Cameo Silhouette

[fuchsjos]

I'm working with it since 5 years (CraftRobo ... Shilouette Cameo) and very pleased with it. Here I will give you some hints:

1. Forget the sticky mat - use Re Mount or Creative Mount spray from 3M on a ~ 160g paper as cutting base.

2. Use Primary ~ 130g paper (Coloured drawing paper - look at buy Coloured drawing paper online | modulor - also in english). If you need thicker materials, cut it 2, 3 or more times and stick it togehter (with this procedure I make also parts with a thickness of some mm). This paper ist 0,2 mm thick - the limit to cut are circles with a diameter of 0,5 mm. For gluing together I have the best results with UHU Office pen, which I use in a bottle with a needle (look at a shop for accessories for electronic cigarettes - steaming). The perfect settings for this paper are: Speed - 1, Position on knife - 2, force - 11, overcut 0,2 mm, both directions.

3. Cut slow - use the speed 1!

4. The plugin for CorelDraw (X7) makes troubles at the moment, export/Import via dxf. I coulered my models, so I have no use for the registration function. If I need some positions for other parts - I cut them with smaller settings ... force ~5 for don't cut it complete, only markings.

Best regards
Josef

[BobRo]

I bought a portrait cutter several months ago. I found the trace tool was rubbish . I put it back in the box and it is now gathering dust on the shelf. When the dark nights come I will have more time to experiment.
Bob

[Jadriancz]

Originally Posted by kcorbin

I have since upgraded to a much better quality machine. Of course one of those will put you up closer to the $750.00 or more range. But it was well worth it in terms of increasing my production capabilities and reducing my frustrations. Now my pieces look they way they are supposed to. Good arc and circles, vertical lines are vertical instead of at an offset slope. Intersections of lines are always where they are supposed to be.

What was the machine you upgraded to?

[sgoti]

Hi, guys!

Just a quick note on an accidental (and happy) discovery:

Since the Silhouette (original) is based on the CraftRobo, I tried the CraftRobo/Silhouette SD plug-in for Adobe Illustrator on my Mac.

With the exception of not being able to use registration marks, it works great*. I can now cut directly from Illustrator CS3 & earlier, versions NOT supported by Silhouette America's current offering (requires CS4 or later).

As an added bonus, I also discovered that the 1.84 version of these plug-ins worked on an old PowerPC laptop, running OS 10.2 and Illustrator 10!

*I did have to make a few adjustments to get objects on different layers to align properly, I would be happy to put together a short tutorial if there's interest (and when I have enough extra time).

[NevadaBlue]

I chose the Curio model for several reasons. The main one is that it has a moving cutting deck instead of a piece of floppy plastic. It is a very versatile addition to the machine. I got my machine late in the winter and haven't done a lot with it yet, but I will.
One of the first things I tested was cutting styrene. This paneled door is made of 3 layers of .010" styrene. The machine cuts through nicely. As this was only a test, I hurried and you can see I need to adjust the layers slightly. I work in 1/2" scale, so the little man in the picture is about 3" tall.
The machine cuts 110 pound paper stock easily, no sweat at all. I have had no accuracy problems at all. I'm able to remove the movable cutting deck and replace it in the machine and it indexes perfectly.



Here's the door and some casing parts.



This is the test sheet on the cutting deck. As I said, it can be removed from the machine and replaced with no indexing issues.



I hope to cut a bunch of models this winter. Come on snow...