Cheap cnc for mylar?

huskystafford

huskystafford

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I do have vinyl cutter, but I doubt vinyl cutter will do the job easy. I didn't try it yet, but i remember I seen a post from forum member, he needed to do bunch of passes for it to work. So does anybody uses cnc for mylar? I seen a3 size cheap cnc machines and I was just thinking.
Anybody with experience? anybody with ideas? What do I need to look for if I would like to get one?
 
It depends on the vinyl cutter how many passes you need. The more industrial machines can push down hard enough to do single passes. But they struggle doing very detailed cuts. I've never seen a CNC used for stencils. Lasers are normally used.
 
AndreZA said:
It depends on the vinyl cutter how many passes you need. The more industrial machines can push down hard enough to do single passes. But they struggle doing very detailed cuts. I've never seen a CNC used for stencils. Lasers are normally used.
Click to expand...
thansk for the info. I need to check lasers then. I don't have a clue about those stuff. lol
 
nvm I found this post on internet:
We cut Mylar for masks and stencils on a frequent basis. I'm afraid I can't tell you how thick the material we use is (I don't have a micrometer to measure it) but we buy ours from the same source and I know on the Cameo with blade set to 6 and force of 25, using double cut, we have no problems. We have also used Doeflex but find that can take up to 4 cuts to complete the job. My wife finds the Mylar masks work well, so we don't force the issue with heavier materials.
 
I have a chinese 6040 CNC router i use to cut stencils out of whatever i want.
You can also mount in a plotter/cutter blade holder or simply a drag knife bit with the motor off.

Get the feed and speed correct and you can easily use a 60 degree bit to cut good detail in a variety of materials as well.

I've made a few modifications to mine to be able to work with aluminum and brass, which you need one of the more powerful motors for and some mods to make it stiffer to reduce chatter even making light cuts on brass. Cuts polypropylene or polyethylene very easily right out of the box.
7-10+ mil (as in .007-.010 in) or even .030 mylar would be a joke to even the stock machine. For stencils almost any of these machines should do the trick.

For mylar sheet
I would probably set up with a 60 degree engraving bit and 3.5mm max cut depth with sacrificial MDF under it.
As an almost total guess Id probably run roughly 500-750mm PM, 3500 rpm Just as a starting point to play with my feed and speed
Using f-engrave to produce the g-code.
 
Last edited:
Sounds like youve got a solution, but if you ever need your stencils to be 6mm thick for some unknown reason, you could always go back to the cheap CNC idea LOL
 
Robbyrockett2 said:
I have a chinese 6040 CNC router i use to cut stencils out of whatever i want.
You can also mount in a plotter/cutter blade holder or simply a drag knife bit with the motor off.

Get the feed and speed correct and you can easily use a 60 degree bit to cut good detail in a variety of materials as well.

I've made a few modifications to mine to be able to work with aluminum and brass, which you need one of the more powerful motors for and some mods to make it stiffer to reduce chatter even making light cuts on brass. Cuts polypropylene or polyethylene very easily right out of the box.
7-10+ mil mylar would be a joke to even the stock machine. For stencils almost any of these machines should do the trick.

For mylar sheet
I would probably set up with a 60 degree engraving bit and 3.5mm max cut depth with sacrificial MDF under it.
As an almost total guess Id probably run roughly 500-750mm PM, 3500 rpm Just as a starting point to play with my feed and speed
Using f-engrave to produce the g-code.
Click to expand...
I still didn't use mylar, but option to have reusable stencils looks appealing to me. I was looking today some engraving machines for a3 , price was like 250 euros. But I wasn't sure in which direction should I go in the future if I would like to cut mylar. I sure ain't spending 50 bucks per stencil -.- That's like few stencils and I can buy a machine...

So what would be the cheapest variant to cut mylar? No hand cutting :)
 
that info you provided is great.
Robbyrockett2 said:
I have a chinese 6040 CNC router i use to cut stencils out of whatever i want.
You can also mount in a plotter/cutter blade holder or simply a drag knife bit with the motor off.

