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Status: Gone

Vinyl Cutter / Plotter

Requirements for Use
Required Badges

Vinyl Cutter

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

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

Facilitator hours will be BY APPOINTMENT during their listed hours. To make an appointment, contact the facilitator directly via Slack. To prevent unnecessary space access during the pandemic, facilitators will not be in the space unless they have an appointment. Note that some facilitators are available only for online virtual appointments at this time. Any questions please email info@makehaven.org.

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


When Photo Name / Activity Area
-

Linda Parsloe

Fused Glass, Vinyl Cutter, Sandblasting Glass


-
Mask preferred

Stephen Cebik

Laser cutting, Vinyl Cutting, Cooking


-

Bob McGonigle

Letterpress, Vinyl, & Large Format Printing


-

Linda Parsloe

Fused Glass, Vinyl Cutter, Sandblasting Glass


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.

 

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"909","field_deltas":{"1":{}},"fields":{},"attributes":{"height":"300","width":"480","class":"media-image media-element file-media-large","data-delta":"1"}}]]

 

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

 

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"910","field_deltas":{"2":{}},"fields":{},"attributes":{"height":"300","width":"480","style":"font-size: 13.008px; line-height: 1.538em;","class":"media-image media-element file-media-large","data-delta":"2"}}]]

 

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

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"911","field_deltas":{"3":{}},"fields":{},"attributes":{"height":"444","width":"365","class":"media-image media-element file-media-large","data-delta":"3"}}]]

 

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.

 

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"912","field_deltas":{"4":{}},"fields":{},"attributes":{"height":"444","width":"365","class":"media-image media-element file-media-large","data-delta":"4"}}]]

 

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/