Difference between revisions of "Silhouette Cameo"
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The unofficial knife cartridge, made from aluminum, is adjusted by turning the knob on the top. | The unofficial knife cartridge, made from aluminum, is adjusted by turning the knob on the top. | ||
It may be necessary to manually drag the blade across your material in order to determine whether it is adjusted properly. | It may be necessary to manually drag the blade across your material in order to determine whether it is adjusted properly. | ||
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Cartridges drop in to the "print head" of the machine and lock in place by twisting the blue plastic knob clockwise. | Cartridges drop in to the "print head" of the machine and lock in place by twisting the blue plastic knob clockwise. | ||
Revision as of 21:08, 17 September 2017
The Silhouette Cameo (1st generation) is a CNC tool which takes in flat sheets of material and runs a tool left-right and up-down along it. It is capable of recreating intricate designs with either a knife or a marker. The Silhouette Cameo is most useful for cutting vinyl stickers, but has many other uses.
Two different programs have been successfully tested. On windows and macos, you can use Silhouette's official software. On all desktop platforms, you can use Inkscape with this plugin. Most of this page is written with the assumption that you are using the Inkscape+plugin combination.
Contents |
Installing
First, install Inkscape.
Second, install the inkscape-silhouette plugin.
Instructions for Windows, MacOS, and Linux are on the GitHub page.
On Linux, be sure to add your user to the lp group.
If you have problems, check the "issues" tab.
If nobody is describing the issue you are having, feel free to open a new issue.
Using
Make Your Design
Import it or create it yourself. Using Inkscape is beyond the scope of this article.
Plug In
The cutter has a power brick and a USB cable. Plug these in to the wall and your computer, respectively.
Adjust Blade Depth
Official knife cartridge
Generic knife cartridge in protective tube
Generic knife cartridge
Blades for Silhouette's cutting machines come in cylindrical cartridges. The blade sticks out the bottom of the cartridge and pivots freely. It is important that the blade protrude the correct depth. Too shallow, and it will not cut through the material. (This can be used deliberately to score material for folding or tearing.) Too deep, and it will scour the rubber pad under the print head, and prematurely dull the blade.
Bloominglabs has 2 kinds of knife cartridges for the silhouette cameo. The manual describes the adjustment process for the official, plastic knife cartridge. It also has recommended depth settings for different materials.
The unofficial knife cartridge, made from aluminum, is adjusted by turning the knob on the top. It may be necessary to manually drag the blade across your material in order to determine whether it is adjusted properly.
Cartridges drop in to the "print head" of the machine and lock in place by twisting the blue plastic knob clockwise.
Load Material
Non-Adhesive-Backed Materials
For cutting materials that don't already have adhesive backing, like paper or fabric, it is recommended to use an adhesive cutting mat. (You may be able to get away without using a cutting mat, see examples here.) Cutting mats can be purchased on amazon or at major craft stores. Mats can be re-used a limited number of times, depending on whether the blade is set to be too deep or not and how well the adhesive maintains its hold.
Align your material in the top-left corner of the adhesive cutting mat.
Check that the blue knob on the right side of the cutter is pointing upward.
On the cutting machine, select the menu item "load cutting mat", and feed your cutting mat or work piece in.
Adhesive-Backed Materials
Materials that already have adhesive backing, like vinyl sheets, can be fed into the cutter directly.
If your sheet is less than twelve inches wide, the manual has instructions on adjusting the rollers for narrower sheets.
Check that the blue knob on the right side of the cutter is pointing upward.
On the cutting machine, select the menu item "load media", and feed your cutting mat or work piece in.
Make the Cut
In Inkscape's Extensions menu, select Export -> Send to Silhouette....
A big dialog box will pop up with lots of options. Generally, you only need to set Tool to either Cut or Pen, and set what Media you are working with.
If you find the defaults unsatisfactory, and you are sure that the blade is sharp and set to the correct depth, then you should start playing with the rest of the settings.
Finally, click Apply. The cutter will do the stuff and make the thing.
Links
User manual: File:Silhouette cameo manual.pdf
An archived copy of the product page: [1]
A PDF of the technical specifications: [2]
