Silhouette SD

[conrail98]

I just wanted to say that all the work going on in this thread makes me want to get one when funds allow. I also have liked the discussion on materials and the like for different pieces of a project. Keep up the great work gents and keep the inspirations coming,

Phil

[Zox]

I plan to do some more experiments tomorrow. I'll report results as soon as I have some.

Well, after doing a lot of test cutting today, I...haven't been able to reproduce the problem.  ???

The only thing I can think of is that, if the acetate wasn't stuck solidly enough to the carrier, the long thin sections might have shifted sideways under the pressure of the knife.

I also think my blade is getting dull, as I'm getting more "hanging chads" that stick in the holes when I pull the fencing off the carrier. Acetate is tough stuff.

[lashedup]

Yeah, the acetate material is really brittle and hard so it eats blades for lunch. Another way to tell the blade is getting dull is that it will start rounding corners a bit more.

I did find some .003 acetate material at Dick Blick so there are thinner options, but it is also brittle.

I hoped to have the roof I scribed done this weekend but I've been sick *again* with a really nasty cold that has turned into sinus infection.

- jamie

[pnolan48]

Need some advice here. I'm pretty sure I could find an answer to this question if I had more time and wasn't traveling so much. It appears I can cut material one meter (39 inches) long by about 8.5 inches wide (out of a total of 11 inches width.) This is perfect for my ships.

The question: if I cut something this long, do I need a backer mat of the same length? Or can I just cut a sheet of .010 or .020 styrene and feed it through the rollers? I don't want to do anything stupid and ruin a mat or a knife on my first tries.

At least I have learned how to trace outlines with Illustrator--i.e., draw the curves I need--without too much trouble. I'm going to cut some simple things first, then try the components for a hull.

[Iain]

Going back to my wanting to scratchbuild some DS6-4-1500s, how do y'all think acetel (Delrin) will work?  Would it be too hard?  And do y'all think that the resultant part would be precise enough?

[Zox]

The question: if I cut something this long, do I need a backer mat of the same length? Or can I just cut a sheet of .010 or .020 styrene and feed it through the rollers?

The main functions of the carrier/backer sheet are (a) to make sure the drive rollers are engaged at both edges of the material, and (b) to hold the pieces of the material together when you cut through them.

8.5"-wide material will engage the drive rollers, and since I imagine you'll be doing score-and-snap with the styrene you won't have to worry about pieces falling out.

So for what you're planning, you shouldn't need a backer sheet.

[Zox]

Going back to my wanting to scratchbuild some DS6-4-1500s, how do y'all think acetel (Delrin) will work?  Would it be too hard?  And do y'all think that the resultant part would be precise enough?

Do you have a source for sheet Delrin that would be suitable? The thinnest I can find in a quick Google search is .031"+/-.003" thick, and a 12-inch square of it costs over ten bucks.

I know they use Delrin for handrails because it's tough and flexible, but what advantage does it have over styrene for the body?

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Just a quick thought. Has anyone tried painting sheet styrene brick red and using the cutter to scrape in mortar lines?

[Iain]

Do you have a source for sheet Delrin that would be suitable? The thinnest I can find in a quick Google search is .031"+/-.003" thick, and a 12-inch square of it costs over ten bucks.

I know they use Delrin for handrails because it's tough and flexible, but what advantage does it have over styrene for the body?

Not for the body; for truck components.  Actually, Delrin isn't flexible, but it is tough and self-lubricating.  For toughness, etched brass would work, but there are electrical and wear problems with that.

Thickness is not a bad thing, and .031 should be about right.

My main concern would be if Delrin is too hard for the Silhouette to machine with enough precision, or even at all.

[Zox]

Just a quick thought. Has anyone tried painting sheet styrene brick red and using the cutter to scrape in mortar lines?

I'm afraid I made khaki-colored bricks instead of red, since that's what I had on hand. Is that okay?

Using the standard blade for scribing mortar lines doesn't seem to work well:



 The blade plows up the material instead of removing it, so the raised plastic ridges are more visible than any bare plastic that might be down in the groove. Depending on the light angle, it might look like mortar lines, or it might not.

