Cricut update

Clinton · Post by **Clinton** » Tue Jan 12, 2021 5:03 pm

It looks great Paul! So-- the pics of your "train depot" are actually a real room, right?

Post by **paulrace** » Sat Jan 16, 2021 6:33 pm

Thanks, Clinton. The photo of the room is real. The timetable is remaining a mockup until I get the right wood screws to screw the frame onto the "blackboard" piece. (I don't usually keep 5/8" screws around.)

Post by **paulrace** » Sat Jan 16, 2021 6:38 pm

In the meantime, I bought a first-generation Silhouette Cameo at auction for like $70. I downloaded the software onto a computer, and the thing powered up and talked to the software, so I think it's experiment-ready as well. The new Cameo 4 is much, much more powerful; it'll cut things neither my old Cameo 1 or my old Cricut Expression will cut, but I want to experiment with these for a while yet. I'll keep you posted.

Clinton · Post by **Clinton** » Sun Jan 17, 2021 10:16 am

Incredible work Paul, I love it! It really inspires me to have a RR room of my own someday. I have recently gotten into model trains over the last couple of years and I really like the garden/O scale train set ups.

Post by **paulrace** » Thu Jan 21, 2021 3:30 pm

Well, after playing with the first-gen Silhouette Cameo, I went back to my Cricket with an ancient version of Sure Cuts-a-Lot that will operate it. I used Corel Draw to redraw the text with similar fonts I downloaded from the Internet. CF Wild West and Engraver's Gothic BT. (The latter was part of a package I bought, but there are similar free fonts available.) The ampersand was from an entirely different font - Goudy Bookletter 1911 - because I wanted a fancy one.

: title_text_for_timetable_scal.jpg (121.06 KiB) Viewed 33590 times

I cut the letters in adhesive-backed vinyl. Then I used transfer tape to get the letters ready to transfer to the blackboard.

: transfer_tape_w_titles.jpg (139.04 KiB) Viewed 33590 times

This makes the letters sort of like stickers you can put anywhere (even on the back window of your car).

I carefully transferred the letters to the blackboard, then printed up the next set of lettering I need. I also used 1/4" pinstriping tape to draw the lines.

I now have to rub chalk sideways to "season" the chalkboard part of my timetable. When I'm done with that I will try to see if the pinstriping will stick.

: three_lines_of_text_800.jpg (69.23 KiB) Viewed 33590 times

Post by **paulrace** » Thu Jan 21, 2021 3:35 pm

That project made me bold enough to try cutting thin posterboard for a putz house with the thing. Two failures so far, but some progress. The thing with these old Expressions is that lots of owners have abandoned perfectly good machines just because the new Cricut machines and software are incompatible. Since I have backups of my software that DOES work, I don't have to worry about producing a lot of files I won't be able to use when my first Cricut breaks down. No, I don't have two. Yet. . . . .

Post by **maria** » Fri Jan 22, 2021 4:40 am

This is awesome!

Post by **paulrace** » Fri Jan 22, 2021 3:58 pm

So, I tried the same thing with a "streamlined" version of Howard's Balcony Dolly plan and some posterboard (I bought two pieces at Dollar Tree just for this experiment. They're quite flimsy, but I have to start somewhere.)

This is what Howard's plan looks like on the Sure Cuts-A-Lot screen.

: howards_balcony_dolly_plans_on_scal.jpg (97.62 KiB) Viewed 33572 times

Cricut recommended the blade set to three, single cut, medium pressure.
That scored the posterboard. Also, the dotted lines I had created in Corel Draw cut as solid lines in Sure Cuts-a-Lot. So I went back and made actual dotted lines, as you can see in the drawing above.

I kept setting the blade to higher numbers, and all it did was score the posterboard a little bit deeper.
I didn't go right to maximum settings because I didn't want ruin the blade slicing up the mat.
Then I put the "deep cut" blade in and started working my way up. Still just scoring the posterboard for the most part. Eventually a few pieces would be cut deeply enough to pop part of them out, but not enough to be useful. The photo below shows my first four cuts, which used up an entire .50 piece of posterboard. Ask me why I didn't start with something more expensive.

: howards_balcony_dolly_failures.jpg (53.16 KiB) Viewed 33572 times

Finally, I set the Cricut's "deep cut" blade to 4, set the multi-cut to 2, and set it to maximum pressure. It worked, and didn't slice up the mat too badly.

: howards_balcony_dolly_cut_out.jpg (77.06 KiB) Viewed 33572 times

After I popped the pieces off the mat, I folded them along the dotted lines I had made. The posterboard is too thin to make it feel like the old timey houses. But my plan would work, and this is a start.

: howards_balcony_dolly_off_mat.jpg (57.35 KiB) Viewed 33572 times

Post by **maria** » Mon Jan 25, 2021 9:56 am

Oh how wonderful!Maybe doubling these would make a house thick enough once you add paint, sand and glitter?

Post by **paulrace** » Mon Jan 25, 2021 11:30 pm

Back to the timetable, I got it hung today. It's actually covering a shelf for the DVDs I keep in the workshop to listen to while I'm working with my hands.