cricut - inexpensive CNC cutter

[hjsullivan]

Hello all,

I have been experimenting with the cricut cutter.  A new building I have been working on needed quite a few arc top custom windows.  I spied a cricut cutter on sale at J. C. Moore $89.00. and wondered if it could handle a window project.  One of the sales folks told me of a program that could use to design my own shapes.  (http://www.craftedge.com/index.html)

With this program one can design the object in a cad program. (I use a free one called Alley Cad .(http://www.allycad.com/)

The Sure cuts a lot program will trace the drawing and then it can be refined.  The program feeds the cricut and makes the cuts.

So far so good.  It cuts card stock cleanly and scores .010 plastic well enough to pop the parts out.  (just like die cutting.)

There is some variation in dimensions.  I have not solved that problem, but, it has not been much of an issue on the windows.

I have attached a photo of the window experiments.  Left to right, .010 black plastic window upper sash.  I make two of these and then sandwich .005 clear stock between them.  A second set of the lower sash is constructed and then glued to the back of the upper sash assembly.  A frame is then glued to the front face.

The white window is constructed of card stock. I would prefer to construct the windows out of card so that I could paint the stock before cutting.  I have not found a suitable glue for the card stock.  I have sent for some Rocket Card Glue.  It is supposed to be appropriate for glueing card to plastic. 

So here's the deal.  If anyone else is screwing around with the cricut or has ideas about how to use it, chime in. 

Glueing the parts of this window and keeping the plastic pieces aligned and free from excess glue is a challenge.  Help desired.

Jig suggestions terrific.


I have attached a few photos and drawings.  If I could figure out how to load photos I would do that.  Can someone help with uploading photos?

This is my first post to this fourm.  Sorry to be so awkward.

[DaKra]

Hi HJ

First, welcome to the forum.  

I'm very interested in these digital cutter tools.  I've read a lot of vague discussion on the model making forums, your photos are the first actual demo pieces I've seen close up.   Do I assume correctly they are in HO scale?  

Its clear from your results that the machine had trouble making right angles.   It appears the blade is not lifted clear of the material and simply drags around the corners, leaving fillets on the inside corners, as on your parts.    Suggest you try gaming the machine into lifting the blade at the corners.  Four disconnected straight lines, instead of a box might do it.  

Looking forward to seeing more results.    

Dave      

[Frederic Testard]

Dave, there's a tool like cricut, called Craft Robo, described here :
http://www.craft-robo.fr/
(sorry I'm aware of no english site for it, but I may have not looked seriously enough).
Here is an example of what can be done with it



(found on a French forum at this address :
http://www.lrpresse.fr/trains/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=26005&start=2415
Sorry, it is also in French, and many posts in the topic are simple jokes that have nothing to do with the subject, but it's interesting since it describes the progress made by a number of modellers from the beginning of their use of the tool to their current satisfactory level. I once read the whole topic and seem to remember that cricut was also mentionned as an alternative tool for this kind of job).

Hope this helps.

[Frederic Testard]

Another example (found on the page : http://www.lrpresse.fr/trains/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=26005&start=2250 )







All cut with Robo Craft.

[chester]

I'll have to agree with Dave, the crispness of the 90° turns isn't what we see from Frederic's machine. Price difference?
"Gaming the machine"? or Tom Foolery.
Welcome HJ (give us a name, we'll use it)

[DaKra]

Yeah looks like a much tighter corner is possible.  Try also reducing the blade pressure, if possible; just guessing here.    I'm thinking drag and friction are going to be major issues issues at the edge of its operating envelope.   

Dave

[Frederic Testard]

Apparently, Craft Robo costs about 250 euros.
And you have to run it using a software which cost I don't know.
So it's certainly more expensive, and the French forum members in their comments consider it would not be a good solution for a manufacturer since it requires too much care during the cutting process.
But for a modeller with a limited amount of money to invest, it seems a valuable alternative to the much more expensive laser cutters.

[DaKra]

Frederic, very interesting thread on the French forum.  Will take hours to go through it all.  Do you recall if there is any discussion or photos of the Craft Robo's embossing capability?   That is one of the more interesting features for my purposes.

Dave

[Frederic Testard]

Dave, I don't know what is possible and google doesn"t seem to link to very "optimistic" pages.
But I've asked on the forum what they know about it, and hope I'll get an answer (by the way, it was my first post on this forum...). If you read French, you can follow the topic, and in all cases, I'll watch and tell you if and what they say.

[hjsullivan]

Name is Henry.

I will try gaming and see what happens.  The alternative is to clean up the corners with a knife or a file.  Even so, the machine saves quite a bit of time and tedious work.

The scale is 1:48

[hjsullivan]

By the way, if you need to translate the text Yahoo's Babel Fish works well for me.  One does not have to re-translate when changing pages either.

Henry

[finescalerr]

Henry, try Walthers Goo (at most hobby shops) for a card to plastic bond. Also, of course, you could use Superglue (CA). Some newer glues have come onto the market, too, and no doubt somebody will suggest one.

[clevermod01]

I just recently started a similar thread. Interesting results, especially from such basic machines. You can get a (craft robo) "wishblade" in the us for under $200 but they are rather light on power and flexibility. They don't emboss. You have to go up the evolutionary tree for that. The BossKut Gazelle is the cheapest machine that will do that at about $400. Above that your looking at the KNK maxx around $550 to $600 but those machines will cut .020 plastic with some precision,though still intended for Card.
Thom

[chris31]

Hi everybody !
I'm one of the guys joking, but not only, on the french forum.
Some tips about the Crafrobot :
- she (it's name is Crafty and not only a machine) is'nt abble to emboss nothing,
- she cut paper, papercard and other materials till 3/10 mm thick,
- the minimum distance between two cutting lines is 5/10 mm,
- there are three ways to command her : with the included software Robot Master, which allow simple works or by using Adobe Illustrator or Correl Draw and last, by using Inkscape (but I never was abble to do it with my old W2K).
Some pictures next week when I'll be back home.

Typed on my IPad

[Frederic Testard]

Here are a few more examples showing various possibilities offered by Craf Robot :

A guardrail (lamination of several sheets)



(found here : http://www.lrpresse.fr/trains/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=42392&start=210#p1076798 )

Tiles :



(found here : http://www.lrpresse.fr/trains/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=42392&start=120#p1036908 )

Car seats :



(found here : http://www.lrpresse.fr/trains/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=41174&start=150#p1094009 )

A whole wall (lamination again) :



(found here : http://www.lrpresse.fr/trains/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=34083&start=195#p966577 )

Trucks for a model of underground car :



(found here : http://www.lrpresse.fr/trains/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=46044 )

and finally this piano, part of a project for a module that his author may wish to describe :



(found here : http://www.lrpresse.fr/trains/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=42077 ).