Silhouette

Silhouette Cameo 3

Info

Vinyl cutting is a easy and cheap way of creating stickers, decals and custom print on clothing. Vinyl cutting works by manipulating a knife mounted on a gantry. Our vinyl cutter is a Silhouette Cameo 3. The software for creating designs and sending jobs to the vinyl cutter is Silhouette studio. The free version of this software only supports DXF, PNG and their own proprietary files.

Required Safety Equipment

None

Hazards

• 

  During operation

• 

  Sharp knife

Operational Safety

1. Do not use the vinyl cutter unless you know how to use it. For instruction contact Sonen staff here.
2. Keep hands, hair and clothing away from the machine during operation.
3. Do not touch the end of the blade.
4. The vinyl cutter is never to be left unsupervised during operation.
5. Do not move the cutting head while the machine is turned on.
6. Do not move the machine during operation.

Standard Operating Procedure

1. Figure out what the is the purpose of your design and choose your vinyl or other material accordingly.
2. Create your design in a vector graphics editor such as Inkscape or download something from the internet.
3. Save your design as a DXF file.
4. Import your design into Silhouette studio. Skip the previous 2 steps if you created your design in Silhouette studio.
5. Set up the hardware.
   1. Make sure there is sufficient space around the machine so it may run unobstructed.
   2. Make sure that the blade is properly mounted. Note that the AutoBlade is only functional in the left-hand tool holder.
   3. Adjust the rollers to fit your material as per the instructions on the machine.
6. If your material doesn't have a backing, use the cutting mat. Remove the protective sheet and place your material on the sticky surface. Try not to dirty the cutting mat.
7. Load the material into the machine using the menu on the machine. The material or cutting mat should be aligned with the blue line.
8. Heat transfer vinyl (vinyl for t-shirts) is cut upside down (shiny side down) and mirrored. Adhesive vinyl is cut right way up (paper side down) and right way round.
9. Make sure to specify in silhouette studio wether you use a cutting mat or not.
10. Make sure that your design is located such that it will be cut on the material.
11. If you intend to cut heat transfer vinyl, remember to mirror your design.
12. Send the job to the vinyl cutter through Silhouette studio. Use the recommended settings, tweak them if necessary. It is important that the blade does not cut into the cutting strip underneath the blade and damaging it.
13. Unload your material from the machine. If you used the cutting mat, remove your material and replace the protective sheet.
14. If you did not use a cutting mat, do not cut out your design. Simply peel away your finished design so that the backing remains intact.
15. Tidy up after you.

Useful links

• Silhouette Studio manual
• Silhouette Cameo manual
• Guide to making t-shirts. Note that we use a Heat press instead of an iron.