Cutting out a picture

[gmatov]

I'm in the process of buying a laser for my daughter's desired business startup.

I am having one problem, though. I have already bought a plotter/cutter. Now I find that it won't cut around something already printed. True, it could cut out the silhoutte of a face. But if you print that silhouette on paper or vinyl, it would be difficult, if not impossible to cut it out, exactly on line.

Maybe a 5000 buck cutter could, but nothing I can afford.

Is it possible to do so with a laser cutter, dependent on software? I am hearing that it may not be. That is not going to please my daughter. She does not want to cut out fonts or shapes from a sheet of material and then try to print on those shapes. She might just as well stay with the Xacto knife.

Thanks,

George

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[pedroman]

George,

I think this is possible if you can work out a jig system which orients the workpiece (printed item to cut) with your laser. Think manufacturing jigs here but certainly low cost like a sheet of MDF (or other flat material) with round pins which will be used as registration points.

Think about creating computer file templates which have built in registration points on the drawings like round holes which could be aligned to a jig on the laser table. Then generate your drawing on that template so that every drawing will have the same "dots" in the same locations every time. If you are using the vacuum tables I referenced in a prior post you'll find they have sets of pin holes already layed out in very precise 4mm grids you can use.

Say you have a color laser page 8.5" X 11", portrait format with an upper right "dot" and a lower left dot that is your registration location for the printed paper. Then print your drawing and place on your pre-located jig on the laser table. Remember the laser will have a home position (x=0 / y=0)where you should be able to use trial and error to position the jig where the dots will be in the right place every time. Then the matter is to have the print driver work within your software where you simply "print" the cutout direct from the same software you generated the drawing in.

To do this with Corel and these Chinese lasers you'll need Corel 11 or 12 because they don't yet support CorelX3. Otherwise you must export a drawing into their software and cut from that. Not impossible but certainly another step.

If you can't picture this give me a call. I've sent you my telephone number in a PM.

Pete

[gmatov]

Pete,

My daughter tells me she thinks she can do that with the plotter/cutter I just bought her. She's the smart one when it comes to Photoshop and Illustrator.

She can take many layers of stuff, hell, the other daughter, who wants to use it for another business, can do the same thing.

Make reg marks, tell the machine to start here, cut to here, cut this out. That reg mark is nothing more than we would do when setting up a piece of steel on a milling machine, indicating it in. You have to have the marks in a line at both corners and square the paper, in her case, to the knife, or the laser, indicated in.

From there, you have the offset as to where to start cutting.

Analogy would be a CMC machine, second Op. Set it on a fixture. If it is located properly, will cut all the channels, whatever, where they are supposed to be. Chips at the fixed jaw or the clamping device, malposition the workpiece, cut exactly the same pattern of channels, offset by the interference of the clamped in chips.

She's studying the tutorial tonight, had to take one of my spare computers over to connect to it, have to net it to her main computer tomorrow. Wireless. I wired her whole damned house when it was under construction. Finishes off the lower level, can't run Cat5 to the CELLAR, where she sets up the cutter.

SO, old Dad has all this stuff laying around, come install a wireless router so I can connect YOUR #3 machine to MY new computer, so I can run this thing.

Disadvantage to being a Dad who can build computers. They always want a little better than what they have now. ADvantage is they keep you on your toes. "MINE'S too SLOW." "MINE doesn't have enough RAM." "MY hard drive is too small."

Add in grandkids, and you can sure as hell keep an old man going all out keeping them all up to date.

Pete,

Gotta figure in your numbers with what Frank told me, see what delivered cost will be. Still think I will buy one, whether for her or them, or for me to play with, on my own.

One vendor wants 6 grand for a 3040, but "I'm the best.", another wants 1750 for the same machine, I would wager, without his support. 2 grand was one thing, my kid gave me a "trust me on this" for a machine for 6 grand.

I think I am going to pass on this one. She will take what I will buy, or I will set it up at home and do my own thing with it. What I will do with it, I don't know, but I would rather buy something like this than a new pickup truck.

Cheers,

George

[Richard Honey]

gmatov,

All that thinking and nutting things out willl at least keep Altzeimers at bay.

Your kids and grandkids must be proud of ya!

Richard Honey

[gmatov]

Rich,

Thanks a bunch. I think at least my youngest grandkids are keeping me going. Older ones hesitate to call me when their computers screw up, they think it is their fault. Up to past 18.

All that IM stuff, and DLing. "It broke. Don't tell Jedo."

Hey, if you can't help your kids and grands, what's the sense of life? When I die, I am gone. All that is left is the next gen. Make it as easy for them as you can afford to.

I spend little on me. I don't require much. THEY don't require much to think the old guy is thinking of them.

4 year old says I can't buy him any more toys till they sell off some of the toys he already has, make some room for new. I still buy more. Make some room.

Must admit, though, they love books, to be read to them, and I will buy them LOTS of books.

Cannot wait til I have to babysit and one of them will read me one of their books, rather than I read to them.

If you can't read, you are disfunctional, in this day and age. You also were 50 or 100 years ago. Or 20 years ago. BOSSES gave papers to underlings to read to them, glasses were fogged or somesuch, illeterates.

Not to be belittled, rather to be sympathized with.
Someone has failed you, whether it be the State, the School, or your parents.

RIF. Reading is Fundamental! If you can't read, you have to rely on those people who can, and those people may have their own agenda.

As in Democratic or Republican, or "war" or no, what the GWB admin calls WAR, or what the populace considers it. I won't go into that here.

If you can't read, you can't decide who should lead you. 52 million non readers must have voted about 6 years ago. Bibles they could read. Newspapers, they must not have.

Cheers,

George

[vikki007]

we have a laser machine that could work without computer, that is dependent on software, it may be right for your needs. We are in Jinan, China.
my email is vikki@redsailcutters.com