Get the feed and speed correct and you can easily use a 60 degree bit to cut good detail in a variety of materials as well.

I've made a few modifications to mine to be able to work with aluminum and brass, which you need one of the more powerful motors for and some mods to make it stiffer to reduce chatter even making light cuts on brass. Cuts polypropylene or polyethylene very easily right out of the box.
7-10+ mil mylar would be a joke to even the stock machine. For stencils almost any of these machines should do the trick.

For mylar sheet
I would probably set up with a 60 degree engraving bit and 3.5mm max cut depth with sacrificial MDF under it.
As an almost total guess Id probably run roughly 500-750mm PM, 3500 rpm Just as a starting point to play with my feed and speed
Using f-engrave to produce the g-code.
Click to expand...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/US-Ship-CN...raving-Machine-Frame-80mm-Clamp-/252974827762
https://www.ebay.com/itm/US-Ship-CN...raving-Machine-Frame-80mm-Clamp-/252974827762
something like this?
 
I have a 3w laser in my 3d printer and works beautifully, dont have pictures but look for tech2c in youtube and will see a setup like mine!


Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk
 
huskystafford said:
that info you provided is great.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/US-Ship-CN...raving-Machine-Frame-80mm-Clamp-/252974827762
something like this?
Click to expand...
Very much like that.
This is almost the exact setup, except I didnt get the watercooled spindle since I bought it years ago
A 1500-2000 watt watercooled spindle motor is on my list of to do upgrades for it. But I use it for a lot of small metal parts so stiffer and more power are a must.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/4-AXIS-ENG...893925&hash=item3f8db8bbc7:g:~yUAAOSwGPxaHuFF


And since I have more than three axes on my controller I can always convert to 3d printing or laser cutting or whatever by using that fourth axis as material feed. Or use for a plotter cutter with a blade holder, Its kind of my do it all desktop machine.
 
Robbyrockett2 said:
Very much like that.
This is almost the exact setup, except I didnt get the watercooled spindle since I bought it years ago
A 1500-2000 watt watercooled spindle motor is on my list of to do upgrades for it. But I use it for a lot of small metal parts so stiffer and more power are a must.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/4-AXIS-ENG...893925&hash=item3f8db8bbc7:g:~yUAAOSwGPxaHuFF
Click to expand...
Thanks Robby for all the info. Very use full! Gonna see what will happen with my cuter when I buy mylar, and I will go from there. You point me in the right direction so I don't need to wonder on internet and have a headache from all the googling. lol
Not to mention,those info can be use full to others who are looking at those machines as well.
 
huskystafford said:
Thanks Robby for all the info. Very use full! Gonna see what will happen with my cuter when I buy mylar, and I will go from there. You point me in the right direction so I don't need to wonder on internet and have a headache from all the googling. lol
Not to mention,those info can be use full to others who are looking at those machines as well.
Click to expand...
Not sure how useful it is but you are welcome :)
That thing is serious overkill for stencils but I already have it so..... I put it to use whenever I can.
What were the ones you found for 250 euro?
 
Last edited:
 
I imagine one of those would work for stencils, Looks like a very lightweight-weaker version of what I use.
Hard to tell for sure, The problem with cutting is the motor torque, if it cant cut while turning slowly enough than plastic gets all melty.
 
Robbyrockett2 said:
I imagine one of those would work for stencils, Looks like a very lightweight-weaker version of what I use.
Hard to tell for sure, The problem with cutting is the motor torque, if it cant cut while turning slowly enough than plastic gets all melty.
Click to expand...
This info will be use full if I will buy one in the future. Hard to tell yet, but if my cutter won't work I will pul the plug and at least I will know what I need to watch out for.
 
The laser thing the stiffness wouldnt really matter, or the stepper motor power I guess, just the laser power. No clue on that part.

Id guess Marcos' post would be more useful there

Still for stencils F-engrave is awesome.
Free software to convert bitmap or vectors to g-code for these types pf machines and it works great!
No matter what the cutting device is
 
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