Vinyl Cutter / Plotter

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Requirements for Use
Required Badges: 

Vinyl Cutter

Watch Video
Pass Quiz
In person checkout required
Facilitator Checkout
Estimated Minutes for Checkout: 
30 Minutes

Check Out With Facilitator

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Community Facilitators are volunteers who to advise MakeHaven members on projects and show members how to use the tools.


Start Time When Member Photo Name / Activity Area
9:00AM Sunday Mar 31, 9:00am to 12:00pm

Bob McGonigle

Letterpress, Vinyl, & Large Format Printing


3:00PM Monday Apr 1, 3:00pm to 6:00pm

Linda Parsloe

Fused Glass, Vinyl Cutter, Sandblasting Glass


5:30PM Wednesday Apr 3, 5:30pm to 8:30pm

Stephen Cebik

Laser cutting, Vinyl Cutting, Cooking


Mask preferred

Instructions for Use: 

Simple Instructions 

Design in Inkscape then save your file as a EPS. This can then be opens in LXI the Vinyl cutting software on the computer next to the cutter. In that system there is a image of a cutting knife in the top icon row. Click this to enter the cutter print screen.

Logical printer settings are Speed: 50mm/s and pressure 160g. The knife point should be about half a credit cards width above the cutting holder (as depicted in presentation)

Please remember to take the pressure off the rollers when done. Otherwise they can deform and make it difficult for others to feed the material through.
 
Iron ons
 
Remember to reverse your image to iron on. Heat iron to 300°F (wool setting on a typical iron) and preheat shirt for 4 seconds. Then iron on design with 15 second press. Peel plastic off hot. Detailed instructions.
 
 
Presentation Showing Blade Types and Examples of Projects

 

 

 

ADVANCED - Cutting directly from Inkscape

In inkscape you need to be sure you have coverted all your objects to paths. You can do this by selecting everythign and selecting "Paths"> "Object to Path"

It is also good to look at your dessign in outline mode as a way to better see the cuts. "View" > "Display Mode" > "Outline" (Pro tip: remember to turn this off later)

 

Windows Setup Directions

Next you need to plug the cutter in via USB and (in windows) go to the Device Manager and figure out what Com Port the printer is on. Note this port. 

May also need: http://www.signwarehouse.com/blog-support/r-series-driver-for-64-bit-versions-of-windows/

Now you need to add a library to Inkscape so it can send data to the cutter. Grab the Zip (not exe) at https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pyserial

Then unzip it and dig into the directory for the serial folder and add it here to Program FIles> Inkscape > python > Lib (in Windows)

Then restart Inkscape.

 

 

Now you can use the extension. Go to "extensions" > "export" > "Plot"

 

 

This will bring up more options. Be sure to set the correct COM port.

 

I found it a lot more intuative to print the design at a 90 degree rotation. This makes it like a regular printer in the way the design comes out.

 

 

When you hit apply you should it should print.

This is a helpful template for laying out your document

 

Other Options

Other tools could be investigated: http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/vinyl-cutting-on-linux-the-real-deal

Inkcut http://inkcut.sourceforge.net/ in particular looks cool, and works well from Ubuntu but we need to figure out how to get it to communicate to the cutter.

For Reference: http://www.signwarehouse.com/blog-support/r-series-cutter-installation/

Status: 

Open Tasks You Can Do.