A Guide to using the Silhouette Cameo Cutter

[etendam]

There is a complete wagon made from styrene from the Cameo...

 

http://chippedblade.wordpress.com/index/queenborough-cement-van/

 

 

Ed

 

(Edited replaced link to the English version)

Edited December 31, 2013 by etendam

[MikeTrice]

Perhaps Brossard's method might be better for the springs - see  http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/79126-lms-6-wheel-insulated-milk-van/?p=1247640

 

Yes, it probably would be easier, however I was testing the machine's capabilities.

[MikeTrice]

Breaking news - when asked about wagon compensation units, top modelling guru Mike Trice (47) says he uses MJT units. 

I happen to have some sets already in my possession ;-)

[MikeTrice]

The solution for alignment is making frames around the parts with holes or other marks in it and put pins in the holes for assembly.

Unfortunately there is a limit to the size of hole the Silhouette can go down to, although I have not tested exactly how small yet.

[uax6]

I have drawn 0.5mm holes successfully, and they do come out, although I have only done it on 20thou layers, so they don't go the whole way through......

 

Andy G

[Colin parks]

Colin, what would you recommend for the layout of these holes? Should they end up being able to vent to the outside when all the layers are together?

 

Andy G

(who will add them to the artwork for the next attempt!)

Hi Andy,

 

Re. venting holes, they are necessary on layers without window openings such as luggage van ends of coaches and tumble homes.  In my experience, any plain area of more than 10mm square  would be best to have at least one hole.  Working backwards from the front, the holes allow any solvent to escape before the next layer goes on. I fthe holes are larger than 0.5mm dia. there is a risk of small dips occurring on the face side of the coach - don't ask how I know!

 

All the best,

 

Colin

[Colin parks]

Hi Colin

 

If you're going to use one of these machines, the standard of workmanship can only go further up than it is already. Does this also mean the move to S4 is put on hold while you have a play?

 

Happy New Year.

 

SS

Hi SS,

 

I am interested in the silhouette machine and its capabilities, but I am done with coach-building for now!   The laborious method used in making my models means that production of the coach sides constitutes only a small percentage of the total amount of time taken to construct a coach.  The machine - cutting of components would save time but they still have to be assembled. 

 

Having said that, there are a great number of panelled coaches which are now within the bounds of possibility to model successfully using a silhouette cutter which would otherwise be extremely difficult to hand-cut in 4mm scale.

 

 

All the best,

 

Colin

Edited December 31, 2013 by Colin parks

[uax6]

The latest (Mk10 version, although only three Mk's have been made up into sides) I've just put together with 0.45mm holes at staggered 5mm centres on the lower edge of the body. Seems to have worked ok, and the side is nice and straight at the minute, still not quite happy with it, but it is certainly the best side so far!

 

When I get a chance I'll put pictures in my coach bodging thread....(tomorrow I guess!)

 

Thanks for that info, I'll see about adding 0.45mm holes to the artwork for the next try out!

 

Andy g

[etendam]

Unfortunately there is a limit to the size of hole the Silhouette can go down to, although I have not tested exactly how small yet.

If the holes are in the frame they can be any size, put dowels, sticks etc in the holes. Glue layers on top of each other and when complete cut the parts of the frames.

This is similar to the link I showed. That are 3 layers of lasercut card and trimming the parts is done after laminating.

 

Ed

[JCL]

Breaking news - when asked about wagon compensation units, top modelling guru Mike Trice (47) says he uses MJT units. Readers of the influential modelling forum RMWeb would have been shocked at this shameless piece of self-promotion and, when asked. rival supplier and guru, Bill Bedford (29) said "I do those too".  Andy York (87) influential head of the influential forum said "What? Oh! Him!"  

 

Elsewhere on the influential forum an area of bottle-brush trees forming a scenic break has been subject to an outbreak of ursine defecation.

 

I had no idea! And here's me with an order form open on a different tab.

 

On the smallest hole, I did try down to .010". I made a test cut of .010", .020", .030" and they all were pretty much ok, I also did the same with squares and squares made of four lines instead of the square tools. Squares made with squares are not great compared with those made of lines.

[MikeTrice]

....top modelling guru Mike Trice

Now who is having a laugh? Top bodger perhaps. I have as many failures as successes

[shortliner]

 

Breaking news -Elsewhere on the influential forum an area of bottle-brush trees forming a scenic break has been subject to an outbreak of ursine defecation.

Are you sure this isn't total bovine defecation?

[jpendle]

I don't think I'm normally given to bursts of over-enthusiasm but I've just given my new 'Portrait' cutter an initial test - just drawing with a biro.  I loaded a scanned image (jpeg) of a drawing from a book, then used the 'Trace' command in the 'Studio' software to create a vector drawing, automatically, which I simply drew! 

 

Silhouette1stTest.jpg

 

I could not have believed it could be so easy. Of course, this particular drawing was not designed for cutting but the potential seems enormous

 

Mike

Hi,

 

 I just bought a Portrait based on this thread, it arrived yesterday and I've been playing around this morning. Getting the blade to cut anything at all took me half an hour but finally I got some rectangles and circles cut out.

I then tried to scan an image. I have a number of scalescenes kits , so I uploaded the container kit after concerting from PDF to JPEG. So far so good, but the problem arose when trying to get the Silhouette trace tool to find the outer edge of the containers. I thought that as the containers are pretty much just rectangles that this would be ideal for the trace tool, but how wrong can you be. The trace tool picked up loads of internal detail on the boxes and after a bunch of fiffling with the trace setings I finally got what looked like some good outlines traced. But then the registration marks didn't show up proerley so now its back to square one to try again.

