Originally Posted by racerxky

Thanks for the recommendation. I added that cutter to the recommended list.
I went to their site again and I saw that I can do "will call" shipping. Sure enough they are located over in Redmond WA about 30 mins from Seattle where I am.

Cool. I'm on the east coast so mine had a nice bumpy ride cross country. I did have the issue with things being out of whack and their support guy actually figured out what part was out of alignment and I put it back in place (pressure roller guide) and everything has worked perfect since (2 years now).

On ethink I just noticed; there seems to be no idea how to rate the cutting pressure of these machines. I see at least 3 different units: 'gf', 'inch' and g. I know what inches are but they are units of length! Is that yee olde inches of mercury? Grams (g) are but units of mass, grams per what exactly, square meter? And as to what 'gf' is, if its grams per square foot I'd shoot myself, in the face.

Pascals people. No need to invent your own BS units to make up BS specs.

gf == Gram Force per Square Centimetre == g/cm²

So at least thats easily convertible to Pascals. Maybe when they say 'g' they mean the same thing.

now if its inches of mercury then there is a conversion to Pascals so we can compare cutting force in g/cm² which seems like a very sane unit for this.

I'm going to try and add precision (in mm) and cutting force (in g/cm²) for all the models we have looked at so far.

Originally Posted by racerxky

gf == Gram Force per Square Centimetre == g/cm²

So at least thats easily convertible to Pascals. Maybe when they say 'g' they mean the same thing.

now if its inches of mercury then there is a conversion to Pascals so we can compare cutting force in g/cm² which seems like a very sane unit for this.

I'm going to try and add precision (in mm) and cutting force (in g/cm²) for all the models we have looked at so far.

What I have found it a lot of it depends on the dullness of the blade you are using. as it wears you have to increase the pressure. it's not an exact science since the blade holder is spring loaded and the vinyls differ in thickness. Too much pressure and you cut through the backing also. You find the setting for your combination through tests. Through the vinyl but not the backing. As the old saying goes, your mileage may vary

Thats a good tip coreman.

Another thing I learned yesterday: what 25, 45 and 60 degree blades are for. The thinner the material the shallower the angle of the blade you should use. So for very thin material, like covering, we probably want to try a 25 degree blade. For thick stuff like felt you want a 60 degree blade. 45 degree blades are the most widely used because they are a good tradeoff for all types of material.

I'm looking at using the cutter to make airbrush stencils using cheap contact paper.

I want mine to:

• Cut paint masks for spraying giant scale fiberglass parts
• Cut long curved pieces of covering for complicated wing a fuselage schemes (thinks I would NEVER contemplate doing by hand).
• Cut my own scale lettering and graphics in vinyl.
• Cut vinyl for foamy schemes.

Accuracy over a distance about the length of a 35% fuse (7') is important to me. The ability to do fine detail such as very small lettering is important. I know from experience that the ability to adjust the cut pressure (very little pressure is required) is important for doing covering material.

Speed is something I dont care about at all. I can wait, im not making lots of parts, this is not for a business.

I read some negative comments about the the cheap USCutter machines ability to do long runs accurately. Have you tried to make anything particularly long with yours?

Originally Posted by racerxky

I want mine to:

• Cut paint masks for spraying giant scale fiberglass parts
• Cut long curved pieces of covering for complicated wing a fuselage schemes (thinks I would NEVER contemplate doing by hand).
• Cut my own scale lettering and graphics in vinyl.
• Cut vinyl for foamy schemes.

Accuracy over a distance about the length of a 35% fuse (7') is important to me. The ability to do fine detail such as very small lettering is important. I know from experience that the ability to adjust the cut pressure (very little pressure is required) is important for doing covering material.

Speed is something I dont care about at all. I can wait, im not making lots of parts, this is not for a business.

I read some negative comments about the the cheap USCutter machines ability to do long runs accurately. Have you tried to make anything particularly long with yours?

I would not try to do lettering smaller the 1/4". "weeding" things so small is a royal pain. i have been able to adjust the pressure quite well. it is electronic on the front panel. Covering might be tough in that I have found monocoat to separate from the backing pretty quickly. Ultracoat might be better. The biggest problem is keeping it aligned on long runs if you have a material that stretches or can torque. Sign vinyl has a lot less stretch than model covering but it isn't heat shrinkable. it is also significantly thicker than covering so you will have an edge when layering. You need to align the material well for long runs. the longest I have done is 6' and i got it first try but you need to put the material in and then advance it forward and back until the edge doesn't "walk" down the alignment marks. The SignCut software they provided does have the ability to cut from one end to the other across the material in a single pass so you only advance the material in one direction. i didn't see any benefit when i tried it. Mostly I got mine for my own use but i will provide graphics for my kits. I really don't think you are going to be able to adjust it well enough so you can cut covering because if you cut through the covering and backing, it will be all over the place. The feed mechanism is just a single roller with three pinch rollers that you can set along the width to hold it to them. It assumes the material has some "width stability" which covering probably wouldn't

I've done covering material before on a friends machine. Ultracoat works fine because it has a paper backing. Monokote needs some added support. Poster board and spray adhesive worked quite well. The hobby cutters call this a "cutting mat" or a "carrier sheet". Basically if it's too thin and flimsy back it with something and it will cut fine.

Of course that means the cutter needs to accept things that thick which usually isn't a problem.

Originally Posted by racerxky

I've done covering material before on a friends machine. Ultracoat works fine because it has a paper backing. Monokote needs some added support. Poster board and spray adhesive worked quite well. The hobby cutters call this a "cutting mat" or a "carrier sheet". Basically if it's too thin and flimsy back it with something and it will cut fine.

Of course that means the cutter needs to accept things that thick which usually isn't a problem.

Yeah, I was thinking a carrier sheet would work but then I worried about the covering separating from the backing which is stuck to the carrier sheet... If you used something like posterboard that didn't stretch you would probably do fine. Some of the scale guys here used to attach the monocoat pieces (they were hand cutting them) to each other on plate glass (actually full length mirrors worked well) using monocoat adhesive so you then had a one piece sheet to cover the model with. lets you do an intricate design over an open structure wing.

I was playing around today and had an "ah ha" moment. I have some material that is a vinyl but not a good type that was given to me years ago and i have used it for backing templates and patterns to make them more durable, sticking it to the back of the printout. Well, today I realized I really don't want stickies on my paint masks since they will be multiple sided to mirror them on the wings so I put it in the machine upside down. I used the cutter to cut the backing and not the vinyl and then just peel the stencil off the vinyl, ready to go. Worked beautifully. I am sure you could do the same thing with the cheap Wal Mart shelf paper backing. Perfect for pinning down for painting the EPP flat foamies that is my next project as shown in these videos

I cut flame stencils out of the backing material (ran the vinyl wrong side up) and am pleased with how they worked

Very nice!

Originally Posted by racerxky

Very nice!

thanks. not bad for a first try. just a scrap piece of EPS I had in the shop

People have started getting the first batch of KNK Zing and Cameo machines. One of the Acid tests I have seen for these machines is to have them cut perfect circles. Turns out many of the cheaper machines can't do that, you get something that looks more like an egg or a turnip.

This is a shot taken by a user of some shapes cut on a Zing. The small circles are 1mm in diameter:


(source)

I think thats even better detail than the earlier post in this thread where the machine was not revealed.

I've also seen some similar detail coming from a Cameo user:


(source)

Clearly if you dont need the width of a larger cutter this new generation of craft cutters will get the job done and not take up a whole lot of space in the shop.