Who here has a plotter cutter for making stencils??

[Malice95]

Yeah, if I had the money I'd be buying my own...if I end up having to do more and more stencils, I probably will invest in one...if you don't mind me asking, which one did you end up buying?

I ended up buying the pcut 48" from uscutter.com. Cost about 500. They have lower end versions down in the 270 dollar range. While its not a everyday
work horse cutter, it should be enough for my needs to get going. If you are going to use one every/all day or need SUPER fine detail.. like .15" letters
pick up a graphtec. Of course a 48" version runs over 3k. Big difference in price.

 

[anubisdeath6]

Never autotrace art. Never.

Why is that? What could be wrong if you trace it and just tweak the results until it looks good?

 

[kcfreeloader]

KCfree, as long as you have the image vectorized proportionately the way it has to be, you can shrink it or enlarge it to the exact size you need. So if you know exactly what one line is supposed to be, the others will be exact as well if it was created properly. Hope that makes sense.

My artwork is properly vectorized. What i am asking is kind of hard to explain. Rather then repeat everything i've said if you have a chance, look at this thread.

http://forum.uscutter.com/index.php?/topic/31031-size-question/

One of the members had a method for it, but there must be an easier way.

Many people seem to recommend inkscape as the best app the vectorize your scans once they've been stitched together.

That is what i use. Good program, great price! For stitching my scans i use Hugin which is also a free program. It takes some tweaking to use with a scanner as it is made for making panoramic photos.

I havent tried it myself yet.. still getting the cutter unboxed but I hope to be cranking out some stencils I need shortly. I'm using it for etching and airbrush work. I really never gave much though to how versitle a cutters is. You can do signage, lettering, stencils, tshirt designs (heat transfer vinyl), etc. Tons of possibilities.

I use mine all the time. I've done the etching, signage, stickers, lettering, stencils and cutting shapes out of card stock. I haven't bought any of the heat transfer, but i'm getting close to that stage.

I ended up buying the pcut 48" from uscutter.com. Cost about 500. They have lower end versions down in the 270 dollar range. While its not a everyday
work horse cutter, it should be enough for my needs to get going. If you are going to use one every/all day or need SUPER fine detail.. like .15" letters
pick up a graphtec. Of course a 48" version runs over 3k. Big difference in price.

I bought one for around $300 from uscutter too. Even came with a stand. I originally bought mine because my wife wanted a cricut to use for the daycare she works at. I figured in no time we would end up with several hundred dollars in cartridges as they seem to have just about one good design on each cartridge. It takes a bit of learning and is definitely not as simple as a cricut, but for a computer geek like myself, it is a lot of fun.

Note to everyone:
Just beware though, if you are planing on a vinyl cutter to do full size stencils for games, the stencil vinyl and release is going to cost around $300-$350. You'll have enough to do many games, but you'll also see why $80 is a fair price for stencils.

 

[prOk]

Why is that? What could be wrong if you trace it and just tweak the results until it looks good?

Autotrace is terrible, no such thing as tweaking it until it looks good unless you plan to spend more time tweaking than it would take to just draw it right in the first place. The stray curves, random points etc on something that large will just leave a messy and unprofessional result every time. It's a shortcut for doing crappy fast sign work, not real reproduction quality artwork. Like so many have said before, there's no magic bullet for vectorizing, the best way is the right way and that is to trace by hand. Lots of people that are inexperienced say oh autotrace from XXXXX company is just fine, look how awesome it looks as they show you a 2 inch jpg. Now blow it up to 200% so you can really see what's happening and what result you'll be getting. All those stray and goofy lines translate to the cutter. No autotrace anywhere knows the concept of a 6 inch long straight line made up of just 2 nodes. They don't know right angles and objects square with the page, they don't know a true circle, square or other geometric shape. Don't fall for rookie mistakes like cheap materials, cheap plotters and autotracing because you'll just get a result with quality to match.

This falls in the same category as saying you can do a good repro print from a photograph.

 

[Blackjacker]

My artwork is properly vectorized. What i am asking is kind of hard to explain. Rather then repeat everything i've said if you have a chance, look at this thread.

http://forum.uscutter.com/index.php?/topic/31031-size-question/

One of the members had a method for it, but there must be an easier way.

Super-easy, you just need to know the target length of your line (2.125") and the length that it currently is (8.333"). Then be sure the entire artwork is grouped, and (in Illustrator) Object/Transform/Scale... it by the proper percentage. In this case, that's 25.5001%.

