testing idea for building panels cheap.

[frogger]

just wanted to share my tests with my wife to be's hobby cutter.

 

its a silhouette cameo " basicly a 3 axis knife for arts and craft"

 

i did some searching and i can attach an engraving head to it to make back lit panels however with getting married soon and very restricted funds i thought id make some tests with what i have.

 

dollar tree foam board.

spray paint. black preffered but only had silver

the machine and its software

and my missus has a handle little tool kit for removing the cut outs.

 

the foam board has a card layer on top and when cut u can pull it off. the size it is able to do is quite good for such a cheap machine. and with the software i had this panel designed and cut within 10 mins.

 

once my spending limit is returned ill be testing this thing with engraving painted plexiglass.

 

Edited October 21, 2016 by frogger

[JG14_Smil]

Great start! You're ahead of the game. :)

[hansangb]

Wait, Which version of silhouette cameo did you get? Is it the "silhouette cameo 3"? And you had to get a new engraving bit? Are there special bits for this unit? This looks very promising as I only need to engrave my painted plexi glass. And is the clearance really must 2mm? That's like 1/16th inch, so that may be a problem.

 

Thanks.

Edited October 21, 2016 by hansangb

[frogger]

Apparently its not a cameo but it is a silhuoette unit. U buy an engraving tip that fits in the holder. Ive seen other fit dremels into them. This test i did was on painted foam board cutting the painted layer off the top as for clearance the machine comes with a bunch of spacer boards to raise up thiner materials and u can set blade depth but not sure on the engraver head. Ive been told when she upgrade to an actual cameo i get this one and ill likely fit a dremel to it with the flexishaft. Another idea is to cut vinyl and stick it on some white plexiglass

[hansangb]

hmmm, that's true. And with vinyl, I could make one for the A10, one for Huey, and Mustang. Interesting. You might have just saved me a few grand! :) Thank you

[frogger]

some more testing on black vinyl, the way i would do this properly is create another cut file without the words and cut on white vinyl to make a defuser. then this is stuck on the plexiglass. the gpu button is a button face and wouldnt be stuck on this part however it proved very hard to pull up which is good new.

 

you can see here with the font size so low the middle section of letters is pulled up mid cut due to the lack of surface area to hold those bits down , this is where engraving will work better.

 

button face after i pulled it off the plexglass. id use a layer of the glass with leds and a block out plate in the middle then attached to a push button.

 

and a shot with the button face removed from the main cut out.

 

all up i think if i go larger with font i could make some really nice panels but i would loose out on scale look. i need to find a way to cut the plexiglass nice and clean and without melting it.

 

the panel face with black layer , white layer and plexiglass would cost less then $2 to make if u dont include the machine. the glass is recycled from old lcd monitors from the garbage tip and the vinyl is about $6 for 1m roll by 300mm which would probably be enough for most panels. will keep advancing from here and see what i come up with.

[hansangb]

I ordered some black vinyl and some thin diffuser sheets. I'll order the Silhouette unit later on.

[hansangb]

Apparently its not a cameo but it is a silhuoette unit. U buy an engraving tip that fits in the holder. Ive seen other fit dremels into them. This test i did was on painted foam board cutting the painted layer off the top as for clearance the machine comes with a bunch of spacer boards to raise up thiner materials and u can set blade depth but not sure on the engraver head. Ive been told when she upgrade to an actual cameo i get this one and ill likely fit a dremel to it with the flexishaft. Another idea is to cut vinyl and stick it on some white plexiglass

 

 

Frogger,

could you check once more for me? There are:

1) Silhouette CAMEO® 3

2) Silhouette Curio™

3) Silhouette Portrait®

 

 

I'm thinking it's the Curio model (based on the picture)

 

Thank you