discolouration was where I did not use a perfectly clean (e.g. new) brush.

 

Out of interest following the earlier disaster with the carrier sheet (which I have managed to salvage) I bought some Artistix replacements which arrived today. Have not tried them yet, but they are cheaper than the Silhouette originals.

[JCL]

I was wondering if you could have a sheet in the machine, cut it, and then (because the machine goes back to the start), feed it in until the previously cut bit was out the back of it, so you could cut again.

 

Andy G

Hi Andy, there have been times when I'm cutting on the fly, at these times I just leave the drawings on the workpiece that have already been cut and add the new stuff around them. I then either delete the old stuff that was already cut or I change the cut line style to "No cut". Other times I just take the card out, get a knife, cut off the used area and then refeed. This normally happens when I've been cutting something that has left a long strip of waste. Those long strips can sometimes foul the machine.

[allan downes]

The door frames assembled with their backing pieces together with a revised window frame. It is only at this magnification that is it obvious that additional clean up is still required.

 

IMG_4517.JPG

 

I used Deluxe Plastic Magic for the first time and was impressed. The discolouration was where I did not use a perfectly clean (e.g. new) brush.

 

Out of interest following the earlier disaster with the carrier sheet (which I have managed to salvage) I bought some Artistix replacements which arrived today. Have not tried them yet, but they are cheaper than the Silhouette originals.

 

Hi Mike, very impressive.

 

Just one thought though, do the corners always require cleaning up after the machine has performed its task.

 

But even so, I'd settle for that  - cutting out Georgian window frets by hand right from scratch is a total nightmare - one slip, and a pile of Georgian confetti !

 

Again, superb results.

 

Allan.

[MikeTrice]

Just one thought though, do the corners always require cleaning up after the machine has performed its task.

Being "N" even small bits of dust show up. The cutting does leave a cusp, just as it does when cutting styrene by hand, and this needs sanding smooth. The main tidying up which needs the most dressing is the 20thou backing piece which was scored and snapped, predominently along the central window bar. Either way, far more accurate than I could do by hand and far less tedious.

 

A very cruel enlargement of the windows. Bear in mind that each aperture is 2.5mm x 3.3mm:

Edited December 13, 2013 by MikeTrice

[MikeTrice]

Blades look to be a potential on-going cost, especially if, as was suggested you should change them after 4 sheets. I presume that's with a lot of cuts as the blunting would come with mileage (or inchage).  Saw these on eBay

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2pcs-CRAFT-ROBO-SILHOUETTE-WISHBLADE-blades-HIGH-QUALITY-FREE-UK-P-P-SAME-DAY-/131040320770?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item1e829c9d02

 

2 for £12.00 without the holder, but I suspect if you're using the cameo for any of the purposes described here, dismantling it shouldn't be too much of an issue.

My blades, and CB09 came from here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Graphtec-Vinyl-Cutter-Plotter-printer-blades-45-degre-/190948126487?ssPageName=ADME:L:OU:GB:3160

Edited December 13, 2013 by MikeTrice

[uax6]

Thanks guys, looks like there isn't a way that my feeding can be done, never mind!

 

Anyway to day I cut an end with some matchboarding on it, just to see what it would come out like. Ok I got the alignment wrong (doh!) but the main purpose was to see if there was any difference to the end cut if you spaced two cuts a small diference apart as opposed to just one cut. On the lefthand side I did two cuts spaced at one pixel (!) apart and increased it as I went right until I got to 20 pixels wide, then the rest were just one line. All were scored twice at pressure 5:

 

Not much difference, although the wider ones you can see both lines.

 

I then gave it a coat of red oxide primer, and two thug coats of BMC Damask Red just to see if the detail would still be visable. Interestingly enough it is, you can feel it ok (I sanded the side down slightly before painting) and just make it out. Indeed it is probably a scale depth and width, so one over etched sides! (Would you really see the matchboarding at the 100 scale feet that we usually view our stock?):

 

I decided that there was actually very little in difference between two cuts and one, so one will be the future I think!

I then continued with drawing out a HR D55 corridor compo, which will be cut soon, and maybe seen here (or on my coach thread, I don't know yet!)

 

Andy G

[JCL]

That looks cool Andy, and you finally know, as I know you've been wondering about this for a while. The best thing is that you don't need to use a ruler and knife to try to make sure that every single board is the same width as all the previous ones.

[uax6]

Yes it is a relief to actually see the results. I might try scoring a little deeper to see what the result would be, but it might not make much difference.

 

The curl on the 10thou wasn't that much in the end, and certainly after it has been laminated up I can't see much of an issue, unless it stretches it.....

