SMALLEST FONT?

[Z 0]

Hi All,

          I am curious what is the smallest font you have been able to cut successfully on your machine, the vinyl you used, and the model of your machine. I was in the mood to experiment tonight and so I cut out the smallest I could, snapped a pic of the cut and weeded piece (with a dime on top), and uploaded it here along with the eps file. My machine won't cut a .2 font - it gives me a "font too small" error. I slowed my machine down to 4 and set the pressure at 30. The vinyl is ShineRite Kelly Green from Fellers, and I used a Refine MH365. I am genuinely curious what the smallest font is that others of you have cut.

How I did it:

                First I made a small rectangle inside a 3 x3 workspace, made the text (set at .2), layered text on top of rectangle, selected all, punched text through rectangle, clicked on Edit > Select None, moved text, resized box smaller down to 1" tall x 1.5/8" wide and cut.

I measured the letter "a" in the word small with my dial calipers. It measured .122" ~ that's slightly less than 1/8"!

Z

smallfont.EPS

smallfont.EPS

[JoeBlow 5]

Here's one that I don't cut quite often.  This one has been cut using "Avery 7 year" vinyl and a 45 degree blade.

[Z 0]

Here's one that I cut quite often.  This one has been cut using "Avery 7 year" vinyl and a 45 degree blade.

Cool! Thanks for sharing. I am curious what you normally would have to cut using this small of a font?

Z

[JoeBlow 5]

I have used it on a business card several times to show the capabilities of vinyl. Only when I'm quoting on a large job that I think the client needs a little convincing to swing it my way.  It's definitely not something you would do very often.  I usually cut it with stars, that makes it even more time consuming to cut.

Sometimes I use, including a phone number on the bottom corner of signage.  I have cut it as a stencil for etching beer glasses.  But it's not something I would do very often.

[Z 0]

Joe,

      Looks really good with the stars. Kind of a pain to weed that small, though, huh? 

Z

[JoeBlow 5]

Z,

It's a pain to weed at that size, but it has won a over few clients when it's stuck onto a business card, it seems to impress them that you can cut so fine.  You need to use a real good quality vinyl, something that weeds fairly easy.  I weeded that one normally and found the "Avery" pretty tough to weed.  There's a few tricks to weeding very fine graphics.  One is to apply the application tape and then remove the whole lot from the backing paper, weed it upside down on the application tape, and then put it back on the backing paper.  Another is, after cutting put the graphic in the refrigerator for half an hour or so, that will shrink the vinyl and open up the cut, making it much easier to weed. DO NOT DO USE THIS METHOD FOR ANY VINYL YOU WANT TO STAY ON PERMANENTLY.  It affects the adhesive on the vinyl and shortens the time it will stay stuck to the substrate.  I only use that method on things like stencils, paint masks and the odd business card, and only when it's a very fine detailed graphic.

[Z 0]

Joe,

      Great information. Thanks for sharing. If I were a customer I'd be impressed.

Z

[swaneejuggalo 0]

very nice on the small graphix and thanks for the tips...Reverse weeding it like that is a very smart idea 

[VaderSpade 0]

Hello everyone,

 

I found this site looking for information on cutting small font.

I need to make some very small stencils in order to electro etch serial numbers into aluminum parts. 

What is a good cutter to cut small font???

I have some larger sandblasting jobs coming up and have wanted a good cutter for a while, but I can only justify a purchase at this time if I can make these stencils.

I also have 3,000 old milk bottles that I want to (need to) do something with.

[MikeMan 0]

.... apply the application tape and then remove the whole lot from the backing paper, weed it upside down on the application tape, and then put it back on the backing paper.

Joe - this is awesome!  This morning I used this tip on a design I had been wanting to etch for a while now, but could never successfully weed once it was reduced to size.  This time I used 751 and your technique, and was able to weed letters approx 1/8" tall, which is about 3X smaller than my usual minimum size!  Learned a couple things along the way - I used extra scraps of backing paper to cover areas of the design I wasn't working on since it wanted to grab me, and also found out that it's not so easy to determine which is the sticky side of those teenie, tiny centers that lift out sometimes (they'll stick to app tape either way.)

Now I need to work on applying stencils to small objects - are spending a few hours on this small stencil, somehow I managed to apply it crooked. 

Oh well, now that I know this works so well, I'm sure I can do it over a lot faster than I did the first one.

Thank-you Joe!

(And everybody else that helps)

[VaderSpade 0]

MikeMan,

This is just what I'm looking to do. What machine/cutter did you use???

[MikeMan 0]

MikeMan,

This is just what I'm looking to do. What machine/cutter did you use???

I cut that on my Refine.

[JoeBlow 5]

MikeMan,

That's great stuff, once you've done it few times it'll get easier. There'll be no stopping you now.

Joe

[Z 0]

MikeMan,

                Great tips to add to what's been posted already. Thanks for sharing!

Z

[cpwall 0]

http://forum.uscutter.com/index.php/topic,20965.0.html

this is the smallest I'd have ever even tried I was amazed it wasn't impossible to weed