Vinyl Cutter

This project is about using the Roland GX-24 Vinyl Cutter in FabEd Charlotte. The vinyl cutter is capable of cutting a wide variety of shapes and patterns. There are several different materials and colors to choose from, each of which have different limitations. Let's start:

I knew that this project was coming and I needed a design. I carried around a small pocket notebook that I made and when I thought of a design, I wrote it down. I also sketched out all of the designs. Below is a picture of my notebook with the sketches and notes. Some of the pencil and pen marks blurred due to the pages rubbing together.

I contemplated on which design to use. One would have been tricky to make from scratch and another would have been too simple. There were also a few requirements for the sticker which I had to keep in mind. The sticker had to be 5 x 5 inches and not too complicated, which I will get to later. There were also a few recommendations, such as the design should be made, or recreated, by the student. I made all of my designs using Inkscape. Inkscape is basically a free version of Photoshop. Admittedly, it is limited and there is a learning curve, but it works and it is free. I decided to go with this design:

For those of you who do not know what this symbol is, it is the Deathly Hollows symbol from Harry Potter. I will spare you the exact details as to what it means. This was the rough sketch, which was hurried. I later went back and redid it using a few different methods.

I had never used Inkscape and this whole process was a big learning curve. I used Inkscape again for this design. The different method I used yielded a better result.

As you can see, this version has a sharper outline and the height-to-width ratio is better. I used the render triangle function under the extensions tab. Here is the navigation to it:  Extensions > Render > Triangle. I then made a circle using the circle tool and moved it to the inside of the triangle. I made a rectangle and using the rectangle tool and then centered it.

I chose to use my original design because it is more compact and would therefore cut better on the cutter. The next hurdle for me to jump was making the image into an outline so that it would cut. The way I made it into an outline was that I merged the shapes into a single shape. This gave the shape one outline. This was done by playing with the path options on Inkscape. I used a combination of the different path options until it worked. I did use two separate rectangles in the middle in order for the outline to work correctly. Once the sketch is a single object, I removed the fill and set the outline to a certain width.

Here is the outline:

I had to set the outline to hair width using the fill and stroke tool. This is not the final width of the outline, it is thicker so you can see it here. I then sized it by setting the width and height to inches and making it 5 x 5 inches. 5 x 5 inches is the required size for this class project. I also had to save the Inkscape file, which is a .svg file, to a .pdf file in order to cut it.

Most of what I learned was from a video that the professor, Dr. Harris, made for this class. You had to watch the video and be trained by a TA before you could use the vinyl cutter. This was for safety reasons. It was to ensure that the user did not get hurt, but it was mainly for the machine. The machine cost around 2,000 dollars and would be a pain to replace.

The vinyl that was supplied came in rolls and is on a wax paper backing. Once the design is cut out, the excess vinyl is peeled away using tweezers. Then another adhesive sheet, called transfer paper, is used to transfer the sticker to the desired surface. I also had to test the thickness of the vinyl and how well it would cut. You could press a button on the vinyl cutter and it would make a small test cut. The cut was a simple shape, a square within a circle. If the circle peeled away from the paper and left the square, then the force or pressure was correct. If the circle did not peel away or the cutter cut through the paper, then you could adjust the force. There is a small menu along with ten or so buttons on the cutter. You would go into the menu, select pressure. Then hit the up or down arrows to set the force and press enter and then menu to exit out. I selected 80 gf for the vinyl I used. 

There were a multitude of colors to choose from. Here is a picture of the different rolls of vinyl in the FabLab:

You can also make multicolored stickers by cutting and layering different colors on top of one another. This process is more involved, but I decided to stick with a monotone sticker.

I was going to use black vinyl, but there was a scrap of silver vinyl that was the right size. Waste not want not. However, I think the silver turned out fairly well. I made a 5 x 5 inch and some ≈ 2 3/4 x 2 inch stickers. The PDF file for the smaller sticker has three separate sticker cutouts on it. When the smaller sticker was re-sized, it was smushed. You can see that the circle turned into an ovaloid shape and the height/width ratio got thrown off. Below is a picture of the final stickers covered by transfer paper:

The graph paper is 3/8th inch per square

I decided to put one of the smaller stickers onto my water bottle to see how well it showed up.

The whole process of coming up with a design and learning how to use a new software, plus a new machine, was challenging. I had never designed any kind of artwork, never used Inkscape, and never used anything remotely close to the vinyl cutter. I did have a few failures because the machine is simple and does have some limitations. I did double cut a few stickers and someone else's design was too complicated. 

Vinyl cutters do have a few limitations, which I shall address here. These are the main limitations that I have found: the machine is essentially an Exacto Knife on a X-Y axis. The X-axis is controlled by a head running along a bar, similar to a standard printer. The Y-axis is controlled by rolling the vinyl, or other materials, in and out with a roller. The roller is the main bulk of the machine and the vinyl is clamped or pressed down onto it. There is a lever that you push or pull to force the sheets onto the roller. The blade's kerf, the thickness of cut, is the approximate width of a human hair. To give you an idea as to what the machine looks like, here is a photo:

Roland GX-24

Source:

The main problem with cutting material in this fashion is that the knife can pull up the design. If the cut or design is too fine, the blade will shift the material around while it cuts. The sticker starts peel up from the paper and can mess up the whole cut. The cuts are not always perfect either. I have noticed that the lines are not always smooth or straight even though the lines on the file are smooth.

