3. Computer Controlled Cutting¶
This week I worked on learning how to use vinyl and laser cutters
Research¶
Both the laser and vinyl cutter work with vector graphic formats. In this case i used Inkscape for the Roland vinyl cutter and Rhinoceros for the laser cutter.
Useful links¶
Examples¶
Vinyl cutter¶
For starters, I wanted to cut my company logo using the vinyl cutter in order to make a sticker to put on both my notebook and the box that OpenDot has given me to keep stuff at the lab.
This is the starting image
This is the SVG file, the black part is the one to keep and the while part has to be cut away
Transfer a sticker¶
The process of making the sticker is surely the easy part, the transfer however is the funny part.
It takes a couple of tries to get it correct but the process is simple enough:
- retrieve the sticker from the machine
- peel away the part of the sticker that is not needed (in mine is the white part)
- take an adequate amount of “transfer material” (scotch paper)
- gently and carefully put the transfer material above the sticker, making sure it’s completely adherent to the surface of the part you want to transfer
- stick it! peeling away gently the paper scotch ensuring no bubble forms
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My thoughts on¶
The vinyl cutter is really fast for the detail that can achieve, at first i thought that the routing of the machine was not optimal due to the multiple jumps that the pen makes. This is not the case, because the time it took me to realize that thought was the same that the machine used to cut a 10 x 12 cm sticker.
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