 

Andy G

[MikeTrice]

The curl on the 10thou wasn't that much in the end, and certainly after it has been laminated up I can't see much of an issue, unless it stretches it.....

I have not been brave enough to attempt scoring 10thou. It must be quite fragile.

[JCL]

D'you know Mike, it's not too bad. I scored the doors into that 6 wheel coach and they came out pretty well. I think I used a knife depth of about 2

[uax6]

Funny enough that sheet of 10thou had very little difference in feel that a plain sheet. At depth 5 there is no evidence of the blade even begining to show on the reverse.

 

How deep can I go I wonder.....

 

Andy g

[MikeTrice]

A word of warning. Recently bought a number of sheets of black styrene from the 4D model shop listed as 0.5mm thick. In reality they are 0.6mm which when used in conjunction with the carrier sheet are too thick to go in the machine.

[Ron Heggs]

A word of warning. Recently bought a number of sheets of black styrene from the 4D model shop listed as 0.5mm thick. In reality they are 0.6mm which when used in conjunction with the carrier sheet are too thick to go in the machine.

Hi, Mike

 

What is the maximum thickness of material the cutter will accept, with or without the cutting mat ? How thick therefore is the cutting mat ?

 

Ron 

[MikeTrice]

The cutting mat is 0.2mm thick. Maximum thickness for both the Cameo and Portrait isquoted as 0.8mm so in theory the 0.6mm styrene should have worked however the machine said no! I have successfully managed to cope with Slaters 20thou sheet.

[flubrush]

The cutting mat is 0.2mm thick. Maximum thickness for both the Cameo and Portrait isquoted as 0.8mm so in theory the 0.6mm styrene should have worked however the machine said no! I have successfully managed to cope with Slaters 20thou sheet.

 

Mike,

 

Where did you measure the 0.6mm thickness?   Did you just measure in one place?  I use styrene sheet in my CNC milling machine and the one thing I have found is that sheet thickness is nominal and can vary by quite a margin around a sheet.   To get accurate thickness for my purposes,  I start with a thicker sheet and surface mill it down to the thickness I require to get an even thickness overall.    So your 0.6mm sheet might have been more than 0.6mm in places. :-)

 

Jim.

[MikeTrice]

Either way I measured it where it enters the rollers. Trying again, but this time without the carrier sheet.

[JCL]

Interesting, I definitely ran some .040" through mine, which appears to be 1.016 mm (more or less). There's a difference between the deepest cut the knife can make, and the thickest material that can go under the rollers. This FAQ answer (http://www.silhouetteamerica.com/faq/solution/materials-silhouette-can-cut) puts the deepest cut at approx 1mm (dependent on the material being cut), while I've seen elsewhere that the thickest material that can be put through is about 1.3mm. For the life of me I can't remember where I read that though.

[MikeTrice]

The 0.8mm I quoted is as shown in the machine specs.

[MikeTrice]

Some further cuts, all in 10thou and 4mm scale.

 

A major benefit of these machines is the ability to replicate lots of identical parts:

 

I find the best way of removing the cuttings from the mat are to slip a scalpel underneath and work along:

 

Lots and lots of panelled ends. Try cutting that lot by hand:

 

For these ends I have laminated 3 cuttings from 10th to create a 30th end + panelling:

 

It is all very well cutting these shapes, but producing the artwork can take a lot of work. This is a modification of a drawing I produced as part of a completely different experiment modified to be cut:

 

The last two cutting laminated together. It is one of the Coronation coaches for anyone curious:

 

 

 

 

[uax6]

I also find that, depending on what vehicles you are making, that you can clone quite a bit of artwork from one vehicle to the next, saving quite a bit of time. But lets face it it's the cutting time we are saving on, as we would of had to draw the sides out anyway even to cut by hand.

 

The other advantage is that if you forget something, of it turns out not quite how you expect, you can just adjust the drawing and hit cut, and out it churns, rather than having to face re-cutting it all by hand..

 

Quite looking forward to churning the first matchboarded side out this week....

 

Andy G

[JCL]

The 0.8mm I quoted is as shown in the machine specs.

Yes, it is, it's the maximum cutting thickness in that document, and they are a little more vague in the FAQ section of their site that I linked to. The .040" styrene I put through just to test for this thread was score and snap but it's not a thickness I'd use for much.

 

Your cuts look really clean, and like you say, the machine is great for repetitive cuts. The cutter seems to be coming into its own for coach work.

Edited December 15, 2013 by JCL

[37114]

Excellent Thread, thanks to JCL etc for sharing your efforts.