Overall, this was a fun project. I learned new skills and got to play with a machine that I would not have been able to otherwise. I was able to design something fun and actually play in a class. It was great, I had an excuse to mess around with something cool. I did have a hard time learning a few new things, such as a new software and how to design something. 

Here are the files for the stickers:

PDF file of large sticker

SVG file of large sticker

I corrected the scaling problem of the smaller stickers.

PDF file of small sticker

SVG file of small sticker

There were also a few things that I did along side this project. Feel free to take a look.

Check out the other stickers I made. (Coming soon)

Here are some of the tools that I used for this project.

I also made a folder to carry the stickers.

As of 2-5-16

Unit Conversion Calculators

Here are the three different unit conversion calculators that I coded.

Simple Unit Conveters

Feet to Miles

feet
miles

Ounces to Cups

ounces
cups

Hours to Seconds

hours
seconds


Most of the code that I used was from a video that Dr. Harris made. I used a handy online programming tool called JSbin. JSbin is useful because it allows you to program while it updates the code and projects it on the other side of the screen. You can also program in both html and Java Script. I decide to use another code from a different example that Dr. Harris gave.

I pulled the video out into another window and tiled it with the JSbin window. As Dr. Harris walked through the code, I typed it into JSbin. I did change the code as I saw fit. For example, I renamed some of the elements to clarify them. I mainly used the modified html code from the first example, but I used the Java Script from the second example.

I did document my work by taking screen captures and saving my work as a .txt file.

Here is a picture of some rough code that really did not work. As you can see the html worked, but the Java Script did not. You can also see that I was going to do grams to pounds, but all three would have been division. I decide to make one a multiplication function instead.

Here is the same code at a later point. This code is incomplete, but it is only missing the first four lines of code which are the same as above. In this version I revised some of the code and tidy it up a bit. 

I also have a .txt file of some rough code.

Another thing that I tried was making my code into a html file. I did so by pasting the code onto notepad and then choosing save as... I then named it and put .html onto the end. I saved it and then launched it. The .html file opened on a web browser page, but was using the browser and not the internet.

I had a lot of trouble learning how to code. I went through four or five different iterations of code. I even sat for a good 45 minutes looking at the code and trying to trouble shoot it. I simply was missing two parentheses on the end of the function name. That was frustrating. Over all, it took me between 5-6 hours to learn the basics of programming and to write the converters. However, the original post got deleted and I had to rewrite it which added another 2 hours.

Here is my finished code in a .txt file on my google drive.

I also put my code into a highlighter that I found online that was called tohtml. This link may or may not work, it can be finicky. 

<html>
<head></head>
<script type="text/javascript">
  //I used some code of Dr. Harris. I did modify it to fit my purposes.
  
function calculateFuncion1() {
  //Get value of input1
var first = document.getElementById("input1").value;
  //Convert text to numbers and divide by 5280
var answer = parseFloat(first)/5280;
  //Output answer to outPut1
var outPut1 = document.getElementById('outPut1');
outPut1.value=answer;}

function calculateFuncion2() {
  //Get value of input2
var first = document.getElementById("input2").value;
  //Convert text to numbers and divide by 8
var answer = parseFloat(first)/8;
  //Output answer to outPut2
var outPut2 = document.getElementById('outPut2');
outPut2.value=answer;}
  
function calculateFuncion3() {
  //Get value of input3
var first = document.getElementById("input3").value;
  //Convert text to numbers and mulitply by 3600
var answer = parseFloat(first)*3600;
  //Output answer to outPut3
var outPut3 = document.getElementById('outPut3');
outPut3.value=answer;}
  
</script>  
<body>
<h1>Simple Unit Conveters</h1>
  
<!Each unit converter is number from 1 - 3./> 
<!I decided to rename the textboxes to input or output, depemending on what it is./>
<!I found this is clearer and easier when writing./>
  
<p>Feet to Miles</p>
<input type="text" name="input1" id="input1" /> feet
<input type="submit" name="button" id="button1" onClick="calculateFuncion1()" value="=" />
  
    </br>
  
<input type="text" name="outPut1" id="outPut1" readonly/> miles
  
    </br>
  
<p>Ounces to Cups</p>
<input type="text" name="input2" id="input2" /> ounces
<input type="submit" name="button" id="button2" onClick="calculateFuncion2()" value="=" />
  
    </br>
  
<input tpe="text" name="outPut2" id="outPut2" readonly/> cups
  
    </br>

<p>Hours to Seconds</p>
<input tpe="text" id="input3"/> hours 
<input type="submit" name="button" id="button3" onClick="calculateFuncion3()" value="=" />

