CARD CUTTER MACHINE
S T U D E N T . M A N U A L
Digital Fabrication Laboratory
Warnings...03
Safety...03
Do and Don’t...04
Approved Materials...04
Overview of the Card Cutter...05
Cutting a Job...06
Troubleshooting...20
CONTENTS
The card cutter has been made available for student use.
It is the student body’ responsibility to take care of the card cutter to ensure that student access is successful and remains available for future students.
If the cutter is broken or misused access will be revoked. Please ensure the following:
Only the prescribed Card Cutter materials sold at the FabLab can be cut on the Card Cutter. Cutting other materials not approved may cause damage to the machine.
Do not alter any of the other settings or elements of the card cutter that are not specified in these instructions. If the Card Cutter is not working correctly do not attempt to fix it yourself, please contact a FabLab staff member.
WARNINGS
WARNINGS + SAFETY
IMPACT HAZARD.
The cutting arm could cause injury if hands, hair or clothing were to get caught under or in the moving mechanism.
ENSURE HANDS, HAIR AND CLOTHING DO NOT GET TOO CLOSE TO THE MOVING PARTS OR WITHIN THEIR RANGE OF MOVEMENT.
When the operator is ready to commence the job ensure that everyone is away from the table and warn those nearby that a job is about to commence. The operator must ensure throughout the jobs completion that no one comes into contact with the table or places any objects on the table.
THE CUTTING ARM WILL MOVE AS SOON AS THE MACHINE IS TURNED ON.
Ensure all objects and materials have been removed from the cutting table and people are standing back before powering up the machine as the cutting arm will immediately start moving across the table when the power is switched on.
IF AN ACCIDENT DOES OCCUR STOP THE JOB IMMEDIATELY BY PRESSING THE POWER SWITCH LOCATED ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE MACHINE.
DO NOT - Move the arm of the card cutter with your hands by pushing it. If you do this it will lose its position and not cut your job correctly.
DO NOT - Touch or push any of the buttons on the card cutter control panel other than the pause button. DO NOT - Touch or alter the knife or the pen tool.
DO - Tape down sheets of the card to be cut by the card cutter.
DO - Press pause immediately if the cut job starts malfunctioning in any way.
DO - Seek immediate assistance if the card cutter malfunctions in anyway.
DO AND DON’T
DO AND DON’T +
APPROVED MATERIALS
Only the following materials, purchased from the FabLab, can be cut on the card cutter: Ivory Card
Black Card 200GSM Black Card 300GSM
OVERVIEW OF THE
CARD CUTTER
The card cutter is capable of:
1. Cutting vector lines to create shapes with planar and curved edges using a cutting knife; 2. Scoring vector lines into the surface of materials to create fold lines using a cutting knife; There are two tool holders. Tool 2 is located on the right holder.
OVERVIEW OF THE CARD CUTTER
NOTES :
Do not touch or alter the knife tool. Do not turn the red knob on the end of the knife tool.
CUTTING A JOB
2. Placing Material
Place the selected piece of card on the card cutter aligning the bottom left corner of the card with the 0,0 coordinates. Tape the sheet down using masking tape around all four sides. This will help prevent the sheet from being moved by the blade as it cuts through the material.
Make sure the tape does not cover the rails where the cutting arm moves.
NOTES :
Before turning on the card cutter ensure there are no objects or debris on the cutting surface.
CUTTING A JOB
1. Turn on the Card CutterThe cutting arm will move when the power switch is turned on. Before turning on the card cutter ensure that there are no objects or debris on the cutting surface.
The power switch is located on the bottom left side of the card cutter.
NOTES :
The locations to tape are indicated on the card cutter machine.
Power Switch
CUTTING A JOB
4. Card Cutter Properties
Next:
Click the ‘Properties’ button. 3. Print Setup
Select ‘Print’ from the Rhino menu to bring up the Print Setup window.
Input the following settings:
Destination
Printer Graphtec FC4500/4510 Paper Size Free Size
Orientation Landscape Output Vector Output Output Colour Print Colour
View and Output Scale
View Top Scale 1:1
CUTTING A JOB
Next:
Click the ‘Tools Assignment’ button.
NOTES : 5. Card Cutter Properties
6. Tools Assignment
CUTTING A JOB
8. Modifying Tool Settings (Red)
Highlight the red colour and click ‘modify’.
This is the colour that will be setup as the score settings. 7. Modifying Tool Settings (Magenta)
Highlight the magenta colour and click ‘Modify’.
In the Tool Setting window select the ‘Disable Output’ tickbox and click ‘OK’.
This will prevent the magenta materials dimension box from being cut by the card cutter.
Next:
9. Modifying Tool Settings (Black)
Highlight the Black colour and click “Modify”.
This will be the colour that will be set up as the cut settings.
10. Checking Tool Settings
When all the settings have been in-putted accurately the “Tool Assignment” Window should look the same as that displayed below.
The order the colours will be cut in is determined by the descending order in the window. Therefore it is important to make sure the colours are in the correct order.
Red -> Black.
The Magenta colour can be ignored as it has been disabled.
CUTTING A JOB
CUTTING A JOB
Next:
Press ‘Enter’ when done. 11. Setting the print window
Push the “Set” button in the Print Setup window to position the area to be printed.
In the Rhino Top View interface use the Move command and snap the bottom left corner of the print area window to the bottom left corner of your materials, marked in magenta.
Both should line up perfectly as they are both set to be 900 x 600 mm. If they are different please go back through the settings.
12. Print
When all the setup procedures described above have been completed push the print button.
TROUBLE-SHOOTING
If an error occurs during the operation of the job immediately push the pause button on the card cutter control panel. To resend the job turn the card cutter off and on again and reprint the job from Rhino.
Errors may include:
The knife catching and tearing part of the job. The job cutting incorrectly due to file setup.
The job can be restarted by pushing the pause button again.
TROUBLESHOOTING
NOTES :
