3. Cutting Stuff - Vinyl

Check intro in lasercut. This is a follow up on that with the vinyl.

It is possible to cut everything. If it is small enough.

Here are some links where people cut copper for their projects:

  • http://fab.cba.mit.edu/classes/863.17/Harvard/people/HonghaoDeng/project-9/project-9.html
  • http://fab.cba.mit.edu/classes/863.10/people/jie.qi/jieweek10.html
    • I should check with my origami friend about his thoughts on this and if he can help to make something similar
  • https://fabacademy.org/2021/labs/kochi/students/abel-tomy/week3-Computer-Controlled%20Cutting.html
    • This one is really helpful with explanations !

Hero Shoot of the Week

HeroShoot

Summary

This is how I used the Vinyl cutter to make some stickers.

Work Process

Machine introduction

Cameo Silhouette

Silhouette

Work

So for this I went to the following site shared while in the zoom classroom.

I searched for some stuff but did not found what I like or there was none.

So in the end I just wondered on the site and found the following two:

So I will try to combine them with the sticky paper that I have in my FabLab (red and black, I do not have any orange 😢)

Unfortunately Silhouette does not accept .svg, so I transformed them into something that it accepts.

After importing the drawings, I resized them inside the silhouette program to mach a space on the backside of my laptop. Than I selected the Sticker Paper White preset, made a test cut, modified the parameters, repeat and finally cut.

Fortunately, the parameters were good for both of the sticky papers.

But it seems that I made it to small as some small parts flew (?) off while cutting.

And now the tricky part. To put the two colors together.

Vinyl_Tiger

It worked.
More or less.
Some of the sticky paper was lost when it was still cutting. Some was lost when I tried to use a transfer paper. Plus on the transfer paper I still needed to peel of the excess that came with it. I used a needle to do it. Than when I transferred some sticky paper did not want to stick...

fail

Learning Outcome

For now I only cut 1 color.

Using two color and put them together has its own challenges. You need to be dexterous to position it correctly. Which wasn't that easy.

Digital Files and Links

  • No files as I linked the images used to do this.

Assignment Check