Former Cutting Made Easier - Silhouette Cutter

[Gene K]

Originally Posted by NOBI

... they told me that curio can cut a cardboard up to 2 mm. thickness.

Nobi,

Interesting -- I wish it were so. I can't get even close to that with my machine (using fresh Deep Cut blades of various angles and differing settings and number of passes). Unfortunately, whoever told you that likely has no idea of the density of typical paper model cardboard! "They" were probably just reading off the specification that the machine could cut up to 2mm thick material ... like soft craft foam .

Can you link me to the folks who you talked to so I can get their magic cut settings: blade depth, speed, force, etc.

Of course I could have a bad/weak machine ... but I think not! I still love what it can do otherwise.

Gene K

[elliott]

I stand corrected.

[NOBI]

I just read from this

https://10techy.com/silhouette-curio...-depth-review/

they said

Curiously, the Silhouette Curio Cutting Tool is capable of three types of embossing methods, namely -Path Emboss, Score & Emboss, and Print & Emboss. With the Silhouette Curio Cutting Tool, you can cut thicker materials also just like the Silhouette new range of cutting machines. When the Silhouette Curio Cutting Tool is used with Silhouette’s new deep-cut blade, you can cut up to 2mm thick materials; this is aided by the 5mm clearance on the tray, which allows you to feed thicker materials through the machine.

maybe it just emboss not cut it out, I dont know :-)

[Gene K]

Originally Posted by NOBI

... maybe it just emboss not cut it out, I dont know :-)

Nobi,

Just to beat this horse a little more: the "you can cut up to 2mm thick materials" is misleading since the depth of the cut is limited by the pressure behind the blade to penetrate the selected material. It's a jackhammer motion, so repeated cuts of the same pattern can go deeper into the material, but again, there's not much force available (see my previous link on relative cutting force).

I "upgraded" from a Silhouette Portrait to the Curio to be able to cut thicker material like 1/16 balsa and 2mm card, but it's not happening ... I've literally spent days using different holders, blades (30, 45, and 60 degree), and settings to no avail.

Of course for paper modeling, I'm real happy with the machine's ability to cut cereal box cardboard!!!!

I'd love to compare notes if you get one to teach me new applications for this great hobby.

Gene K
P.S. I've found little use use for "embossing".

[SCEtoAUX]

Just to chime in, since the cutter can make accurate repetitive cuts you could cut multiple parts on the thickness the machine can handle then laminate them to get the desired thickness. All of the separate cut parts should line up nice and neat.

You could even have the machine cut alignment holes or notches in the parts and use alignment pins of some sort to stack them together and maintain the alignment.

[Gene K]

Originally Posted by SCEtoAUX

... you could cut multiple parts on the thickness the machine can handle then laminate them to get the desired thickness.

Yes, perfect, Doug.

As I said to Nobi, " ... the solution for me is laminating cereal box (~.7mm) card. In that regard, I also cut .010" plastic to use as stick-on patterns to manually cut foam".

As concerns aligning parts for lamination: I put half-deep notches in formers so I can use those notches to draw vertical and horizontal reference lines. But even better, the Curio features two holders, so one could have the cutting blade in one holder, and a pen in the other. The software allows designating which lines are to be cut vice which to draw. I'll be trying that at some point.

Aligning duplicate parts is very easy just visually and by feel. Further, the machine is perfect, for example, duplicating stacks of discs to make engine cylinders, each one being center punched for alignment.

Gene K

[Knife]

I’m thinking this would be good for ship model railings and ladders. Just wished I had the time to master the software. Can the software import images from Inkscape?

[Gene K]

Originally Posted by Knife

... good for ship model railings and ladders.

I think those kinds of very small items may be too delicate for the stiffer base material you probably use -- which is (I haven't modeled a ship)? On the other hand, the machine is used to cut intricate doilies on medium card stock, so may work.

Can the software import images from Inkscape?

Definitely - save the Inkscape file as "Plain SVG" (not "Inkscape SVG") and drag/open/import in Silhouette Studio Designer Edition to get perfect cut lines. If you don't have Designer Edition, you can supposedly work around by saving as "Desktop Cutting Plotter", file type: ROBO-Master type of spline output. (I haven't tried that). Here's a rundown on the file types Studio and Designer Edition can open.

Send me an svg or vector pdf file of those railings and ladders, and I'll try to cut it on the media you normally use.

Gene K

[Knife]

My daughter has silhouette, so I will play around with her’s, but thanks for the offer.

[MtFlyR]

Way to go Gene! I know you've used this for some of your awesome RC foam model builds. Can this also copy and cut 1.5- 2 mm Depron and will it copy entire paper to foam model plans? If so that's the hot ticket for me.
Been out of building for a while, promise to get back to the DH-2 when I return from our trip in September that we've been gearing up for.

Thanks,

Pete