Roland CX-24 maximum material thickness?

[Steve Morgan]

Do you mean the thickness is 5 milimetres?

[Barbara Eden]

Yes Steve, I do 🙂 Sorry, must be having a ‘mature moment’-but then, it is Monday!!

Thanks, Barbara

[Steve Morgan]

I can’t imagine a plotter that is capable of cutting material that is nearly 1/4 of an inch thick. It must be rather difficult to use as a mask.

[David Rogers]

Mylar type material at 5mm thick. (A little under 1/4 inch!) seems odd – especially if using it for airbrush stencils.

Only ever seen it at around 5 MICRONS.

Did a bit of checking and 125micron mylar type films are commonly used for stenciling. (As they stand up to being sprayed with adhesive).

And just a thought – both mylar & polyester films can’t be stretched so for 2D surfaces only…no 3D curves or they just wrinkle.

I have used HIPS in the past for some stenciling projects (water based paint) – was around 0.25mm – pressure right up & double pass. Enough to tear the waste out along the deep score lines.

Dave

[Barbara Eden]

Thanks for your input Steve, but there are stencils much thicker than this cut with plotters 🙂

Unfortunately, the usual vinyl products sold for masking are too ‘flimsy’ for the airbrush- and get blown out of place, especially on textiles.

As I said in my original post, there are plotters that do it – from both ends of the price scale, but I don’t want to ruin my Roland if it can’t be done with it.

At the same time, I don’t fancy messing about with a cheap import 😥
Seems it has a lot to do with the force available.

Barbara

[Steve Morgan]

If it’s as thick as 5mm then I think your best course would be to find a signmaker with a laser cutter. That will certainly cut the material, as Dave said I didn’t think mylar came as thick as that. Have you tried sand blast rubber?

[Barbara Eden]

Thanks for your input once again 🙂
Dave, I should perhaps point out that this is on an adhesive backing- I know the ones that you mean- usually sold in sheets?

I must admit to being a little confused as regards thickness (not just mine 😳 ) as on returning to their website it is described as 5 or 7 mil- which I took to be mm?

However, just to confuse things further, I have a second choice material which is described as being 0.003"- which I guess is only slightly better!

Barbara

[David Rogers]

Yeh, 3 thou’…about 100microns.

A micron is a millionth of a metre.

So 1000 in a mm…or 254,000 in an inch.

Mil is an imperial measurement – 1000 to the inch.

Don’t confuse your Mil and Millimetres.

5 Mil…5 thou’…0.0127mm

Dave

[Chris Wool]

do the Americans call thousands of a inch mils

if a pc 60 cuts it fine you will not have any problems.

[Chris Wool]

must type quicker

[Ian Muir]

Hi Barbara

I have seen this a lot on websites, getting their units completely wrong that is.

The thickest stencils you will probably meet are 500 micron or 1/2 mm..

For airbrushing you do not need thick stencils, just a glue that adheres to the material you are painting (sometimes no glue at all).

I regularly grit blast using a 300 micron stencil which needs to be thick when being attacked by abrasives at 100 psi for a few minutes. I cut this easy on a Camm 1 roland set to ‘heavy material’ speed (dip switch 8).

Hope that helps

Ian :lol1:

[Barbara Eden]

So, according to your maths lesson Dave :thanks2: – I should be OK?

Chris, apparently the P60 has a force up to 500g, whereas the Roland is only 200, hence my concern.

Thank you very much for all your help – much appreciated

Barbara

[Barbara Eden]

Hi Ian
Thank you, that’s a great help. I had looked at the plotter spec’s before posting, and knew about changing to ‘heavy’ – the ‘dip switch 8’ just lost me though? 😳 😳

Barbara

[Chris Wool]

i do have a pc60 and max cut is 200gf so as i said if the 60 will do it you will be fine

chris