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Cutting shaped business cards with my plotter?
I’m just wondering how advisable is it to cut shaped business cards with my plotter.
In all likelyhood I won’t be doing hundreds, so its seems logical at this stage to output my
cards with my desktop inkjet printer and then cut them out with the plotter.I realise that registration will be an issue, my main concern though is wear and tear to
the machine and blade ie blunting blades and damaging the cutting strip.Anyone tried this and got any recomendations?
Cheers Peter
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18 Replies
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HI
i have cut templates and scooring on 300gm card
2 cut passes seamed fairer on the mechanics finger on the off switch just incase but you must be prepared to damage knife or bed strip else dont do it. the old unused cutter in the corner is favouritechris
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can`t you get bussiness cards pre cut on an A4 sheet. just use your inkjet printer.
Similer to paper labels from staples.
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Hmmm thanks Chris, well it was worth considering, but seeing as my cutter is sparkly new I’d best not risk it 🙁
Becky I wanted the top edge of the card to have a shaped edge (rather than flat) and to have the appearance
of having been die-cut.I guess my standards are high, while my budget is low 😥
Cheers Pete
PS while I think on, if card is that rough on a plotter, how bad are reflectives and sandblast materials?
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I think it’s the fibrous structure of paper that blunts blades. Do you know anyone with a flat bed plotter? These tend to be better for die cutting, where a sacrificial sheet can be laid under the material to prevent damage to the bed. Also, the blades used for dye cutting are of a different design to regular vinyl cutting blades.
(Or just cut em out with a knife 😉 )
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Don’t really fancy the knife option G, but I am thinking of making a template/guide
so that I might be able to rout the edge and probably my fingers 😮Pete
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couldn`t you get a die cut made. similer to the ones used by the hot foil boys.
Print out the B/Cards on an A4 sheet of card , place the die over the images and hit with a mallett????
Kimco dop die cutting. 01635 301154
just trying to help 😀 😀
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I could post a phone number of a guy on the Essex/Herts border who makes cutting formes and will happily take a Corel Draw file. Don’t know how practical a big hammer is though.
Alan -
I’ve already done a few business cards, but I’ve used a knife as I find its just easier than messing around with machines and generally quicker (Dewi be good with knives 😉 )
The die cut & mallet idea sounds good Becky, I’d have a lash at that. Whats the shape though Pete? Is it not possible to print it on acetate? Similar effect but no dodgy cutting. A realistic is to collar that blonde-haired git in Leigh to cut them by hand during his slack periods 😉
Could anyone give me the basics of mechanical die cutting (if thats what it called)? Most of the stuff I intend doing will be guillotined or hand-cut, but it’d be interesting to know of the machines alternatives.
Cheers, Dewi
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Take them to a shop with a laser , its a snap and cant be expensive to die cut cut em there , we charge about 6p each on a qty of 500 or so. You can cut shapes you could nto dream of doing on any other machine , like print a rose and partially die cut the petals etc. If you do the card in package like Corel , you can take them the die line , most lasers run corel or equivalent. The other option is to put application tape behind them as a carrier and cut with your plotter.
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, why waste time trying to do something your machines npot built for, get in touch with RCS Print, they are reallt good, we sub ALL our print work to tem, 4 day turnaround on receirt of artwork, proof checking for you, shaping, scoring, punchimg you name it
& all that for as little as £70 for 500 full colour cards ( even photgraphic), I then doulble this.+ my artwork charge………great little number………….ask mr broughton
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I’ve used RCS in the past as well, they’re a pretty good company, though there carriage charges are a nightmare to work out on a Monday morning 😉
The reason Pete wants a method of cutting his cards is mainly the shape I think Sammyr. I’m presuming its a complicated shape, ment more as an attention grabber than as a function of the card. May be wrong, but knowing Pete, he likes to grab ppls attention. 😀 I’ve just flicked through the RCS guide but as per usual I don’t know what I’m looking at. They must do custom cut shapes as they do some POS stuff that kind of wierd, like a house made of card 😕
On the subject of business cards, prior to starting setting up the shop I often did small runs of cards for businesses, more of a courtesy for design work I had with them (I mainly did logo work and advertising). Anyway, I’d print 500 cards at a cost of around £6 – £10 (dependent on the colours, card etc.) , then spend an hour or so slicing and dicing them with a knife whilst I was watching TV or listening to some music. I was asking between £65 – £75 for these cards, so I was clearing around £50 – £60 for what I classed as a filler job. Not fantastic money, but I could turnaround cards quite quickly and didn’t need to worry about working out those carriage charges 😉 Whether I’ll feel inclined to continue this type of thing once I’m in the shop is anyones guess!
