Anyone figured out how to print directly to DTFB yet? And don't mention another home brew CNC machine. Not what I'm asking for.

newTOpro

Junior Member
I don't think you are going to get good quality cuts in foam board from a vinyl cutter. Especially with some of the newer builds that have some fairly detailed parts to cut out. Nerdnic went on to develop/build the Rascal after the vinyl cutter experiment so I would assume that effort would not have occurred if you can cut foam board well with a $250 machine.

That's great, but still twice as much as a vinyl cutter.
 

Psychron

www.youtube.com/psychron
I don't think you are going to get good quality cuts in foam board from a vinyl cutter. Especially with some of the newer builds that have some fairly detailed parts to cut out. Nerdnic went on to develop/build the Rascal after the vinyl cutter experiment so I would assume that effort would not have occurred if you can cut foam board well with a $250 machine.
I admire your enthusiasm, but everyone keeps missing the point. I am fine with cutting out my own parts. I just want to only have to do it once and I'd prefer to not waste paper by printing to templates first and then to the foam board. People are using vinyl cutters to draw the plans directly on their foam board now and that's the solution I'm looking for. I didn't ask about needle cutters or anything else everyone seems to want to force on me. I want to spend my time flying.. not building things to help me build things. If it doesn't come prepared in a box, ready to plug in and assist me, I'm not interested.
 

Psychron

www.youtube.com/psychron
I don't think anyone is reading or comprehending before responding. Very disappointing. Only a couple have shown me they're interested in helping me with this.
 

newTOpro

Junior Member
I won't help anymore now. That was rude.

I don't think anyone is reading or comprehending before responding. Very disappointing. Only a couple have shown me they're interested in helping me with this.

This response leads people to believe cutting WOULD be an option for you. SO BE CLEAR and maybe you'll get what you are looking for. Good day to you.

I suppose if I was buying a more expensive vinyl cutter/plotter I probably could. This thing is hobby grade. :

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CDQGCTW/?tag=lstir-20
 

Psychron

www.youtube.com/psychron
I won't help anymore now. That was rude.



This response leads people to believe cutting WOULD be an option for you. SO BE CLEAR and maybe you'll get what you are looking for. Good day to you.
And to be fair, the title was originally about drawing on foam board. not cutting, no needles, no cnc machines.. just drawing. So if we're being completely honest with ourselves, you were rude first by suggesting something other than what I'd requested in the topic. So.... good day to YOU sir.
 

Keno

Well-known member
So I've just finished a conversation with a vinyl cutter company. It turns out those $300.00 vinyl cutters will work with material that is 5mm thick and thicker. it would take an input and output table to allow the material to slide back and forth, but the software would allow me to load the foam board into the unit, and change the plotter pen between red, black and blue to get all the markings drawn in. to me, that's a no brainer. For $300.00, I'm fine cutting the parts out by hand. It'd take me longer than the time it takes them to ship this thing to me in man hours to source, receive, assemble, program, and finally utilize any CNC project build. Ain't nobody got time for that.
I noted you found a cutting machine that can cut up to 5mm I am interested to know the name of the company. And I too would like to just print on the foam board as I enjoy cutting out the parts and pieces. Give me a 9mm "Olfa" knife any day. Most hobby cutting machines have a pen feature but lack width &, depth for 20X30 foam board. What you are looking for is available but the cost is far beyond my desire to purchase. I guess I am stuck with templates.
 

Psychron

www.youtube.com/psychron
I noted you found a cutting machine that can cut up to 5mm I am interested to know the name of the company. And I too would like to just print on the foam board as I enjoy cutting out the parts and pieces. Give me a 9mm "Olfa" knife any day. Most hobby cutting machines have a pen feature but lack width &, depth for 20X30 foam board. What you are looking for is available but the cost is far beyond my desire to purchase. I guess I am stuck with templates.
The vinyl cutter is just under $400.00 on Amazon and it comes with knives and vinyl for decals and whatnot so you could use it to both cut out vinyl and you could use it to draw the templates directly on the material. Again, there was concern on the part of the sales person that it might not cut the foam board like I'd want, and to draw on it you do need a cutting mat to stick the foamboard to but it does work for drawing. In fact, some anecdotal evidence I got from someone else stated that I wouldn't want the vinyl cutter to cut for me because all sharp corners end up being circles due to the blade rotation at that point.


