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Vinyl knife tool for CNC router

M

marcinito

New Member
Has anyone used this product by any chance ? http://www.widgetworksunlimited.com/CNC_Sign_Vinyl_Drag_Knife_Bit_p/cnc-vinyl_knife.htm
I'm looking for feedback and trying to find out if this tool will last few jobs before replacing blade. If there is anything else worth of checking would you guys please share ?
We do have Zund plotter, but certain jobs could use vinyl cutting on Multicam Router and I do know that it can be done without adding expensive vinyl cutting attachment. Hope to hear some good ideas and tips from fellow CNC folks.
 
Techman

Techman

New Member
for a couple of hundred bux,, you can get a good used real vinyl cutter now a days.

I wouldn't run my router to cut vinyl.. The set up time alone is too much.
 
CES020

CES020

New Member
By the time you set it up, you could have finished it on a cheap vinyl plotter.

I've seen these things up close at a show and I've seen the results. It has little to no adjustment for pressure, as it's a fixed spring if I recall correctly. I see people get really excited about them, and yet I've never seen anyone come back and say how much money they made with it. I've seen a lot of people excited to buy them, but again, I've not seen anyone rave about any of the gadgets they make.

Just because you own a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
 
M

marcinito

New Member
I agree with all of you guys but certain thermoformed projects do require a lot of hand cutting. That is why I'm researching something that I can utlize. For rest of the vinyl cutting we use two 5ft flat bed plotters btw
 
J

Janey

New Member
This is great there is some recent conversation on here about this as I just came looking for it.

I actually have a graphtec plotter and agree set up for the multi cam takes time. Regardless if it were to cut vinyl or whatever, although I want to cut paper, the templates for my signs. So that is what I want to do with it. Templates are one time use (so don't want to use expensive vinyl) and using the graphtec as a plotter on paper and then having to cut the templates out takes too much time. More than the set up of the cnc router in my opinion as I would be cutting multiples once it was set up...

So hope that someone else chimes in here and can say if there are other options to the widgetworks tool?


"Just because you own a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail." That is pretty funny CES020. And I get what you mean by that...the router though is just pretty cool and if it isn't cutting anything else why not set it up to do other things.
 
J

Just Another Sign Guy

New Member
hi Janey pulling see you pulling multiple older cnc posts. i can not think of any good reason to cut vinyl on a cnc router...knowing many people that have tried for one reason or another. if you need to make patterns use your plotter if you want to make a paper pattern make a pounce pattern much better use or your tools and time.
 
J

Janey

New Member
I know Dan you are probably right...but we make so so many templates and there has to be an option. It takes one person all day to send them to the plotter and cut them out by hand and I get picky when the lines are not straight. Chuck, my router, he loves to work and doesn't ask for days off...What can I say I need to piss away a little money to see if it does work for our process.

There is a reason I don't sandblast signs any longer...because there are cnc routers to make life easier...just think there should be a better option for the templates too...so I am searching.

Hope everything is going well for you by the way!
 
J

Just Another Sign Guy

New Member
so seriously why not put a pounce attachment in the plotter? you could then either pounce your installation pattern or cut the areas out.

i have had some success making patterns out of magnetic material (again on a plotter) or out of very thin styrene as well as rigid poster pattern cardboard .... but paper patterns and a router i'm tellign you i have explored this more than i would like to admit. i can not stress this enough if you really want to do this scrap the 'paper' idea and start looking for a solid cardboard for your patterns and then just route it dont cut it with a knife attachment.

there are also pattern making tools (cnc) that ppl do cut paper patterns with.
 
G

GB2

Old Member
Janey, can't you just cut your patterns out on your plotter instead of drawing the pattern and then cutting out by hand? I die cut my materials all the time and I never did try it on paper but I don't see why you couldn't do it. What type and size patterns are you cutting generally and what kind of paper are you using?

Marcinito, what material exactly are you looking to cut using that knife accessory? If it's thermoformed, isn't it heavy enough to just rout? I believe I have a knife accessory that came with my Gerber router, or was available anyway. I never used it if I even have it but I'll look and see if it would help in any way.
 
eddesign

eddesign

New Member
blade holder

We use one we score cut 3mill syrene with it takes some getting use to it we do custom shape screen printed food case tags layout on 4x8 sheet after score cut they snap apart
 
SAS

SAS

New Member
I won one at the shopbot jamboree a few months back but I have never used it. I think that diamond drag engraving tool is cool, he had some tile with designs on them at the jamboree.
 
eddesign

eddesign

New Member
small parts

The tags are to small to hold a good vacuum on the table, and tried using a sacrafitial piece to hold them in place, I found other way much easier.
 
J

Janey

New Member
Dan- Pounce doesn't go all the way through right? then I am back to square one as far as I am concerned.

I appreciate your thoughts on cutting the paper and being a pain. I am going to bite the bullet and try it with the widget drag tool...I just have to. Cardboard sounds cool but I don't know if it will be too pricy...but I like that option and could see how that could work really good...

GB2 - I cannot cut patterns out of paper on the plotter directly. Unless there is a backing as it would just jam the plotter. hope that makes sense? And most materials that would have a backing just get too pricy. I know I sound cheap but I like to do things efficiently and not waste..yes I know some would say operating the router to cut paper is expensive but electric on him costs $7 an hour even less as I don't need to run the dust collector. Cheaper than an employee...


So I am going to get a drag knife...and try it out. Hopefully, Dan won't be able to say I told you so...but I think he might get that honor just the same. Results when I have them. thanks janey
 
Mosh

Mosh

New Member
Yes it goes through. Flip it over and hit it with some sandpaper, it will open the holes up all the way.
 
J

Janey

New Member
Ok...so before I do the drag knife and paper idea, considering what Dan has said, I did price out some corragated cardboard that makes the price doable, I think. Tried cutting some cardboard today and it isn't working with any of the thousands of dollars worth of bits I have. Actually I stopped after just trying one because it is like cutting cardboard with a serrated knife just not a clean line at all. Any input as to the bit to use for cutting cardboard? Thanks Janey
 
SignManiac

SignManiac

New Member
I haven't found one yet, other than a drag knife. I've experimented with a few things but the only thing that works best is the optional oscillating knife that my next table will have. I had multicam give me a demo and it worked really well. At the moment, that would be a $60k option :)
 
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