Hi Erybody,
I would love to be able to use the Vinyl cutter this week, I’m currently working with a school in Stockwell on a graphic deisgn project and it would be great to cut some of their work for a session on Friday.
Any ideas if its working?
Is anybody available for an induction early this week?
Sure its quite self explanatory, and I’ve worked with .hpgl paths before, just not his specific machine.
Thanks!
Oscar
Hi Oscar,
I’d say @frasco is the person to answer your questions! He’s the one who got the cutter working AFAIK.
thanks guys will DM him
He’ll get notified anyway as we @'d him here.
Hello! Yes, me too - I am just about to join as a member but want to see if I’ll be able to have a laser cutting induction at some point in the next week, as my project is quite urgent - will that be ok please @frasco
Thank you! Jules
Hi Jules,
Started this thread around the Vinyl Cutter, more like a robo-scalpel than a laser cutter, it might be worth posting another request for latter machine.
x
Hi Julia,
The laser cutter is out of action at the moment as we’re getting a new pulley made for it, and we don’t have a time scale for fixing it at the moment.
Once it’s fixed inductions will be able to start again for members. If your project is urgent it’s probably wise to have an alternative option ready.
MH721 status uncertain at moment!
We decommissioned HP600 yesterday and repurposed it’s sturdy stand to replace wonky one on the MH721.
Not quite finished when I left, but @peter_hellyer may have got a bit further or even finished it.
Am going to the space shortly, so expect m/c to be working on it’s new stand later today.
What is the space position on consumables ( ie vinyl)?
I’m ordering some for my own needs - seems to cost about 1.50GPB + postage per metre.
The only requirement for induction is using the test facility to calibrate the cutter loading for each new vinyl roll ( not sure if it’s temperature dependent or not).
What would you suggest with consumables?
Generally we suggest people bring their own materials, is this a workable approach for this activity?
There’s a few rolls of vinyl around IIRC? Unless it’s being used for stencils members will probably want specific colours.
This is an interesting question which we could do with consulting on for the LFP as well. Heads, paper and inks are (not terribly) but not inconsiderablely expensive.
The length of vinyl needed for a project can vary enormously from project to project. From a few centimetres (horrible unit) for a small sign to several metres for a large banner with stencils for screen printing somewhere in-between.
Vinyl comes in many colours and several qualities ( surface finish and longevity). Two standard widths for our machine ( 305mm and 610mm).
Several suppliers (eg http://www.signmakingandsupplies.co.uk) sell vinyl by the metre so there is no requirement to buy in large and expensive quantities.
So I think people with a committed project should buy the length and quality/colour of the vinyl they need, but that the space should keep a small supply of vinyl for induction and demonstration purposes. Rather like the use of filament for the 3D printer.
This leaves the topic of transfer medium used to preserve kerning and precise location of detail for another time. But it should be noted that such medium has the same order of costs as the vinyl itself.
The other consumables are the cutter blades. No idea yet how long they last. The MH721 uses Roland compatible blades which cost 2 or 3 quid for a packet of 5 on ebay. This would seem to be a reasonable item for the space to buy.
p.s The cutter is now working on it’s new ex HP 600 stand. Much more stable!
This looks like it should be part of the Wiki for the vinyl cutter!
Many thanks to Frank, for his patience and knowledge in helping me to get set up working with the Vinyl Cutter so quickly!
Finally found some suitable software to create .hpgl files from vector - will pop a link in the wiki for any future mac users struggling with Inkscape!
Thanks agian!
A supplier I’ve used happily: http://mdpsupplies.co.uk
Also, more A4-like small sheets can be bought too. At some point should check what constraints the cutter has going down rather up sizing.
Indeed. I’ve got a stock of bits and bobs but mostly end up buying stuff that’s project specific. Makerspace-red for heat-press onto fabric, topically.
This works best when the width is right, so again it’s pretty project specific.
This really depends on what you do. I’ve blunted blades in hours cutting cardboard. I imagine you’ll want to have your own known-sharp blade if you ever end up relying on this machine and it’s use gets popular.
@frasco Inkcut doesn’t seem to be installed as an extension on the Lubuntu laptop
No one here at the moment with Linux experience to do it now.
Trying to cat a file to the cutter but not sure I’m in the right terminal…or directory…or however it works. I’ll as Goog!
I’m sure I installed inkscape on the Thinkpad. Don’t think I installed the extensions that allow you to directly print from inkscape.
However since I’m an old command line junky I won’t have sun inkscape directly from the desktop, so this is how I do it
a) Create a working subdirectory
Oops finger trouble! Try again!
I’m sure I installed inkscape on the Thinkpad. Don’t think I installed the extensions that allow you to directly print from inkscape.
However since I’m an old command line junky I won’t have sun inkscape directly from the desktop, so this is how I do it
Assuming that your starting from scratch -
a) Connect cutter to Thinkpad with usb cable an power up.
b) Create a working directory, say dermot
Click on LXTerminal icon to get a command line terminal.
In opened window type
mkdir dermot
Connect to it
cd dermot
c) Run inkscape
inkscape
When you have finished,
Choose Save as option from File menu and in dialog box name your file dermot.hpgl and select HP Graphics Language file (*.hpgl) from list box in lower right hand part of screen.
Click Save and accept default options
Exit inkscape and in your terminal window you should have an .hpgl file
ls -al *.hpgl
In your terminal window type dmesg to find cutter device port
dmesg | grep ttyUSB
This should output a line with the string ttyUSB’n’ where ‘n’ is an integer - probably 0 or 1 say 1. Then /dev/ttyUSB1 is your cutter device
Send your file to cutter
sudo cat dermot.hpgl > /dev/USB1
Thanks!
I spent time trying to get Inkscape in Windows to work, but it wouldn’t save as .hpgl sadly!
Signblazer software for Windows seems to be discontinued, and I couldn’t find a ‘safe’ looking download site.