MikeTrice

Perhaps I can give you my thoughts: 1.) Might the plotter function with a blunt scriber or something emboss rivets on 10thou plasticard? Possibly. You can get a pen holder for the machine which takes (surprise!) pens and it should be possible to fit a scriber. Alternatively you might be able to turn yourself up a holder. The problem as I see it is the embossing from two angles; what drawing artifact do you use to represent a rivet position and secondly I guess you would need some form of backing sheet to the styrene that would accept the rivet depression. The supplied carrier sheet might be too hard. 2) Could the register function be used to scribe texture onto printed card (eg Superquick or Metcalf brickwork)? If I read the instructions correctly the ability to register the cutter position to an existing printed design depends on the presence of recognisable registration marks on the printed design. 3) Could transfers be cut round to avoid carrier film? Same issue as above, however if they are ones you have printed yourself it might be viable. 4) Cutting out individual letters from plain transfer sheets (eg white) for PO wagons. Should be possible, depends how small they are. If you look at my earlier closeups of the N gauge window you will see certain imperfections. Now in all honesty I struggle to see these with the naked eye, but then my eyesight is perhaps not as good as yours. The imperfection are not due to artwork errors, but in the way the cutter blade tip is offset and is used to align the cutter to the direction of cut. Most crafters that the machines are aimed at will not be aware of this, only us idiots pushing the machines to their limits. 5) Cutting letter shapes in good quality masking tape to use use as a stencil for spray paint lettering (HR loco names, Andy?) Again it depends on the size of the lettering 6) Obviously individual letters for raised lettering on signs, but also for deliberately rough tampo-style printing, eg wagon tarpaulins or an advert painted onto a building. I might try this to produce the "CORONATION" lettering for my cut side as cutting 10th seems to work very well. Perhaps we can look forward to you reporting back in the New Year when you have got your machine?

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:

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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:

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.

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?

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

Yes, I cut the main doors out of 20thou using the CB09 but only so far as scoring then for the final cut scoring deeper and snapping out. In theory I could have kept cutting until it had gone through, however it is not easy to tell whilst the material and carrier sheet is still in the machine.

Just to confuse matters I adjusted to use 0.35mm and it still looks fine.

Nothing groundbreaking from me, just standard window frames, cut in 10 thou: Believe it or not, this is N Gauge, the glazing bars being .3mm wide: My original project, started a while ago, was a diorama based on Erstfeld depot in Switzerland however I chickened out of trying to cut out the windows as seen here: In fairness the glazing bars are very fragile and could really do with thickening up. Thankfully having had the disaster with the card previously my carrier mat is not so sticky and seemed to work well. I agree, peeling off the individual cut outs afterwards is a thankless task. I should add that this was cut with the CB09 cutter holder with the depth set by eye and double cut.

Not using the carrier sheet then?

I picked up a large set of 30 coloured fibre pens from a pound store in the UK. I plan to use the nearest colour and just run it around the cut edge. Following on from my earlier post, I have (almost) got my cutting mat clean after a lot of scraping. I think the problem with the registration is I need to do everything from within Silhouette Studio. Have been watching a couple of youtube tutorials. I am still having great problems trying to export from Inkscape to dxf, and yes the problems are with inkscape. Instead I should be able to simply export the coloured parts as a png file, import it into Studio then trace to get the cutting paths, so viable. Problem is my little Grandson is with us so I dare not get it all out to try it.

It is perfectly possible. When I cut my coach sample in plasticard I did two passes for the 10thou layer. Once a single cut has been performed, providing the job is not ejected from the machine, further cuts can be performed.

I didn't help by using a typical self healing green cutting mat under the Silhouette cutting mat in my photo. Sorry. As you say, I meant the cutting mat that comes with the Silhouette which is sticky one side (too sticky).

More or less: http://www.silhouetteamerica.com/select-a-silhouette

Lessons can be learnt as much from the mistakes as the successes. There is a feature of the Silhouette machines typically referred to as print and cut. What this means is that an image is first printed, together with registration marks, then loaded into the Silhouette and cut out. I thought I would try an experiment with the sample coach section I featured previously, but this time printing the full livery to the material before cutting. The artwork was modified, still using Inkscape having imported the Studio registration markings. This was printed on Inkjet 200gsm matt paper: This close up shows what has been included in the colour print: The print was allowed to dry and then sprayed with UV protector. Print was then added to the Silhuoette cutting board, loaded in the machine and a cut using the new CB09 cutter performed. Now when cutting from Inkscape the cutter goes through an initialisation process which looked as if it was searching for its registration marks. I hoped that on cutting it would find the registration marks and align the cuts to the printed image. Unfortunately not so I will need to try exporting into Studio and seeing if I can control it from there. The cutter performed perfectly. The problem was when I tried to remove the printed/cut image from the cutting matt, it tore to pieces: Now I have read on many posting that the original "stick" on the cutting matt is too strong and needs reducing, so when I finally manage to clean it up I will attempt to do so and perhaps try again.

In that case I hope he posts some tips and photos.

Good luck with that. Nothing stops the blade rotating, it is supposed to. What I have not fathomed is how it physically works. I guess when the blade moves horizontally, the tip is slightly off centre so tends to drag causing the cutting edge to align with the cut. The blade part is tiny but it might be possible with the replacement blades to resharpen the blade and reuse. Someone somewhere will come up with a method.

Oh well, in for a penny...... The blade comes with a spring that fits over the shaft, like a sprung buffer: There is a brass bush in the black cap that the blade fits through: Having shown that the blade/spring is removed from the end and the non cutting end "stuck" to the magnetic bush in the holder: Carefully thread the cutting blade through the black bush and screw the cap to the holder: Note that the CB09 does not include a measuring scale to help adjust the blade depth that protrudes. Blade has now been retracted and packed away with the machine until a later date.

Curiosity got the better of me. How did these things cut? The first image is of a standard, current, Silhouette cutter. It comes with a grey "cap" that can be used to rotate the white end to extend or retract the cutting blade: Extending the blade to its full depth and viewing it from the side the 45 degree angle can be seen: Turn it through 90 degrees and the blade seen from the end, or non-cutting edge: These original cutters are quite expensive so a lot of Silhouette users have purchased third party cutter holders and blades. Here is the CB09 (without blade fitted) mentioned in previous threads: There have been comments on other threads that the CB09 does not always fit the machine and needs sanding down with wet and dry. Mine fitted perfectly. The cutter holder strips down as shown. The brass part is held on by rare earth magnet: Here is one of the third party blades but I really could not see how it would cut: OK, call it a senior moment The blade part is protected by the red rubber protector. I had photographed it upside down. Removing the protector reveals a blade as in the original. Doh! No instructions come with the CB09 however there are a couple of web sites showing how to fit the blade to it. When I get the machine out again I will try the new cutter out.