However, if you make one of these:



...use speed 2, thickness 33, and (this actually matters) make sure "Silhouette Sketch Pen" is selected as the "knife," you can get this as the result:



(Apparently the Silhouette Studio software does some automatic compensation for blade swivel, which will throw off the results when using the scriber. "Sketch Pen" mode disables the compensation.)

The scriber is the business end of a Harbor Freight scribing pen, inserted into a length of half-inch-diameter dowel. Since the knife/pen holder is expecting an object in the 0.53"-0.54" diameter range, the masking tape brings the dowel up to size so it can be gripped. The magic dimension is 1 ⁵/₁₆" from the point of the scriber to the top of the holder (on mine, the top of the masking tape goes level with the top of the holder).

(Harbor Freight scribing pen: http://www.harborfreight.com/tungsten-carbide-tipped-scribing-pen-97336.html)

[DKS]

I'm afraid I made khaki-colored bricks instead of red, since that's what I had on hand. Is that okay?

I think you've nailed the perfect formula, there, Zox. That's the cat's meow.

My head is starting to explode--there aren't enough hours in the day to try all of this stuff. So far my only accomplishment has been to remove the packing tape and read the manual.

[lashedup]

Great little experiment there Rob. I'm surprised given how quickly the taper on that harbor freight scribe flares wide, that it cuts with the same precision as the much narrower blade that comes with the Silhouette SD. Would be interesting to view the two outputs under a loupe or with a macro lens to see if the harbor freight scribe is just scribing a wider path and  making the mortar lines visually look better. The angle of the stock cutting blade versus the conical shape of the harbor freight may also have something to do with it.

Good stuff!

 - jamie

[sirenwerks]

I'm curious how the scribed mortar lines and closer to scale brick will hold weathering.

The only problem I see with my getting a SD when my financial horizon clears is that Illustrator costs more than the darn machine. What file formats can the SD handle? I'm wondering if I can get away with increasing my depth of knowledge (from beginner) with Inkscape and using it instead.

[Zox]

I'm surprised given how quickly the taper on that harbor freight scribe flares wide, that it cuts with the same precision as the much narrower blade that comes with the Silhouette SD. Would be interesting to view the two outputs under a loupe or with a macro lens to see if the harbor freight scribe is just scribing a wider path and  making the mortar lines visually look better.

Here's a couple of extreme closeups for you.

Knife blade (speed 2, force 10):



Scriber (speed 2, force 33):



The knife is cutting into the styrene, displacing the plastic as the blade goes through. The scriber isn't penetrating into the styrene (except for the small divot at the beginning of each line); it's just scraping the surface. The knife leaves ridges on either side of the cut; the scraper leaves little piles of loose paint dust.

All that being said, I'm not at all sure this is a practical approach to making N-scale brickwork. You'd probably be better off printing it than scribing it--it's basically two-dimensional anyway.

[Zox]

The only problem I see with my getting a SD when my financial horizon clears is that Illustrator costs more than the darn machine. What file formats can the SD handle? I'm wondering if I can get away with increasing my depth of knowledge (from beginner) with Inkscape and using it instead.

Silhouette Studio (which comes free with the machine) isn't a bad application for its purpose--it's what I've used for my tests so far. Studio is supposed to be able to import .dxf, which is a fairly common (and ancient!) CAD format that's understood by a lot of software.

Normally I'm a CorelDraw guy, and there's a free download that will allow you to output from CorelDraw directly to the cutter, with options like using different colors to set cutting depths.

I haven't had a chance to play with Inkscape yet, but this is hopeful:

.dxf (AutoCAD, Desktop Cutting Plotters). Inkscape provides two distinct DXF export routines. The first is geared toward CAD uses and the second toward desktop cutting plotters....There is one option that targets Craft ROBO Desktop plotters that require an even simpler file format.

The Silhouette machines are an updated version of a Craft ROBO cutter, so I think you may be in luck.