Vinyl Cut

Mission:

Cut something on the vinyl cutter

My Process:

  1. Decide what I want to cut. How about a pattern of an avocado-bird? :avocado: :hatched_chick:
  2. Sketch
  3. Vinyl Cutting

How to Operate the Vinyl Cutter

  1. Load the design into Corel Draw.
  2. Go cut a piece of Vinyl. Try your best to get a rectangular slice.
  3. Plough off the Vinyl Cutter. When it is off, manually motion the cutting caput if it's standing in the way.
  4. Align the rollers to the edges of the piece you volition use. Clamp downward the slice into the auto.
  5. Turn on the machine. Specify that you volition utilize a piece of fabric. Printing enter. The machine will measure the dimensions of the slice yous're using and prove the measurements on its screen.
  6. Enter those measurements for the canvas in Corel Draw. Position your blueprint accordingly.
  7. Go into print preferences. for the "Size > Cutting Area" click "Go from Machine" to auto specify the dimensions.
  8. In settings, select any number. Employ "Cutting Speed" = 20cm/sec and "Forcefulness" = 70 gf.
  9. Utilize these settings and "print" (aka Start)!
Cutting Speed Force
20cm/sec 70gf

Sketch

So I had a silly idea to combine an avocado and a bird. Here's a sketch I did in Adobe Illustrator. I wonder if I tin can practise two colors overlaid, with green and yellow?

avobird-illustator-sketch

Avo-Bird Illustration (.pdf)

Vinyl Cut

Loading the blueprint to Corel Depict. Since I wanted to go ii colors overlaid, Tom suggested I added registration markers to help align the different colors. vinyl-process

Cut with the Vinyl Cutter! vinyl-process vinyl-process

Time to remove the parts we don't demand (a.k.a. "weeding"). Okay, this is by far the about challenging/time-consuming office. The combination of abrupt corners and thin pieces make it difficult to remove parts without dissentious the parts that should stay. The veins of the leaf, the thin and delicate outlines of the wings, also as the beak were the most difficult to weed. vinyl-process

Applying transfer tape to the design. Endeavour to avoid bubbles. Using a hard paddle can help to firmly press downward the transfer tape onto the blueprint. vinyl-process vinyl-process

Transferring the pattern to a water bottle! Once more using the hard paddle is helpful to ensure the design sticks securely. Taa-daa! vinyl-process vinyl-process vinyl-process vinyl-process