I teach Technology in a middle school and have both the Roland Stika and the Craft Robo. The Roland has lasted extremely well and tends to accept lots of different graphics programs, I use aspex draw. You can trace images quite well then cut them, easier on a smart board! Dafont.com is a great resource for some free effects. I haven't persisted with the craft robo, struggled with software and a need for a carrier to cut the vinyl.

Totally agree, my cutter changed the way I ran my custom painting business, it's still one of the best things I've ever spent money on, paid for itself so many times too !

Had my Roland 10 years, great quality !

where can you get a CR 330-20 Cameo or find info on it?
Saw it further down on the page you linked to thanks


What are you guys using it for in the RC world?

I just use mine to cut decals and masks for airbrushing.

Do you then get the sticker sheets from the same place? Are they good quality?

I've used them for buying coloured self adhesive vinyl for logos and decals and the vinyl seems pretty good but in all honesty, I've not tried other sources so I have nothing to really compare them with. I want to try the cool-flex and Hot-flex materials next for some Tee-shirt logos but as with most things, the great ideas alwasy seem to end up sidelined due to a lack of time:cry:
For airbrush masks however , I use either the Art-tool Ultra Mask which I bought on a reel many moons ago from here or more recently, I've started using the TrickBits Maskit Masking Film from Horizon Hobby UK stockists (Part Number TB5700). This seems to cut nicer than the Ultra Mask and is a translucent blue colour so it stands out a bit more than the grey of the Ultra Mask.

HTH

I use my cutter for as much as I can. Logo's and repeatable shapes are great on it though, cutting lettering accurately is never easy by hand and also very time consuming.

On the Short Course Durango shell I did it's covered in stars, trying to cut all them by hand would have taken a day, the cutter did it in a few minutes. Also the circuitry on the last RX shell I did would have been almost impossible without a cutter, maybe not impossible but I don't think I would have stayed calm enough and not lost the plot trying to do it by hand...

I use the grey mask as it's not too tacky, have tried blue in the past and found it too thick, usually they use that one when they're doing trucks and trailers with painted logo's. Also I found the blue one left glue residue which was awkward clean up so I prefer the grey paint mask.

I've read that the Lite doesn't have adjustable blade depth/force so presumably it's set to prevent cutting through the mylar sheet? If so, then when I'm cutting backed vinyl or other material without using the carrier, the backing will need to be at least as thick as the mylar or else the cutter won't cut all the way through the material, right?

Lastly, does the cutter software take .ai or .svg files natively, or do I need to use Corel/AI plugins to convert them to the cutter's proprietary format?

Thanks for the info - looks like this will get pushed up my wishlist!

Im looking at the craft robo 200 cc

Im wondering if I can insert images in the software and it will work out the outline and different colours etc and cut them out OR do I have to draw around the image on the pc as to where I want the cutter to cut?

Make any sense?

Ill try again
Can I insert this image and the software/cutter will cut out so I can then peel only the white away or peel only the black away for painting?

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...927_170656.jpg

You will have to draw around the logo mate if its an image. All plotters follow vector data (essentially points in space on an x/y axis, the plotter follows these points)

An image is a raster file made up from pixels. (like your tv and computer monitor)

Some software has an autotrace function that will convert an image (jpg tif bmp etc), but to be honest most of them are pretty poor unless the image is really good quality, even then it will probably need tidying up manually.

If your looking for a particular logo in vector format to download there are various websites you can get them from:-

Seeklogo.com

brandsoftheworld.com

They may or may not have what your looking for, both sites are free to use, but Brands' requires login.

Also, If you search for the logo in google and add a .pdf file extension you can sometimes find the logo in vector form embedded within a manufactures pdf. (setup manual, instruction manual etc)

Failing that there seem to be plenty of people on here adept enough at using vector software that may have / be able to convert logos.

Gray

I think the above covers your the answer well but I'm not sure if your questions was can it cut film you've printed those sort of logo's on ?

If that was your question, well yes it can but you'd need to work out exact sizes and then print some sort of crop or registration mark that you could line up from the printer to the cutter. I used to use a Gerber Edge machine, that had a sort of sight on it, so the printer would put the registration marks down, you'd take it out of the printer and feed the sprocketed vinyl into the cutter and then line up the cross hairs in the site and let the cutter do it's thing.

To do this with a craft Robo and lazer print would take a hell of a lot of trial and error though.

So if you want to print it would be much cheaper to use someone who does it ( Jon RCS would be a good start ) but if you want a cutter just to cut coloured vinyl you ideally need to learn the software to drive it as essentially without that it's nothing.

Ah the Gerber edge...brilliant for printing short run stuff, especially white onto clear. Only hampered by dodgy 3rd party cart's and the most unintuitive software ever created by man...

G

You're right it was the worst software, I couldn't get on with it, still everything in illustrator and exported it. That said getting it into the program was a nightmare in itself.

Onekiwi, just to add my option, I use Inkscape to do what bits I do, they is a thing called Bit map trace, for the bits I do it works fine for me.

I admit if you get a poor quality image off google ect it may not work but if you scan a sticker in like in your pic it works fine.

You can choose to scan outlines,shades,colours...... I can't really give you any advise of how to use it as I'm no expert but if you type it in YouTube they will be loads of vids of how to use it (that's how I learned to use it)

Here's a image I copied off google and used bit map trace then cut it on my cutter (the JE one, you can see the 'J' isn't quiet layed straight!!!) I have done loads of stickers scanned in just no pics handy to show you

http://i1055.photobucket.com/albums/...21f87ae1ab.jpg

Ah here's one,not the best pic but you get the idea, all the sponsors decals are painted on and were either scanned stickers or google images.....
http://i1055.photobucket.com/albums/...968b07afbb.jpg

I know this is an old thread - but I was interested in giving this vinyl cutting malarkey a try and obviously the last post here is a couple of years ago. Is the craft robo still the way to go, or are there better low cost options now?
I see a model called a silhouette which seems pretty good and looks to be a bargain?
Any advice gratefully received

Actually it looks like the robo craft model is now obsolete.

The silhouette cameo seems to be a better option but it is approx £250. There is a cheaper silhouette model at around 130.

Has anyone tried either or have any thoughts?

we used one at work last year. very good for a little cutter. we use to cut masking dots for circuit boards and we'd go down to 2mm and it cut the beautifully. also used to cut different shapes for the same purpose and it would cut fine without and join points. Very good little cutter.

Thank you. I will bite the bullet then...

I have the cameo, also a roland stika (older one that im moving on) cameo is very good even for me as im crap at that sort of thing

I did this using masking, the disco and balls out on the front and mbmodels/disco on the rear wing are decals the rest painted masks


https://scontent-a-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/...30559739_o.jpg

Superb. Thanks for advice - I've ordered one so will await its arrival