Does anyone use a Cricut, or the like to make their own stencils? I am keeping my eye on the Cricut Explore Air (2) Aprox $200-300, because you can do your own designs, where as I am reading other cutters (including other Cricut models) are limited by the software and cartridges sold for said machine. I am interested if any one has experience with the model I am considering or another one that has the freedom to cut any design. Cheers!
My wife has one. Still haven't figured out how to cut out a template for etching a logo however Jeremy from homestead knives uses it for his etching. I believe he has a you tube video on it
Yeah saw that video too Kevin! And also, what doesn't that guy own lol! I think he's the most tooled-up knife maker I subscribe to on YouTube!
Now Eric, Jeremy talks about why he got this, and eludes to the fact it's working for him...but he doesn't really show an etching. He owns the Personalizer Plus etcher also which is in this vidjayo (AvE reference)! ^Note in the last vid he uses the U.V light transfer/technique
thanks griff!! turns out my mom owns a cricet may have to try it out. really like the design of his lightbox and it looks easy to build small and simple. im waiting for a parcel from usa knife maker which i purchased the personalizer kit and a sheet of stencil material.
Yup, I bought one partially to make knife stencils out of. Seems to work pretty well. I was able to make a vector image off of a photo of my touchmark that I use on leather and brass to make the stencils I use to etch my knives.
Got my old lady the cricut explore air 2 for Xmas. I swear, not only because I wanted to do vinyl stencils with it(but it helped make my decision). From the little bit of looking into it I did I found that most say the cricut has better cutting power. It claims to do wood and leather up to 2mm thick with its multi cut function. So i think thats a 5 or 6 oz leather. Thats what i use for most of my leather tooling so iam exited to see how that works out. Apparently the the silhouette has a more user friendly program and it works without a computer or internet connection. The cricut advertises an offline app you can use with it but its u.s. only and I have yet to find a canadian version. That being said if I am using the wife's pretty craft machine I'll be inside anyway. Since I had a vector image of my makers mark i just opened it on the cricut webpage that you use to design your project. Sized it and it automatically forms the cut lines and cuts it out. I accidentally got her t shirt vinyl not sticker vinyl so no idea how it will work for a stencil yet but on the plus side I now have a t shirt with my makers mark on it.
maybe some one can give me some tips on getting a deep etch.... I got a century battery charger, because my poor man etching machine went up in smoke. I have been using it at 12 volt 2 amps....tried changing the pad between rounds..3 rounds at 15 sec and its not really doing anything impressive.
I made mine out of a 120 to 12v dc adaptor that's rated 200ma so that's pretty much the same. What are you using for your etching solution and your pad? I just use salt water and craft felt over the back of a big steel nail. I found that just by changing the amount of salt id get huge differences in etch depth. Also I can't remember where I heard it but if you etch steel with other metals it doesn't work as well for some reason. My biggest problem wasn't getting it to etch but not burning my stencil and getting spots all around my makers mark.
Yeah figured out that I did not have enough salt .....I added till it did not dilute anymore and got a nice etching. used it on my griffon knife that I posted
You know, if somebody who already owned a Cricut or a Cameo wanted to make a few bucks, they could start a side venture where members could send their logo to them and get a few sheets printed (nudge, nudge, wink, wink - say no more). I'm making maybe a blade/month. A sheet of labels would last me years. I don't want to buy a Cricut to print out maybe 15-20 labels. I'm just sayin'.... : )
BUMP! Did anyone above, or someone else ever try one of these machines out for stencils? I am now looking at the new Cricut maker, it’s deepcut Blade is good for cutting leather designs 3oz to even upto 6oz!
Yeah I did and it worked great. Some pictures posted in this thread... http://www.canadianknifemaker.ca/index.php?threads/stencil-printer-for-etching.3197/#post-25223 Just make sure to get a stencil vinyl it works much better then the regular sticker vinyl.
You can use to cut outlines on heavier leather or patterns into the leather for tooling from the little I have read up on these machines
John I haven’t as yet worked with leather, but they have noted that the newest Cricut machine the Cricut ‘Maker,’ will cut 6oz leather...is that impressive, or not so much? Considering it’s over $500 CAD I am on the fence for sure, but if 6oz is good, having a machine to do leather patterns on, makers marks and other custom etching I may consider it!
