Homemade Vinyl Cutter

[tauscnc]

Hey Guys,
I am so excited I have to share this!

This is EASY to make. Even if you don't have a lathe you should still be able to get this made using copper tubing.

I have been trying to get stickers cut off of my mill for quite sometime. I finally got a good holder made that works very well and is rather cheap to make. However, the cut depth of the trim sheets is 0.08 mm and if the table is not "just right" or your backlash, the sticker is not "cut out." I am using an MDF top on my K2 router. Overall it is straight but still any irregularites are shown through peeling the sticker.

Here is a weighted holder using my Take 5 blade holder. Basically it is a tube sliding in a tube with the right amout of weight to keep the tool into the material. It works great! The g-code is cut with no offset.

CLICK HERE and got to the Take 5 and Weight holder.

I hope you guys decide to make one...it is really cheap and easy.

taus

[Halfnutz]

Wow, those are nice looking cut outs! They look as good as any thing Ive seen. I geusse theres no way around the 15-20 dollar blade, huh? I cant believe they cost so much!

[ynneb]

Great job taus, I have often wanted to give this a try.
There are many thinkers and just a few doers.
You fall in the latter catagory.

[tauscnc]

Thanks guys!

I made another sticker that is much more complicated.....

CLICK here to check it out!

It's about 2 inches long and came off the trim sheet without a hassle. Check out those curves! To get these off I use scotch tape that I first stick to a table to grab the dust and then put it on the sticker.

Hey Halfnutz,
I have tried and tired different holders and blades and let me tell you just pay the $15 and get those. They are microcarbide and have the perfect offset. They work but are expensive. Get a few so you don't have to pay so much shipping. The holder from Roland for that blade is $85 if I recall. When I was at the hobby show a year or two ago I visited Roland and told them I was trying to make a holder for a vinly cutting machine I was making. I asked if I could see there holder and they use a needle bearing. He did tell me it would be very hard as the balde needs to "float" in the holder. Well as one can see by the stickers, you can use some simple bearings with their sheilds removed

Thanks man!

taus

[sbalder]

Taus,

I just want to say that you are damn genius!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I 've been having the same difficulty cutting vinyl decals (the tolerances are too tight over the board area). I followed your design and it is perfect!

My knife holder is a 1/2" handpiece from a Dremel flex shaft with the appropriate size collet in it. This way I can easily change the blade. I screwed it into a length of K&S tubing and weighted it by hanging a socket wrench on the end. This way I can easily adjust the down force (although very little is needed!)

Thanks so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


-Steven Balder

[Halfnutz]

Yes , I must agree, the energy you have is incredible Taus, I dont know how you find time to do all you do. So, I have a question to anyone who cares to answer, but Taus specifically, what do you hold 1/8 in and 3/16 in endmills with in your Porter Cable router? I'm trying to figure out a safe way of doing this and am stumped.

[debogus]

Blades on Ebay
getting 5 blades though .

Dave

[sbalder]

Those are the blades I am using and they work well. I'm thinking about ordering some of the other blade angles to experiment with.

I slammed one into pieces when I mis-calculated the Z-axis feed. One nice thing about this floating blade holder setup is it is much harder to destroy a blade by crashing the machine.

[tauscnc]

Hey guys!
Sorry for the poor response time. I just got an email saying someone responded to this thread. Ummm

Hey Steven,

Great job! I have fought with the tight tolerances for a few years now, getting some good stickers and mostly bad. I think Roland and others also use a downforce design but since they are only cutting on a line like a printer they don't have to worry "as much" about the tolerance. With us and buying boards that can be warped it is much more of a problem. The floating design works AWESOME and the stickers come out with ease!

I cut this one a while ago and just put up the pic. It took me about 1/2 hour to peel it off. I ground a single edge razor blade down to a point (I will get a pic) to help with sticker "weeding." This sticker is very detailed and I must say I was surprised to see the blade holder assembly cut it with ease. It is about 5 inches long and only 1/2 in tall. It is on the tailboom of the heli.

PICTURE OF STICKER

I'd love to see the stickers your making Steven. I am using a lot of fonts from www.dafont.com

Hey Halfnutz,
Thanks. As far as energy, I used to stay up late untill I dropped . But lately now with work and our 7 month old girl my energy level is peaking at about 9-10 pm and I am sleeping away. Not to mention any noise wakes her up. Either way that can't keep me from CNCing

As for the porter cable router, I turned some "inserts" to fit the 1/2" collet for holding 3/8" and 1/8" bits. I then cut a slit down the side with the bandsaw. They work well. I have no clue as to the tolerance but from what I can tell it is good "enough" for the stuff I am doing. I will get a pic and post it.

Later
tauseef

[sbalder]

Taus,

I've got a post on RunRyder showing my new heli design. The stickers were designed on the computer, but it took a lot of manual trimming because I couldn't get the blade height correct.

http://www.runryder.com/helicopter/t189804p1/

Anyway, I did some reading online and some more experimenting with different decal materials today. Most vinyl plotters use an adjustable downforce on the knife, going for 10-500 grams of force. I have no idea how the machines adjust for this (if it is software or there is some kind of pressure sensor.) In any event I experimented with different socket weights until I found what cut regular sign vinyl the best. I then took my digital gram scale and put it under the cutter. The weight (force) was about 150 grams. I read somewhere on a sign supply webstore that a similar vinyl should be cut at 80-120 grams of force, so I am not far off. Unweighted, my setup puts 70 grams of force, which is too light to cut reliably.

Nice job on the Raptor logo!

-Steven Balder

[tauscnc]

Hey Steven,

Good work also on the raptor stickers. From what I understand you have to setup the machine for the downforce. They must have some type of knurled screw that you turn to increase or decrease the force. You then have to cut a very small piece to see if it is set right. If all is well it will peel off with no problem. If you change the type of material (density, thickness, blade) then you have to readjust it. Maybe the really expensive ones are automatic.

taus

[cbass]

Very nice work Taus,

One question. Is it possible to re-sharpen the blades as they start to dull? You mentioned carbide blades. Do they also make them out of metal?

One more thing: Have you considered using some kind of soft cutting board underneath the sticker (I assume you are cutting on wood). This might extend the life of the blades. You know the stuff that is usually green and self healing.

Carlo