    </br>

<input tpe="text" id="outPut3" readonly/> seconds
  
    </br>

</body>
</html>

Estimation Assignment

1. Estimate the computer power consumed in the building. Answer should be in Watts [W] and Horse Power [HP]

• Estimated power consumption for a computer 130 watts per hour. Source
• 28 computers per computer lab + teacher’s computers in classrooms. Seven computer classrooms + 80 computer lab = 276, rounded to 280 and multiplied by five (five floors) = 1400. This will account for there not being as many computer labs on all floors. Plus there is the gaming lab on the fifth floor. There are also offices and wasted floor space on some floors. 1400 times 130 watts = 182000, rounded to 185,000 Watts. This should give a rough estimate of power consumption per hour in Watts.
• Using Google’s power converter I input 18500 Watts which equals 248.09 British Horse Power, Rounded to 250 BHP.

2. Estimate the average building height on your campus. Answer should be in feet [ft] amd meter [m]

• A quick search provided that the average height of a story is 10 feet. I estimated and that is fairly accurate. But I will tack on two feet to account for drop ceilings and the fact that the ceilings are office building height. So 12 feet per story, 12 times 5 = 60 feet plus 10 feet for roof and other building features. 70-ish feet. I think that this building is taller than most of the others, but there are others about this height. I'd say that 65 feet is fairly reasonable average for all of the buildings on Central Campus
• There are 3.3 meters per foot and using Google’s feet to meters converter we get approximately 20 meters.

This next part was done by my classmate: Yang Xu.

3. Estimate the height of your building. The answers should be in feet [ft] and meters[m] 

• 20 meters which is about 65.62 feet. The height of each floor is about 3 meters. There are 5 levels in this building so it’s about 15 meters. Including the top of the building and the error. I estimate the height of this building is about 20 meters (65.62 feet).

 
4. Estimate the weight of air in the building. The answers should be in Newtons [N] and pound force [lbf]

• The surface area of each flood is about 51 m * 30 m = 1530 m2. The height of each flood is about 3 m. So the volume of this building is about 51m*30m*3m*5= 22950 m3. The room temperature is about 25 oC so the density of air is about 1.184 kg/ m3
• So the weight of the air in kg is 27173.8 kg. Chang to Newtons is about 266293.44 N (59865.17 lbf)

The rest of this work is my own

5. Estimate the weight of air in the building if the building was on the moon. Do the same for Jupiter. Explain the difference.

• First I needed to find the square footage of the building. I went onto Google Maps and looked up Central Campus.

Source: Google Maps

• I found the building and using the measuring tool I found out the square footage. The length is ≈ 175 ft and the width is ≈ 112.5 ft. So the rough square footage is 19,687.5 ft2, ≈19,700 ft2. I multiplied the square footage by the height and got the cubic area. ≈ 1,379,000 ft3.
• A quick search for the weight of a cubic foot air turned up this, 0.0807 lbs. per cubic foot. I multiplied the cubic footage by 0.0807 lbs. ≈ 111,285 lbs. Another search tuned up that the Moon's gravity is 83.3% of Earth's. ≈ 92,700 lbs. on the Moon.
• Again, another search sows that the gravity on Mars is ≈ .38 of Earth's. ≈ 42288 lbs. on Mars.
• This is assuming that the building is completely hollow and is very thin walled.

6. Estimate the amount of grassy area in Charlotte in [km2] and [mi2]

• The Charlotte-Metro area covers 3,149 sq mi (8,160 km2), sourced from Wikipedia. I'm going to say that 1/3 of the Charlotte area is grassy. ≈ 1039 mi2 or 2693 km2

7. Estimate how long it would take an astronaut to travel to the moon using current technology.[s] and [hours]

• The distance to the moon at it's closest point is ≈ 225,623 miles. A rocket can go at 4.9 miles per second, or 17600 miles per hour. If you divide 225,623 miles by 4.9 miles per second you get ≈ 46,045 seconds. 
• If you divide 225,623 miles by 17600 miles per hour you get ≈ 12.82 hours. to double check I multiplied 12.82 hours by 36000 seconds and I got 46150 seconds, which is only 105 seconds of difference.
• The rocket would not need to slow down as the question does not ask about or mention saftey.

About Myself

About Myself:

• My name is Eric Swepston and I live in the beautiful city Charlotte, NC. This blog is mainly about my Engineering class, EGR 150-04

• I have lived in Charlotte for all of my life and have no desire to move. I participated in the Boy Scouts of America for ten years and earned the rank of Eagle Scout along with six palms. Some of my pass time activities are reading, wood working, camping and hiking, amateur metal working, and learning new skills.

• I am currently attending Central Piedmont Community College. I am working on some basic Engineering credits, DFT 170, EGR 150, and basic math along with some miscellaneous credits.

• My long term goal is to transfer to NC State and earn a Biomedical Engineering degree. However, this goal is still a few years out.

• My LinkedIn profile

• If you wish to contact me, drop a comment and I will respond in a timely manner

As of: 1-21-16