Help with craft robo/silhouette and decal cutting

[OneKiwi]

I have the above cutter and software.

I may be asking for trade secrets but hopefully not.

I am looking at doing a decal for a shell and what I want to use has a pattern. My problem is that when I have traced the shell and lay it flat its larger than the A4 that my machine can print.

If I take all the separate bits and jumble them around than I can get them on an A4 so that would be fine for doing a one colour or the CF look that I will try.

Now how can I lay the trace flat over the pattern as I would like it then maybe create an offset that is a few mm larger, and then save those pieces and the pattern the way I want it, so I can move the bits around to fit it all on the one page?

I want to only use one piece of vinyl if I can as there would be a fair bit of waste if I do two sheets like what the flat layout would be.

What I want would en-tale the printer printing the pattern jumbled, although it wont be a problem for the printer.

I hope that's clear enough to get an answer or two. If not let me know.
Thanks
Simon

[eyeayen]

Why do you say your machine can only cut A4 size, I think it can cut A4 width but should be able to do up to 900mm long which would solve your problem.

If you're worries about waste painting / airbrushing isn't the hobby for you.

You can't worry about how much vinyl you're going to use on a job, most of what we do is wasted. Not all the paint we spray goes onto the shells, a certain amount goes into the air. When I'm cleaning my airbrush out thinners just get flushed through it.

Masking tape is used like it's going out of fashion and unfortunately vinyl is the same. My cutter won't cut to the edge of the vinyl so every time I use it there are strips down both sides at the edge which are effectively wasted.

I would just arrange your pieces onto your paper to obtain the best fit possible wasting the least amount of vinyl. If you can print this out onto paper as well you can mark it so you know what goes where.

Your question isn't 100% clear though so I hope I've answered what you need. Vinyl is so cheap though it's not worth trying to be tight with it. I buy it in 50m rolls, it last ages.

[ClydeBuilt]

I have the same machine and you can have the excess hanging out the back. Eyeayen is right on the A4 thing, width is the limit not length.

Im still struggling to find decent decal/sticker paper? I can do basic stickers, but not decals, at least not any with white in them.

I bought a couple of cars off a mate, both have cracking decals with white in the layout, I have asked on the forums before but got no answer on where to get that kind of decal paper.

Still not interested in 'doing them' for anyone, just want to experiment on my own gear and it would be daft to pay for something I can do myself.

BTW how small a cut can you do on the Robo fella?

[eyeayen]

Nothing like resurrecting an old post LOL

Unless you have a printer you can't do black and decals unless you double lay them with the different colours in vinyl layered one on top of another.

To get the small amounts of vinyl you would need for personal use on your own car just go along to a sign writer and ask to buy small lengths of vinyl.

My mate has a Craft Robo, he can get text down to a few millimetres as I can on my Stika machine.

[ClydeBuilt]

Yes, my local printy-sign fella turns a blind eye to my dumpster diving as long as its personal use only, any money involved an would want to sell the scraps.

I found a handy utility that lets me convert to the proper format and edit how many colours etc. Seen the YT vids on multi colour jobs, nice, but a lot of work for one sticker. Big one-offs for on the tool book ok though.

Still no further forward on proper paper/printer for car sized stickers. Dont mind buying the paper obviously, but only worth getting the printer if you were doing it like the fellas on here. I only want one-offs here and there on my own kit.

[eyeayen]

Originally Posted by ClydeBuilt

I only want one-offs here and there on my own kit.

If you only want one offs design it yourself and get it printed, the design part is the fun bit and where you have the creativity so I would suggest getting all the design sorted then speaking to whoever you want to use to print it and asking what format they want it in and costs as it will be loads cheaper than buying a machine to do it and then material to do it with as well as the wasted material while you learn it all. Give it to someone who does it every day and pay then, it probably won't be much.

[OneKiwi]

Yep thats a little along the same thought I had, buit saying that I have done quite a few things with mine now, lots of stickers and paint stencils as well as a few decals for radios.
The multi colour ones were 2 layers but they were bigish and on a pitbox

I think my printer and the fake cartridges were my downfall as the larger prints didn't print right.
I now have a new printer and some clear vinyl that Im going to look at printing iin several colours and cutting them out.