The Sep 2020 MR has an article on use of the Silhouette Cameo automated cutter. I have used both a Silhouette and a Cricut machine quite satifactorily with Strathmore cardstock. The shortcoming of each is in cutting thicker/denser material such as styrene. I enjoy designing models and cutting them without the tedious process of cutting numerous window openings, etc.
The article mentions that Silhouette has come out with a new machine that is capable of cutting styrene because it can exert a higher pressure on the cutting blade.
Before I invest in yet another cutting machine, has anyone out there had first hand experience with using this new Silhouette Cameo 4?
Mike
I see no reviews of the Silhouette Cameo 4 that mention styrene or other sheet plastic, although they dance around at length discussing all the materials the machine's nominal 5-kilogram knife pressure, tungsten-carbide tools, and up to 3mm thickness tolerance will handle -- leather and thin metal being a couple of them. One interesting discussion is that the machine will not cut acrylic, but that 'Shrinky Dinks' can be kludged into a reasonable 'craft' approximation that can then be overlaid with very precise cut sheets -- perhaps easily overprinted with stone or building detail as we have discussed in other threads, on vinyl, precisely sized via the Pixamat tool and scan utility... including the interesting ability to size work by simply taking a phone picture on the calibrated mat and e-mailing it to yourself to get it correctly into the software.
I suspect this is largely an issue that the mat cannot handle the cutting shear force. There are techniques for other types of cutting machine that might handle this. The other potential difficulty is in the blade angle it bevel, which may cause excessive edge distortion of the cut pieces or binding on curves or transitions. The complete absence of discussion on this across a wide range of crafter 'reviews' makes me wonder, as thin styrene or ABS has been something other machines have been reported to handle... at least for a short time, or with no reports on blade life or breakage.
I do think the roller blade may have promise both for stock preparation and for at least partial utility in things like brick scribing on the heavy styrene (.040 and above) that other machines cannot work. There appears no question the machine works well with any thickness of cardstock or similar material, or with comparable density wood, up to at least 2mm thickness, and I am specifically looking for trials on basswood or other modelmaking material -- the architectural community should be a source in time.
It does occur to me that a tougher amorphous material might give all the structural strength and moisture resistance to stand in for styrene -- cardstock made with some plastic in the binder, or with a resin or the kind of adhesive used in glulam beams or even composite engineered wood. This might be tested by soaking cardstock in something like PVA under pressure to keep it straight and smooth and seeing how it behaves...