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Thread: Vinyl cutter

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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Posts
    30

    Vinyl cutter

    Has anyone here built a Vinyl cutter and could you post a link to your machine DIY , I'm looking to build one. I understand there are 2 types , thanks Mike

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Posts
    231

    vinyl cutting

    I havent but want to. I used to work in the sign industry and imagine it would be some sort of swivel pen knife plotting like we used to use. I remember this from when I really investigated this site way back when. Check it out as well as the rest of the site:


    http://www.cuttingedgecnc.com/vinyl.htm

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Posts
    231

    vinyle cutter

    This is something I have been thinking about building for a long time myself. I have been researching and giving it some thought since my first reply.


    It just occured to me....I am thinking that the bearings on my taig mill head(belt removed) will suffice. It doesnt make much sense to make a bearing system when there is one built right in. I may just try to make some sort of tool holder with spring or gravity tensioned slide in the Z. Much like the ones I have seen (professional and amatuer).

    Blades for vinyl cutters are cheaply and readily available off ebay.
    I was thinking about using a spare pin vise or old foredome handpiece jacobs chuck as a starting point. Modify and make a slide

    But it just occured to me a more simple solution: Make a two part slide, using an inner and outer tube, The inner tube being the one that holds the cutter. I am going to bore this inner tube to be a snug fit to the tool and use a magnet to hold the cutter in. Then make the outer tube so that it fits just snug enough so there is no play but slides easily. Just need to figure out the weight or spring load portion to the hold the cutter down.



    I may put this into action this weekend and test my theory.....

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Posts
    30
    Thanks for the link. I've been in the glass biz sence71 and still today I can cut stincials faster than a computer , Iv'e done thousands of them I'm just getting older and don't want to work that hard lol

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Sep 2003
    Posts
    1113
    Surprisingly enuf - I bought version 4.0-5.0 from Tausiff a few years back. AND used it to make stencils for my wife's glass - cutting/fused glass art pieces.
    I just mounted the blade adapter in my router and cut away. Sort of gave me double duty as router and stencil cutter.
    Was WAY faster than cutting by hand - she got to do that on her ringsaw - but the stencil was her pattern piece.

    Here is a project I've in the works using scrounged printer bits. The X axis is a traction feed from and old dot matrix and spring rollers, and then a cobbled Y axis from a printer - again, and a solenoid activated Z axis. Planning - not built just yet.
    :cheers: Jim
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails VinylCutter02.jpg  
    Experience is the BEST Teacher. Is that why it usually arrives in a shower of sparks, flash of light, loud bang, a cloud of smoke, AND -- a BILL to pay? You usually get it -- just after you need it.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Posts
    30
    Thanks for the input. I have a M 24in -610mm size plotter made by Calcomp, it's an old thermal paper unit -but the traction feeds works great. I'm looking into adding the cutter rail with blade holder. in reasearching cutter heads , in the past I've seen just about everything out there. there is one cutter that is hand held and when you take it apart and change the blade , it has a long nylon barrel the blade is attached to - these are used in better machines , it just doesn't have the outter tube or the small bearings. most hand rotational cutters in the past had a small blade attached to a small pice of plastic. I'll post a pic if you need to see the blade with the long nylon pice. on the top of the tube I'll put in a small spring to adjust tension for cutting depth , this will let the nylon berral slide up and down in the bearings. my final thought is what type printer will handel the driver task.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Posts
    30
    heres some cutters the top is from Excel used with a small ball bearing and spring tenioner

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Posts
    30

    cutter blades

    cutter without bearings on them
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Picture 86.jpg  

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