My wife has a request

[luke11cnc]

My wife has a request

My dear wife makes cards for charity and friends

she has asked if I can cut some special cards and Boxes

Now I did buy her a craftrobo but it is crap

what router cutter would you buy or what cutter do you use for cutting card

would you use a PCB engraver bit or even a plotter bit ??

James

[Lee Roberts]

A sharp drag knife may work; I think the problem may come from the card moving too much !?!

A laser would give nice results but I think some sort of die cutter would be a better choice ?

.Me

[luke11cnc]

thank you lee

I will look into a small Laser then

Thank you

James and his wife

[Jonathan]

Laser cut cards, seems a bit extreme but it would work well. Problem is the price of lasers? Even with just card, as you need to cut it, you're looking at a 30W laser (complete guess!) which is a lot of money.

Have you looked into using the router as a vinyl cutter? They're good for making decorative things.

[njhussey]

You could always buy/make your own low powered laser and fit it to your router http://www.cooperman.talktalk.net/files/18.htm here's an interesting site where someone (cooperman) has done just that, along with other mods (vinyl cutter being one) to their router.

[black5f]

Hi. Trailing knife or trailing vibrating knife. But ££££s, vacuum or electrostatic bed to holdthe card. A nice low tech way is a press knife as per shoemaking. The easy way to explain is to imagine an enormously sharp pastry cutter. They will chomp through leather, card, 8 sheets thick at a time easy.You can still get knives made to card patterns or Cad drawings at:
http://www.woodash.co.uk/Pressknives.html
The cost of a quite complex knife can be £100, only really worth it if you want a alot but, last forever and you can then cut 1000s in just a few hours. You need a press of course, depending where you are you may be able to borrow one at a college of friendly shoe factory (rare).
Tom

[luke11cnc]

Hello Tom and Lee

thank you for your reply a cutting die is not the route I would like to go down as for many reasons

first being I have not got a press and don't really have the room for a press
the wife has many cards and boxes she would like cut so it really wouldn't be cost affective to peruse this route

The route I have decided to peruse is a drag knife and later a directional knife made with a stepper motor

I did look at laser but for a lot of reasons decided to bench it as it was more of a gadget curiosity

one of the main reasons for benching the laser was burn marks on the edge of the card

How ever I have a dvd writing diode that I may play with later as the son would love a chance to tell his friend what he has done plus I am sure I could find plenty of hacks for this route

again thank you for your reply

James and his wife:tup::tup:

[black5f]

Small runs, press knife won't be the way. Oscillating trailing knife, can be electric / pneumatic or ultrasonic? An interesting project! Best of Luck.
Tom