 

John Pendlebury

[MikeOxon]

Sorry to read of your difficulty jpendle.  The image i scanned was already a line drawing, with minimal detail, so this probably helped a lot in my case. You could try erasing some of the internal detail before using trace and, if you have an image editor, try enhancing the contrast and sharpening the lines before tracing.   I used a pen to learn the basics and have not stared cutting yet.

 

Mike

[jpendle]

It's all part of the learning curve

I started again but this time used the retaining wall kit

I erased the extra lettering and such and then traced the outlines. This time I got much better results, I then added extra cut lines to separate out the various pieces. I tried a cut and it worked really well

Now I need to get up to speed on drawing my own designs

 

John Pendlebury

[JCL]

I'm pleased to hear you're getting better results John. I did try it a few times at the beginning on a set of gates I was having a go at, but there always seemed to be lines that were out of whack on the corners or rounded corners when they should have been square. In the end I bit the bullet and drew the designs myself. Now I find it faster to draw the designs from scratch than to trace and edit points.

 

What sort of thing do you think you'll be using the cutter for?

 

cheers

 

Jason

[jpendle]

I'm pleased to hear you're getting better results John. I did try it a few times at the beginning on a set of gates I was having a go at, but there always seemed to be lines that were out of whack on the corners or rounded corners when they should have been square. In the end I bit the bullet and drew the designs myself. Now I find it faster to draw the designs from scratch than to trace and edit points.

 

What sort of thing do you think you'll be using the cutter for?

 

cheers

 

Jason

I'm planning to use it for structures, station buildings, canopies, and valances. My layout is based on Bolton Trinity street so I've got some large Victorian platform buildings to model

 

John

[MikeTrice]

Here is my proposed alternative approach to producing the W-Irons/springs for my 6 wheeler to simplify assembly using a 2mm bearing for alignment. Each unit produces two assemblies:

[Ron Heggs]

I'm planning to use it for structures, station buildings, canopies, and valances. My layout is based on Bolton Trinity street so I've got some large Victorian platform buildings to model

 

John

Hi, John

 

Nice to hear you are planning to model Bolton Trinity Street. I use to travel there from Manchester on the odd occasion. Then the station buildings were demolished around 1987. The old clock tower was I believe rebuilt at the new station location

 

Look forward to your layout build

 

Ron

[MikeTrice]

Result of the mark 2 design:

 

 

 

 

Just need separating out!

 

Getting the various cuttings in the correct orientation was not as easy as it could have been so the mark3 design has additional registration 'pips' to help:

Edited January 1, 2014 by MikeTrice

[Shadow]

Mike,

 

Would it be possible to put score lines on the top layer of the springs to represent the individual leafs (leaves?)

[MikeTrice]

Mike,

 

Would it be possible to put score lines on the top layer of the springs to represent the individual leafs (leaves?)

Yes, but I was too lazy.

[big jim]

ive only just discovered this thread, what a fantastic machine!

 

having read the spec on the silhouette website im still not sure about something, namely, if you draw up a design on paper and feed it into the machine it says it uses plotting points to scan the design then you set to cut mode and it does it, am i reading it right?

 

also looking back at the post of the scanned carriage side someone did, can you scan a design with a conventional scanner and use the supplied software to import it and produce a pattern?

 

the reason i ask is i struggle with CAD programs, im willing to learn, but being able to say trace a design or do something freehand would be a bonus

 

i dont know what i'd use one for but im liking some of the ideas i'm seeing and im sure i could justify one if one came up at a good price!!

[jpendle]

ive only just discovered this thread, what a fantastic machine!

 

having read the spec on the silhouette website im still not sure about something, namely, if you draw up a design on paper and feed it into the machine it says it uses plotting points to scan the design then you set to cut mode and it does it, am i reading it right?

 

also looking back at the post of the scanned carriage side someone did, can you scan a design with a conventional scanner and use the supplied software to import it and produce a pattern?

 

the reason i ask is i struggle with CAD programs, im willing to learn, but being able to say trace a design or do something freehand would be a bonus

 

i dont know what i'd use one for but im liking some of the ideas i'm seeing and im sure i could justify one if one came up at a good price!!

If you draw a design on paper you would need to use a scanner to get it into some digital format. You would then import the scanned design to the Silhouette software and use the Silhouette software to add registration marks, you would also need to use the Silhouette Trace tool so that the cutter software knows where the edges of your design are, the trace tool works pretty well for black and white or high contrast designs. Once you've done all that if its a colour design then you would need to print it out and then feed it into the cutter, if you just need to cut you can send the design straight to the cutter.

 

Regards,

 

   John

[MikeTrice]

For tonight's frivolity consider the situation where you need some Mansell Wheels but do not have any to hand. You can order some and wait for their arrival, or you can do as I have here, make some inserts to convert Hornby R8264 14.1mm wheels.

 

The various parts cut in 10thou. The grooves between wooden panels have been scribed and the holes open up with a scriber point:

 

The various pieces laminated together:

 

The assembly is turned over, and the scriber used to emboss the rivets using the previously cleared holes as a positioning guide. Unfortunately in my eagerness to get these photos taken and uploaded tonight, the solvent has not totally set so will need cleaning up tomorrow:

 

The final insert in situ:

 

The outer diameter could do with enlarging slightly. This not bad for a first attempt.

 

Although I had a specific reason for trying these I also wanted to try using the machine to cut a rivetting template. Although I have embossed into styrene it would be quite possible to use double sided tape to fix the template to a sheet of metal, and emboss rivets into it then remove the template.