I have been using the TTS tapping holder with a drag knife to cut vinyl stencils.
It seems to work great using a very shallow contour cut of the letters or pocket. I set the height to depress the spring in the tapping holder 0.03 to 0.06" The drag knife is set about 0.005" below the drag knife holder (cut the vinyl but not all the way through the paper backing). I am using a $12 holder (0.47" dia) and 45 degree cutter (included). I use a piece of MFD on the CNC Mill table. Has anyone else tried this?
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Sounds like a great idea. I’ll have to give that a shot sometime! Where did you get the holder and cutter?
I’m interested to know how your holding down the vinyl.
The vinyl printer/cutters have geared rollers on both sides of the cutter head. How do you hold down a whole sheet on a mill table?
I just use masking tape on the edges. The TTS tap holder spring holds the vinyl on the MFD. I have never had any movement with about 2 pieces of tape each about 3" long.
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The holder and cutter are available on amazon.
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I haven’t cut vinyl in a while but I had great luck on the 24R just dialing in the knife to the height that I want so that it cuts through the vinyl and not the backer. No spring loaded holder necessary.
The vac table was particularly helpful
I was reluctant to rely on the squeezing of wood to keep from damaging the draw knide holder… I thought about vacuuming down the vinyl, and even bought the conpressed air to vacuum device, but the tape is so easy and I am not in production of vinyl, so have not gone further.
That is encouraging.
What are you using to generate the gcode? I have the cutter, want to make some small gaskets for a model engine.
I am using Fusion. I use the contour option and only cut about 0.02" deep if i remember correctly.
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I tried cutting rubber gaskets using a drag knife. Did not work. The knife blade pulls the rubber. The rubber was 1/16" thick neoprene. Rubber held down to MDF board with double sided tape.
I was able to get good results with 1/8" down cut or up cut bit running at 10k RPM.
Used the DXF PathPilot conversational.
Did get good results cutting thin felt held down with double sided tape and using drag knife.
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I have seen drag knifes that take a utility blade that might work for gasket material but that is way too thick for ours.
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I think you need a blade with a low angle. Something that will press the material down as it cuts and if you can keep it well lubricated while cutting.
Are you doing a flat head gasket to fit in a recess or is it sandwiched between the mating surfaces?
You could sandwich it between 2 blocks of aluminum and then mill out the voids.
No head gaskets. I can get those. But many of the smaller gaskets are either not available or only part of a gasket set. It takes time to put the design into CAD and then get the material ready on the tormach, but then it can cut out several gaskets quickly. Or at least quicker and way more accurate than by hand. The Tormach and the whole CNC machining process(CAM) is a steep learning curve for me.
This is off topic, but I decided to make 1 or 2 parts per week with all CAD and CAM.
After a few months, it is easy to make a design and g-code.
I also taught a course in Fusion at the local maker space to force myself to learn each part of Fusion. If you are conscientious, you will know Fusion well by the time the class is over. (It may take a lot of time, but thats what retirement is…)
I agree CAD and CAM are not easy to understand until it becomes intuitive.
Welcome to the group! I wondered about that. Nice thinking. I bought a diamond drag engraver but haven’t used it. The spinny one works well on flat things. I like that you have that working.