I’ve read some stuff before about lasers Rodney. Is the equipment for that type of thing expensive? (Everytime I think of lasers I think of Flash Gordon! Too much TV! 😮 ) I like the app tape as a carrier though, I’ll give that one a go tomorrow, might blunt a blade but it’ll be a laugh at the very least 🙂
Cheers, Dewi
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£70 for 500 cards?
I’ll be in touch end of march if our promised Indigo 6 colour press arrives!
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You should be rolling in it Chris! There is a guy up your way who comes to a trade printer in Leigh to get all his business cards printed enmass, then hikes them back up to Blackpool to sell them for a huge profit (I know what the trade printer charges and what he sells them for and its not just sweetie money 😉 )
Is the Indigo the SRA3 digi one? If so, can I have some piccies to drool over when you get it? 😉
Cheers, Dewi
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Yep , lasers are pricey , round GBP25k for a decent one like a 1m x 500mm 60 Watt Gcc explorer BUT……. If there isnt a laser shop around you , it’s a license to print money.
It was the most scary and best investment I ever made to go with lasers. We started off about 3 yrs ago with a simple 25 watter and last year we installed and upgraded to 3x 60 watter large format ones. It’s an incredibly versatile machine for cutting and engraving – the only bugbear with a laser is it’s inability to cut metals (CO2’s in the engraving power range that is)
You can cut and engrave stuff from ultra thin papers to 12mm thick acrylic and the engraving quality is unbeleivable.
I would hesitate to buy one for signage only applications unless you are a very busy letter cutting shop etc . I would also hesitiate to buy one for marking gifts an trinkets etc , but if you are creative and are prepared to market it , you can really make very nice stuff and good money. The applications are truly endless .
The biggest advantage of a laser is that it cuts and engraves without contact , you can just put something down and zap it , no clamps , no swarf and it doesnt even have to be flat to engrave properly.
You can even cut vinyl with it as the depth control is very good , you use power and speed in combination to control the depth of cut. -
Why have I suddenly got the image of you sat behind a desk with a large white cat, stroking it slowly whilst one of your competitors is chained to a large format laser cutter? 😉 Cue the adventurous orchestra music and the escape attempt with a half-chewed pencil and a small piece of lint 😮
As you say Rodney, 25k is a chunk to put into a machine. If you have a viable product/service that can be produced on it, mucho moola, if not, you have a very expensive way of opening envelopes 😉 Hopefully there will be things like this on demo at Sign UK as I’d really enjoy seeing it in action. I must watch too many SciFi programs as I still chuckle when my overactive imagination starts to fantasise about what these laser cutters look like 😉
Cheers, Dewi
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Hi Dewi,
yes the Indigo is the SRA3 digital one, just having the new unit knocked into shape now to accomodate it.
very special pricing will be in order for uksg members, soon as we’ve worked out how to use it! After all, we’ll need the trade turnover to pay for it!
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G, good suggestion anyone reading this in the Lancs area able to help?
Becky, I appreciate your ideas. Personally I don’t know what the hotfoil boys do
but I like the idea, thanks for the number.Brushman thanks also.
Dewi, a quick description of die cutting would be long blades bent to shape and embedded in a ply(?)
base board. This is then placed on top of (in this case) a sheet of business cards, which is then passed
through a machine with rollers. The rollers exert preasure, pushing the blade through the sheet.
The sheet and die cut is spat out, lift off and start again.
Its years since I did any, and the memory is somewhat faded as it wasn’t the high light of my working career 😉Rodney, nice to see you posting again. I’ll have to look in to this idea.
Sammyr, I have time at the moment and was just thinking outside the box while keeping setup costs
down 😀LOL Dewi just spotted Pete the attention grabber – your right of course.
A man of dubious wisdom once said to me “If you can’t dazzel them with brilliance, then baffle them with bulls**t”
I’m hoping to be in the first catagory.Cheers all Pete
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I have been printing and cutting business cards for a few years now, and it is a good little earner.
I use a machine which is used in the photographic industry, and it has paid itself off many times. I had a template made to the size that I wanted the card cut to.
The only draw back is that I cut three cards out at a time – which means I make quite a few cuts for 100 cards, having said this I have so much practise now that I can cut 100 cards in 5- 10 mins.
Here is the link to their web site.
http://www.neilenterprises.com/pages/ppages/9924.html
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