Advertisements for cutting plotters (aka vinyl cutters) in magazines market this technology as a distribution platform for costly design patterns, available from retail outlets as files or physical cartridges. That&#;s a clash with Maker culture: We want to make our own stuff, thank you very much.
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But don&#;t write off vinyl cutters just yet. You can accomplish a lot more with a vinyl cutter than the projects often highlighted in advertising associated with &#;craft cutters.&#; So we pulled together some of our favorite examples, along with some alternative uses you might want to employ.
Labels and Stickers
- Stick physical numbers or time labels right onto the table while you photograph the stages of a tutorial or other process to help you sort through the photographs later.
- Create labels for materials, supplies, and experiments in your own idiom, from ghoulish safety warnings, to all-caps warnings like &#;KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF MY STUFF!&#;
- Place glow in the dark safety labels in your workshop that only reveal themselves when you flip off the lights.
Imperator Furiosa&#;s Skeleton Arm
Maker/Hacker/Blogger Pete Prodoehl exited a screening of Mad Max: Fury Road with a quest of his own: To produce a vinyl sticker replica of Imperator Furiosa&#;s Skeleton Arm. He traced the image and pasted it to the driver&#;s door of his own war machine (and his laptop).
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Electronics
- Create acid resist patterns for your custom PCBs, and then add &#;silkscreen&#; labels.
- Use a conductive pen to plot a circuit in low-resistance silver.
- Cut thin foil traces, PCB layers, and RFF interference protection for your paper circuits.
- Create your own DIY sticker circuits, from blinking &#;LED stickies&#; to handy ad-hoc breakouts for your Arduino or Raspberry Pi prototyping.
Woodworking, Craft, and Painting
- Create and place trim markers on plywood, MDF, acrylic, or hardwoods on-site where the project will be delivered, and then transport the materials to a better-furnished woodshop for cutting, sanding, and painting.
- Create edge boundaries and resist patterns to take some of the terror out of painting, staining, and coating.
- Remind yourself of the part ID and rotation when producing a massive assembly project on a CNC, laser cutter, or chopsaw. (Peel and discard when the project is assembled.)
- Prepare stencil vinyls and plastic sheets suited to the specific water-based or solvent-based paints you will be using.
- Create stencils and resist layers for chemical etching or sandblasting on wood, glass, acrylic, or metal sheets.
Paper Engineering
- Cut, crease, score, and perforate papers, cardstocks, and thin plastics to create elaborate kirigami, origami, and other paper craft projects.
- Cut and score the top layer of thin foam core or cardboard to produce instant foldable 3D objects.
- Add fragments of paper or translucent acetate to produce colorful paper or plywood lanterns.
Light My Heart
Papercircuit designer Natasha Dzurny creates pop-up greeting cards with paper circuits like this Valentine&#;s Day card (and many more).
Prototypes and Project Decorations
- Produce foam or stiff paper prototypes of product designs or scale models of buildings.
- Test ambitious CNC and laser cuts in miniature before executing on large or costly materials.
- Add text, weathering, decals, and patches of color to your 3D printed scale replicas.
- Add tiny text and embellishment details onto 3D printed replica props that are too small and fussy to produce using your printer.
- Sometimes the best cuts are hidden. Double-stick adhesive sheets securely attach embellishments to your projects, or attach your projects to walls and tables and other things.
Custom Apparel
- Launch your next project &#;in character&#; with outfits bearing the logo, name, and purpose of your invention.
- Create team shirts for your First Robotics team, hackerspace, or classroom.
- Transfer any design or illustration you dream up to tshirts, totes, and temporary tattoos.
Simple Silk-Screen Printing
Educator and Make contributor Chris Connors shared this project in issue 36, demonstrating how to use a vinyl sticker as the mask for a DIY silkscreen project.
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Homes, Schools, Hackerspaces, and More
- Create removable vinyl wallpaper patterns on your own time and whims.
- Add frosting or translucent blocking to window glass or acrylic laser cut projects without the messiness of acid etching/sandblasting equipment.
- Enlarge a thoughtful handwritten note into an epic wall decoration.
- Vectorize photographs of members of your class, team, or hackerspace. Use a marking tool in your machine to sketch portraits to hang in the space. Run the files again to produce another copy to send home with the subject of each drawing.
- Create labels with magnetic backing material to mark who is &#;In&#;, &#;Out&#;, or who should &#;Clean the Bathroom.&#;
- Add a permanent wall shadow to a present or missing object.
- Cut the panels and silhouette shapes for elaborate interactive shadow boxes.
- Make your own museum-style wall text and stick it up next to something you appreciate as art.