I'm still deciding if I should pull the trigger or not.
 

Keno

Well-known member
The vinyl cutter is just under $400.00 on Amazon and it comes with knives and vinyl for decals and whatnot so you could use it to both cut out vinyl and you could use it to draw the templates directly on the material. Again, there was concern on the part of the sales person that it might not cut the foam board like I'd want, and to draw on it you do need a cutting mat to stick the foamboard to but it does work for drawing. In fact, some anecdotal evidence I got from someone else stated that I wouldn't want the vinyl cutter to cut for me because all sharp corners end up being circles due to the blade rotation at that point.


I'm still deciding if I should pull the trigger or not.
You are coming up with similar information that I have gathered. Noted on sharp end cuts being circles also I read concern on tearing and breaking blades. Anyway I appreciate your come back I'll do some more digging into this. Thanks
 

nerdnic

nerdnic.com
Mentor
You can use a vinyl cutter to ‘draw’ plans right to foam board or use the blade to score the first layer of paper. I did this for years with my vinyl express r31 to avoid having to print plans. It requires some setting tweaks in the software, blade adjustment on the machine, and a sub material to fix the foam to so the machine can feed back/forth (I used vinyl), but works well enough. It saved a lot of time but wasn’t the solution I wanted. This lead to the Rascal CNC which allows me to cut foam board kits in minutes.
 

bracesport

Legendary member
I would think some copy centres could feed the FB through their machines and print directly to it - asi understand it you can print on stiff card.
 

Psychron

www.youtube.com/psychron
You can use a vinyl cutter to ‘draw’ plans right to foam board or use the blade to score the first layer of paper. I did this for years with my vinyl express r31 to avoid having to print plans. It requires some setting tweaks in the software, blade adjustment on the machine, and a sub material to fix the foam to so the machine can feed back/forth (I used vinyl), but works well enough. It saved a lot of time but wasn’t the solution I wanted. This lead to the Rascal CNC which allows me to cut foam board kits in minutes.
Thanks for the feedback. I ended up taking pointers from others two nights ago. I printed the A tiled stuff for the Goblin on regular paper and in about 20 minutes I had both sets of pages tiled up and trimmed to fit the foam board perfectly. Then with some Krylon Easy Tack I stuck the assembled plans directly to the foam board. As I build I'll just peel those things off and roll with it. If I need another set of whatever I can simply print those tiles out and repeat the process. Having templates isn't a terrible idea because it saves paper and whatnot in the long run but the fact of the matter is, and you can probably attest to this, once you crash one, they're very forgiving when "massaging" the pieces back into shape and reinforcing with another sheet of foam board or popsicle sticks. I suppose I don't need to draw on the foam if I'm not creating templates. With the regular copy paper I can cut right through that stuff and just peel off the the paper once I have it cut and trimmed.
 

Gazoo

Well-known member
Thanks for the feedback. I ended up taking pointers from others two nights ago. I printed the A tiled stuff for the Goblin on regular paper and in about 20 minutes I had both sets of pages tiled up and trimmed to fit the foam board perfectly. Then with some Krylon Easy Tack I stuck the assembled plans directly to the foam board. As I build I'll just peel those things off and roll with it. If I need another set of whatever I can simply print those tiles out and repeat the process. Having templates isn't a terrible idea because it saves paper and whatnot in the long run but the fact of the matter is, and you can probably attest to this, once you crash one, they're very forgiving when "massaging" the pieces back into shape and reinforcing with another sheet of foam board or popsicle sticks. I suppose I don't need to draw on the foam if I'm not creating templates. With the regular copy paper I can cut right through that stuff and just peel off the the paper once I have it cut and trimmed.

Has anyone had any luck (or attempted) using a XY wall plotter or Polargraph? I posted a link to the video but it might have been glossed over. It looks like it can be made to hang on a whiteboard. I imagine that it could be used to plot directly to foamboard using a fine tipped felt pen.

Just wondering if anyone has tried and if it worked.

Here is another example:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/hanging-wall-plotter/