Vinyl Cutter

• Cut off a large piece of material from the roll. This works better than feeding directly from the roll.
  
  
• Lift the rollers using the lever to the back left of the machine. Then move the rollers by hand to where you want them, i.e. the edges of your piece. If the blade is in the way move it to the right. Move the rollers to places marked in white so that they can catch the moving ridges, which you will see.
  
  
• Then put your piece under the rollers and use the lever to put the rollers down, holding the piece in place.
  
  
• Now there will probably be a message about sheet unloaded. Select "piece". The machine will measure the width and length of your piece.
  
  
• Use the arrow keys to get to where you want your origin to be (the origin will be the bottom left corner of the cam.py window). Press and hold the origin button until the message appears in the display that origin is set.

• It might be necessary to prop up the cutter, if your copper piece is longer than 12" as it needs to remain bent (it does not flatten out completely when taken of the rool) otherwise it will crumple.

Sending the File

• Open a shell and type "cad". You can make any shape in cad.py you want to cut out.
  
  
• Next, select the right output device and do 1 contour. Set the desired force and velocity.
  
  
  

• When you begin to use the vinyl cutter, the source of greatest potential frustration will probably be finding the proper settings for the force and velocity of the blade. Don't worry, you can do it, but take your time
  
  
• I have found that the far more important of these two variables is force. The hardware force slider and force settings in cad.py need to be adjusted togteher.
  
  
• If you cannot separate your material from its backing, then your force is too low. If your piece is mangled, then your force is probably too high (or the blade might be dull). What you want to see is slight lifting of the material around corners.
  
  
• I have found that the force value must be within about 2 or 3 units. Fortunately, you can tell when the force is too high or too low, so the narrowing process is straightforward. If anyone finds good values for new materials, please leave a note on the Desktop.
  
  
• If it turns out that the blade is in fact dull, you can get another one from John or Professor Gershenfeld.
  
  

• The material to use is the roll of copper found by the vinyl cutter. Load a sheet of it as you would any other material.
  
  
• Make sure that your file in cad.py includes a box around your circuitboard for easier removal from the copper. Then print your file as above. I found the process to work with a force of 53 and a velocity of 2 with a new blade. Of course, as the blade dulls, these values might shift slightly. This should at least give you a starting point.
  
  
• Once you have your design cut, use the tweezers to lift the corner of your design a little bit off of the backing. Then put the transfer tape on the copper. Don't press it too hard--you don't need to and you don't want to set the pressure-sensitive adhesive. Remove the white layer of paper so you can start with the transfer.
  
  
• Now transfer the copper to the glossy side of the epoxy film, also found near the vinyl cutter. This is where your set the pressure-sensitive adhesive. The tweezers work well for this part. Use the long flat section to really press the transfer tape, copper, and epoxy film. Press really, really hard, and make sure to get the whole surface. When you pull off the transfer tape, the copper will stick to the epoxy film.
  
  
• At this point, you should have the copper rectangle, with your circuitboard cut in it, stuck to the epoxy film. Using the tweezers, carefully remove the excess copper. It is at this point that you pull horizontally, within the plane of the board, to keep everything from coming up. If you are patient, you will end up with a circuitboard on a piece of epoxy film without a lot of difficulty.
  
  
• The epoxy film canwithstand heat and can be soldered on, and since it has a sticky backing, you can apply it to whatever you choose.