Just saw this on r/justrolledintotheshop and figured I'd share here. No association with the videographer.
I, like probably many of you, have a tendency to just cut gaskets out of some Felpro bulk rolls at 11pm and/or buy old small motors where I can't get new gaskets. While it often works, the gaskets are always pretty haggard looking no matter how sharp the blade is or how much time I take to lay everything out.
Enter the CNC controlled scrapbooking tool, Cricut. Apparently it's good for up to 7mm leather, which will easily cut most non-metallic gasket material. I have to admit this is a pretty ingenious use of a fairly inexpensive CNC tool. Now I want one for my shop.
Here's the video.
I tried doing this with my wife's Cricut and couldn't get it to work. Apparently earlier machines only allow you to use preloaded cartridges of fonts and shapes.
In reply to enginenerd :
Interesting. Is the software they're using unique to the model that you could potentially just change over to the new version? I see there's an "Air" and "Maker" version. I haven't researched them enough yet to understand what the differences are.
It's also not a plug and play application, as there's some work involved in the layout. I can already see some use for gaskets for the RX-3 which would normally need to be ordered from a single Australian supplier.
In the long run, I'd love to host a website with layouts where enthusiasts can simply go and download the pattern for an application.
Another possibility
Going to do some homework on this one.
The Cricut is a pretty closed system, they leverage their proprietary cartridges.
The hardware is pretty competent though.
Their software is is okay and they've improved the flexibility on the newer systems.
The Silhouette posted above is a bit more open and capable of doing what you're describing without the Cricut overhead.
In reply to Stefan :
The knowledge base around here is awesome.
Is there a standardized file format for these things or did they pack them into something proprietary ?
One more reason to order one of these machines.
It costs me about $500 to logo a truck. I may well spend that money on a cutting machine the next time I need a truck done.
I never even considered that use for my Silhouette.
The0retical said:
In reply to Stefan :
The knowledge base around here is awesome.
Is there a standardized file format for these things or did they pack them into something proprietary ?
Seems the Silhouette basic software takes all the usual image suspects. The "designer" edition software takes .svg. There are a lot of conversion apps available through the roll-yer-own CAD/CAM folks which I'm sure would allow almost anything to be swapped into something it will eat.
But forget all of that. It seems the basic software speaks .dxf. Draw gasket or mask or whatever in the CAD you use most and export it as a .dxf file. Then place it right into the basic software.
The0retical said:
In reply to Stefan :
The knowledge base around here is awesome.
Is there a standardized file format for these things or did they pack them into something proprietary ?
My wife has a CriCut and enjoys scrapbooking, making cards, made some numbers for one of my cars, etc. So as the resident Tech Support for the house, I've had to learn a bit about them while assisting her with some of her projects.
She has an original wide model and it only understands two different standard sized plastic sheets that the material is stuck to. The sheets are marked along the sides so the machine knows the positioning of the paper. There is a USB port on the back and they have some sort of design software, but it really only worked in conjunction with their cartridges.
We've looked at some of the newer models and they are pretty neat and the backwards compatibility is nice for many of the accessories. She loves baking, so the food decorating version is kind of a dream. Then again we now have two very young children so available time for much of any of that is pretty hard to come by, not too mention the funds to purchase such things.
If you look at what this is marketed towards, you'll understand why they made the initial models relatively simple and easy to use as their core audience may be highly skilled with the design work, but perhaps not so much with regards to technology like this.
For things that we all might want to use it for, I think there are alternative solutions that a bit more open. I mean if you put a blade in a CNC Laser or Router machine, you could essentially do the same thing for making gaskets or decals, etc.
In reply to Stefan :
That makes sense, three axis CNC machines with a 12x24 bed are pretty cheap these days and are quite a bit more flexible. It also brings the cost per unit down as you're not sticking it to their beds.
The big hangup, as you pointed out, is the software. I can handle layouts pretty well having spent a few years with a drafting board, but I'd have to learn how to handle the pathing of the machine. From what I'm seeing the Audrino and Pi driven machines don't have real eloquent solutions to translate the layout into g-code / whatever the other equivalents are. The software suites for CriCut and Silhouette appear to do the heavy lifting for you but the tradeoff a more limited range of uses as they're don't cut as deeply and having to purchase their disposable beds.
There's got to be decent software out there for the cheap 3 axis machines though.
I'm also coming up a bit short finding a slitting head for something like a 3018 machine. Maybe I'm not using the correct terminology. For cork and the like a laser probably wouldn't be a problem but I'm not sure what something like Fel Pro's grey gasket material would do. I assume there has to be something I just can't seem to locate it.
I'm probably going to venture down this path so I'll keep looking into this. I really would like a way to cleanly cut gaskets for a bunch of projects that I have.
Edit: Found them. They're called Drag Knife bits or Plotter blades. Now how do you tell the machines that's the tooling that's loaded?
Edit 2: Here's the answer
I would like to put a gasket on a scanner , scan it and get a Jpeg image and then be able to convert that image to something the cutter can use.
That makes it easy for anyone to make a gasket and not have to learn Cad Cam , or email it to someone with a cutter....
californiamilleghia said:
I would like to put a gasket on a scanner , scan it and get a Jpeg image and then be able to convert that image to something the cutter can use.
The Silhouette cutter can use jpegs according to their website. Then it's just a matter of what will fit on the cutting machine.
There are other makes of these machines too apparently.I'm sure there are a few that are more open to different software and image types and materials.
