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so an odd though came up into my thinky brain and i thought id ask.
Anyone have any experience with these Die cutting machines for paper and more importantly vinyl?
I have like a ton of PVC foam board in 1/4" thickness for a munda board i wanted to make but im stuck on adding detail specific to floors.
then seeing as these die cutters can cut vinyl i though maybe i could pvc cement it to each other for some really easy details.
all i can find are those adhesive backed vinyl sheets and if the adhesive is strong enough i may not need to care about cementing them down. and if the sheets are thick enough (they say 2.5 mills which seem kinda thick?) should be enough relief for details.
any ideas guys?
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2018/03/01 18:28:15
Superglue also works EXTREMELY well on foamed PVC, it reacts in such a way the the bond is tougher than the base material. MEK can be pretty noxious and take a while to dry completely, but you also have a bit of time to reposition.
For the die cutters, none of the commercial ones would work for PVC, it's too thick, but they work wonderfully for styrene up to 1mm thick. The Silhoutte Portrait and Silhoutte Cameo and a Cricut are the ones I hear about most, there's a guy that was doing a ton of Infinity terrain with it a few years back. I've been building some infinity terrain from 3mm and 6mm black foamed PVC and scribing panel lines with a steel ruler and the edge of a chisel, been thinking I may pick up a Sihoutte Portrait next payday
Automatically Appended Next Post: And of course, since you're looking at necromunda terrain, you should see the vertical board he's making for Necromunda from scratch
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/03/01 07:14:05
I have a silhouette cutter. I mostly use it to cut vinyl, but vinyl is quite thin, maybe 0.1 or 0.2mm.
You can use them to cut styrene sheets, or more accurately you don't try and "cut" rather you score the surface and then snap the styrene along the grooves. I don't really do it much to know how thick you can go, even though I liked the idea of cutting styrene to make terrain in practice I can never be bothered sketching out the templates.
You can't cut deeply unless you have a high end cutter that pivots the blade. The blade is like a very pointy knife and the cheap cutters just hold the knife in one orientation, which is fine for cutting thin material or scoring the surface, but not for cutting through thick material. The cheap ones are mostly designed for scrapbookers, sign writers, hobbyists, etc to cut thin vinyl sheets and thin card.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/03/01 11:11:13
I've been using my Silhouette Portrait to cut airbrush stencils and some details for terrain out of card stock. I hadn't heard of foamed PVC and will give it a try (found it on amazon). If any of you end up with a Silhouette, please share some of your experiences. I know there's a lot it can do and I haven't even come close to figuring it all out yet.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/03/01 17:54:19
“I do not know anything about Art with a capital A. What I do know about is my art. Because it concerns me. I do not speak for others. So I do not speak for things which profess to speak for others. My art, however, speaks for me. It lights my way.”
— Mark Z. Danielewski
Yeah thanks for the vids will need to go through them later.
i saw a bunch of rail road people talk about it and needing to do multiple passes on the circuit. for 1mm styrine. and i have a ton of industrial sources for that.
Welp time to wait for one of those 40% off coopins for joanns fabric or whatever hobby shop stuff pops up.
I dont think foamed PVC will go through those machines. though seeing various prop makers it may be possible to partially cut panel lines in 3mm foamed pvc and use a heat gun to open it up. something i could probably try with an exacto and a ruler. will test later.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/03/01 18:28:03
Unless you can control the temperature a lot (it burns readily and releases dioxins when burned - this is BAD, mmmkay?)
Prop makers and cosplayers who use Sintra (foamed pvc sheet) tend to use hairdryers on "hot" to do it (heat guns are overkill - emphasis on the "kill").
I'm OVER 50 (and so far over everyone's BS, too).
Old enough to know better, young enough to not give a ****.
That is not dead which can eternal lie ...
... and yet, with strange aeons, even death may die.
I looked into an AirCutter - guess they don't need blades and just cut with air. I wasn't able to find any info about how thick of materials it could cut though.
Some of them say they can cut leather, which would certainly mean it can cut polystyrene sheets, but they didn't specify what thickness it can cut. Super thin leather can be quite a bit thicker than a thick hide.
Considering their price, i didn't really want to risk the money just to find out that it can't cut through anything thicker than .3mm styrene.
I've become a huge fan of the foamed PVC for terrain. Heating the PVC isn't too bad so long as you do it in an open area and don't actually start melting it. You can't lasercut it either, it'll ruin your machine and possibly kill you too, since melting it releases both chlorine gas (AKA mustard gas, like from WW1 trench warfare) and hydrachloric acid.
But as long as you don't melt it, it's very workable and relatively safe and stable, you can cut it with a few passes of a heavy Xacto blad/stanley knife or cut it with a handsaw or power saw. I have a little mighty-mite tablesaw from Harbor Freight that works very well on it and any regular woodworking tools are fine from a jigsaw to a dremel to a palm sander. It acts and feels very much like Balsa wood, except that it feels like you're always cutting with the grain no matter what direction you're going. The sawdust it creates is annoying since it tends to have a bit of static cling and, but not especially toxic (MDF sawdust is actually much worse for you). Wear a dustmask and some eye protection because it will irritate the CRAP out of your eyeballs if it gets in there and it's a royal PITA to flush out since it's so lightweight.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Spoilered is a prototype I've been working on for some club terrain to copy my comparatively expensive MDF terrain that I love, but hate lugging to and from the shop for game night
Spoiler:
the MDF on the right is from Blacksheep Industries and is awesome, but while inexpensive for MDF, it's not cheap. It's also not holding up well to transport, everything is in a rubbermaid tote and it's chipping from transport, even priming it with enamel primer and a good coat of varnish. The left building is a quick copy-cat made from 3mm black foamed pvc, which will be cheap enough to store at/donate to the club and if it chips, it'll just be black showing through. Plus the Kyrylon Fusion paint bonds incredibly well to it. If I pick up the Silhoutte I can replace the Sedition Wars doors and lego ladders with sheet styrene doors and ladders AND add some techy windows as well, which is by far the most expensive part of that building. The panel lines are just impressed into the bare foamed PVC with the edge of a chisel and a steel ruler as a straightedge
and a quick coat of paint
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/03/02 00:20:02