 

[Spyridon]

Kawydud: I'm working on a stencil for taitos coin door. Ive scanned the art and now I've vectored it.

Why spend the time working on something that is already available (and only $10) ?

 

[kcfreeloader]

Super-easy, you just need to know the target length of your line (2.125") and the length that it currently is (8.333"). Then be sure the entire artwork is grouped, and (in Illustrator) Object/Transform/Scale... it by the proper percentage. In this case, that's 25.5001%.

Thanks! How did you find the actual length of the line though? Can this be done in inkscape?

Why spend the time working on something that is already available (and only $10) ?

$10 plus shipping. Then I have to have the sides too. The main reason though is i'm working on another project that does not have stencils available, so I'm using this as a trial run. That and i like to do things myself.

 

[Blackjacker]

Thanks! How did you find the actual length of the line though? Can this be done in inkscape?

I live in Illustrator - no idea on Inkscape. Below's how to quickly do it in Illustrator. If Inkscape's a fully-featured vector-editing app, you should be able to do the same.

In Illustrator, assuming (or after verifying) that your two vertical lines you want to measure between are in fact truly vertical, just turn on Smart Guides and draw a horizontal line between the two - Smart Guides will 'snap' the endpoints of your new horizontal line to those two vertical lines. Then just check the Transform window for the length of your horizontal line.

Or you can also (again, assuming or after verifying that your vertical lines are truly vertical) select an anchor point on the right-hand vertical line, and get it's X-position from the Transform window (in your case, 48.5386). Do the same for an anchor point on the left-hand vertical (40.2053) and subtract - 8.3333 is the distance between them.

 

[kcfreeloader]

I live in Illustrator - no idea on Inkscape. Below's how to quickly do it in Illustrator. If Inkscape's a fully-featured vector-editing app, you should be able to do the same.

In Illustrator, assuming (or after verifying) that your two vertical lines you want to measure between are in fact truly vertical, just turn on Smart Guides and draw a horizontal line between the two - Smart Guides will 'snap' the endpoints of your new horizontal line to those two vertical lines. Then just check the Transform window for the length of your horizontal line.

Or you can also (again, assuming or after verifying that your vertical lines are truly vertical) select an anchor point on the right-hand vertical line, and get it's X-position from the Transform window (in your case, 48.5386). Do the same for an anchor point on the left-hand vertical (40.2053) and subtract - 8.3333 is the distance between them.

I don't think inkscape is quite that robust, but your way of doing it gives me some ideas of how i could do it in inkscape. Thanks!

 

[Malice95]

I got around to getting my pcut running this weekend. A wierd driver issue
was keeping to down. Anyway now that its up I tried my hand at some
stencils to etch beer mugs (one of the reasons I bought it). Beer was
included I had to switch to Soda after 50oz.

Overall the pcut did a really nice job. It cut some pretty dam fine detail
after I figured out the right speed and pressure for the knife. Hopefully it will
last a couple years and I'll get my money out of it.

<Shameless self promotion>
The designs you see below and a TON of other ones will be avaliable on my
website in a couple weeks. I plan on selling the etched mugs in premade 4
packs (4 different designs) for $40-$45 shipped. They will also be a freebie
(with your logo) when you buy a custom game room sign. The site should be
live soon. I am waiting on the Multi-williams Bezels Rich is making me to launch it formally.
</Shameless self promotion>

On to the pics! The TOG one at the end is an example I put together to show
the capabilities (it wont be for sale).

Malice95

 

[anubisdeath6]

Very nice work!! I'm gonna have to get me one of those Q*Bert ones!! Try a Space Inavders!

 

[Malice95]

Just did an Omega race as well.. Thats enough for tonight.. my bladders about to explode

Space Invaders is on the todo list.

 

[Malice95]

What the heck.. one more before I crash.

 

[Malice95]

By Request.. Space Invaders

 

[Thomas]

Those look really nice man. I can't wait to get a cutter up and running here.

Whats going on with your website, do you need any help? I kinda like building, hosting and maintaining "open source" ecommerce sites for the guys here.

 

[anubisdeath6]

Man, that SI one looks sexy!

 

[Thomas]

I ended up buying the pcut 48" from uscutter.com. Cost about 500. They have lower end versions down in the 270 dollar range. While its not a everyday
work horse cutter, it should be enough for my needs to get going. If you are going to use one every/all day or need SUPER fine detail.. like .15" letters
pick up a graphtec. Of course a 48" version runs over 3k. Big difference in price.

How is your pcut working out? Have you done any stencils for your personal machines?