Say hello to our vinyl cutter: Graphtec Craft Robo Pro, No: CE5000-40-CRP
Description:
The vinyl cutter is essentially a computerized blade that is capable of precise motion. It can be used to cut or score vinyl, paper and cardstock up to 15" wide and 50 METERS long. It's good to remember that vinyl can't be cut in the laser, so this little guy is the way to go! The machine comes with a thin plastic sheet (a "carrier sheet") that has a lightly sticky side that you attach your material to as it runs through the cutters. The machine also has an optical eye register, so it will calculate the exact size of your material (which can come in particularly handy when you're using awkward/ previously used material). With the vinyl cutter's built in laser register the machine can also perform accurate contour cuts on your material. video here
Materials:
Vinyl
Card stock
Paper
Materials less than .25mm can be cut in a single pass, but you can also specify for it to cut with multiple passes for thicker material.
Vinyl is pretty inexpensive for doing smaller projects. I picked up a color assortment pack from amazon and got 27 pieces of 12" square vinyl in all sorts of colors for under $20.
Loading the Machine:
Turn on the vinyl cutter with the switch on the side. It will ask you to load media - lift the lever at the back of the machine to slightly raise the rollers. You can then move the cutter head to the side and slide in your material. The carrier sheet can be used for fragile material, or for cutting thicker material in order to protect the cutter. The rollers can then be moved by hand to make sure that both are making contact with your material - however they have to remain lined up with the blue marks, if they're out of these boundaries the machine will give you an error asking you to reposition them. Once your material is in place under the rollers, lower the lever to bring the rollers back down.
Vinyl
Card stock
Paper
Materials less than .25mm can be cut in a single pass, but you can also specify for it to cut with multiple passes for thicker material.
Vinyl is pretty inexpensive for doing smaller projects. I picked up a color assortment pack from amazon and got 27 pieces of 12" square vinyl in all sorts of colors for under $20.
Loading the Machine:
Turn on the vinyl cutter with the switch on the side. It will ask you to load media - lift the lever at the back of the machine to slightly raise the rollers. You can then move the cutter head to the side and slide in your material. The carrier sheet can be used for fragile material, or for cutting thicker material in order to protect the cutter. The rollers can then be moved by hand to make sure that both are making contact with your material - however they have to remain lined up with the blue marks, if they're out of these boundaries the machine will give you an error asking you to reposition them. Once your material is in place under the rollers, lower the lever to bring the rollers back down.
Cutting Master 2
The vinyl cutter takes files directly from illustrator using the intermediary "Cutting master 2" which is installed on the laptop at the cutting station in the J-Room. Prepare a vector graphic in illustrator -and then select Cutting Master 2 from the File drop down menu. You will get the option of "Registration Marks" or "Cut/Plot". If you are cutting around an image that is printed on your material (ex: a logo graphic like in the video above) registration marks will place marks outside of your image that will be read by the vinyl cutter and be used to reference where the cut should happen.
Before you go to cut/plot decide whether or not you're going to need both cuts and scores on your piece. If you do need cutting of varying speeds/strengths you should place those elements on separate layers in your illustrator sketch. Cutting master pays attention to the order of the layers, and it's generally best to have your scoring done before cutting (sometimes the cutting head can get off track or jammed on cut pieces if it needs to run back over them.) Once you have your file prepared click on Cut/plot. You will have the option of either inputting the size of your material manually or selecting "Poll size" to have the vinyl cutter scan your material and determine its exact size - this can come in particularly handy when you're using remnants of material you've cut before. Select the layering tab to set the speed, force, and quality of your cut. This may require a little trial and error to find a speed/strength that is both strong enough to get through your material and slow enough not to cause ripping. (I used a force of 13 and a speed of 10 to do slightly more detailed vinyl cutting.) You can also control the number of passes that the blade will make which can also help get through slightly thicker material.
The vinyl cutter takes files directly from illustrator using the intermediary "Cutting master 2" which is installed on the laptop at the cutting station in the J-Room. Prepare a vector graphic in illustrator -and then select Cutting Master 2 from the File drop down menu. You will get the option of "Registration Marks" or "Cut/Plot". If you are cutting around an image that is printed on your material (ex: a logo graphic like in the video above) registration marks will place marks outside of your image that will be read by the vinyl cutter and be used to reference where the cut should happen.
Before you go to cut/plot decide whether or not you're going to need both cuts and scores on your piece. If you do need cutting of varying speeds/strengths you should place those elements on separate layers in your illustrator sketch. Cutting master pays attention to the order of the layers, and it's generally best to have your scoring done before cutting (sometimes the cutting head can get off track or jammed on cut pieces if it needs to run back over them.) Once you have your file prepared click on Cut/plot. You will have the option of either inputting the size of your material manually or selecting "Poll size" to have the vinyl cutter scan your material and determine its exact size - this can come in particularly handy when you're using remnants of material you've cut before. Select the layering tab to set the speed, force, and quality of your cut. This may require a little trial and error to find a speed/strength that is both strong enough to get through your material and slow enough not to cause ripping. (I used a force of 13 and a speed of 10 to do slightly more detailed vinyl cutting.) You can also control the number of passes that the blade will make which can also help get through slightly thicker material.
The vinyl cutter can be used for all kinds of decorative and paper craft purposes. It also has some interesting applications such as cutting resists for screen printing, and in PCB prototyping.