Hey guys,
I went ahead and employed the wife’s vinyl cutter for a trial run for some new lettering for some of my equipment. It came out pretty well, not as crisp on the little writing but decent…
Not sure how many of you have tried using one of these… but here is my end result affectionally using the names of my kiddos .
Cheers,
Matt
nice and crisp. well done Matt(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
Matt Z said:
Hey guys,
I went ahead and employed the wife’s vinyl cutter for a trial run for some new lettering for some of my equipment. It came out pretty well, not as crisp on the little writing but decent…
Not sure how many of you have tried using one of these…
Nice job Matt. I used a vinyl cutter to make masks for the larger graphics on top and sides of my 3d Printed tank cars. -Dan
Dan that looks super nice. what thickness vinyl did you use on that?
I used a 3 mil vinyl, the boss just ordered up some 2.5 mil to sit a little flatter.
Matt Z said:
Dan that looks super nice. what thickness vinyl did you use on that?
I used a 3 mil vinyl, the boss just ordered up some 2.5 mil to sit a little flatter.
Thanks Matt! Not vinyl. It’s paint. I used the machine to cut masks out of blue painters tape.
OHHHH! Very nice. How was the transfer process of getting the tape off of the cut board?
Very nice! We may have to look into this technique!
Matt Z said:
OHHHH! Very nice. How was the transfer process of getting the tape off of the cut board?
Not so bad. I purposely avoided many numbers with inside pieces like eights. Hardest part was moving the little bits in the balls above the hands with a dental pick.
I also used the Cricut to cut safety stripes from reflective tape.
Matt and Dan… Those are really nicely done. What creative minds can do sure makes this hobby most fun and interesting!!! (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)
Matt, I also use a vinyl cutter for my letters it is a silhouette but basically the same thing as a cricut, to weed I use a very pointed small pair of tweezers and find it better than pointed dental tools. Also have found that the transfer paper sometimes very hard to get the letters to release so found at the dollar store vinyl shelf paper that is sticky enough to attach the letters to but at the same time easy to transfer the to a surface, BB
Bill and Matt, Are you able to get the vinyl to bend down between the boards on the wooden cars? Do you top coat to seal the edges?
-Dan
Dan, not really, I try to put it on s flat surface but have had some luck setting the letters out in the sun for a while and that seems to help the thinner the material the better, the outdoor vinyl seems to be thicker than the regular and yes when done I spray all my stuff with Krylon matt finish. Cricut also makes a stencil paper which I have used and then painted the surface but again it doesn’t like the cracks, BB
Bill Barnwell said:
Dan, not really, I try to put it on s flat surface but have had some luck setting the letters out in the sun for a while and that seems to help the thinner the material the better, the outdoor vinyl seems to be thicker than the regular and yes when done I spray all my stuff with Krylon matt finish. Cricut also makes a stencil paper which I have used and then painted the surface but again it doesn’t like the cracks, BB
If you seal with Krylon, you could probably get away with not using Outdoor (thicker) vinyl. I’m thinking of trying out heat transfer vinyl (stuff used for T-shirts).
I experimented once by wrapping a USAT mechanical reefer with oracal 651 and found it to difficult to press into the car ends. The vinyl used to wrap automobiles is stretchier but one of the benefits is that any small scratches scrapes are bridged. At some point I’d like to try wrapping a car with Oracal 970 just for fun.
Matt, your decals are great! How did you register all the individual letters? (You probably said, but I’m missing it…)
Dan and Bill, wonderful work as well! Dan, those painter’s tape stencils are brilliant.
I used my Cricut for all the layers in my building windows, including the vinyl silhouettes. Had to use picks and tweezers to get it all transferred.
For the vinyl work, one thing that helped on isolated bits (like the oval in an “O”) was to make thin connectors to them (just like the old fashioned “stencil” fonts do). After they were adhered, I knifed away the “connectors.”
Cliff Jennings said:
Dan and Bill, wonderful work as well! Dan, those painter’s tape stencils are brilliant.
Thanks Cliff
I used my Cricut for all the layers in my building windows, including the vinyl silhouettes. Had to use picks and tweezers to get it all transferred.
Most clever! So, I assume the muntins and stiles are vinyl. The chandeliers, curtains and wallpaper too?
For the vinyl work, one thing that helped on isolated bits (like the oval in an “O”) was to make thin connectors to them (just like the old fashioned “stencil” fonts do). After they were adhered, I knifed away the “connectors.”
That’s some amazing vinyl cutter work, Cliff and Dan!
I have the other brand of vinyl cutter, a Silhouette. Very happy with it; have used it mostly for building signage. I use only Oracal 651 vinyl topped with clear UV. Here are a few examples, followed by a couple examples showing the limitations.
All of the signage on the buildings shown here are done with the vinyl cutter. Although this is indoors at our Thanksgiving show, these buildings have been outside spring thru fall for several years without any issues.
Signage on the building here is vinyl; trolley signage isn’t.
Limitations
While my vinyl cutter will cut fine detail with impressive accuracy, I don’t do lettering smaller than about 1/2" high. I’m limited by my ability to weed (remove excess vinyl) and transfer the vinyl to my building. So I wouldn’t try to use it for rolling stock reporting marks.
It’s best to adhere the vinyl to a smooth surface, such as ABS sheet. For textured surfaces, I use the vinyl cutter with cardstock and a stencil font as on the building shown here (painting by Mrs. Neals).
Once you have a vinyl cutter, you’ll find 1:1 scale uses for it as well.
These have been some great posts, amazing what you guys have done with it all.
I just got the thinner material in today, I am thinking that this may set up nicer over rivets and in between woods slats. Which happens to be Oracle 651 which I just saw fails on styrene,… haha. guess we shall see.
The thicker product is a variant of style tech and that seemed to work well until I peeled it off.
Matt
Matt Z said:
These have been some great posts, amazing what you guys have done with it all.
I just got the thinner material in today, I am thinking that this may set up nicer over rivets and in between woods slats. Which happens to be Oracle 651 which I just saw fails on styrene,… haha. guess we shall see.
The thicker product is a variant of style tech and that seemed to work well until I peeled it off.
Matt
How true. Just think about how much expertise is available here! i am always amazed at the talent displayed by the people here on LSC. It is truly amazing.
OK, a completely ignorant question here.
How does this vinyl cutting thing work? does the machine do it all or is there a bunch of computer programing involved??
Thanks for any enlightenment
Rick Marty said:
OK, a completely ignorant question here.
How does this vinyl cutting thing work? does the machine do it all or is there a bunch of computer programing involved??
Thanks for any enlightenment
Basically, it’s a simple CNC machine with a drag knife. You just load a graphic into the software, tell it you want to cut around the edges, load the sheet of vinyl and and hit go. The machine lowers an x-acto like blade to the depth of the vinyl tracing your graphic. Then you pick off the parts you don’t want (like the inside of an ‘O’) and transfer to the model. It gets a bit more interesting if your design is intricate like scroll work.
No real “programming” involved.
-Dan
