Help re cutter for stencils to be sandblasted - might be some dumb questions

[gdb103 0]

I am in process of buying a plotter to make stencils for sandblasting purposes, primarily wine glasses, mugs, etc.  I'm not a business, but working out of my garage.  What is the best set up you would recommend for primarily sandblasting glasses, etc.  What about software?  What is the best for my purposes?  Will the freeby do what I need?  Is there any software which allows you to scan in something and then transfer into the software?  And also, what else are you able to use it for business-wise?  It would be nice to use it for more than stencils ... maybe wall quotes, signs, etc., if I can find customers for that.  After reading on this board, I will probably buy a 24" cutter in the hopes of some other type of business.  Thanks for any and all help. 

[MikeOswald 0]

Just sent you an email regarding the plotters and your sand blasting set-up.   

[jforbush 0]

I am kind of in the same boat.....I refinish firearms and knives and would like to be able to do the same things..... i do need the ability to make small stencils and import in graphics as well.  Money is a issue...I can't be spending a ton of  money on this thing....I am tired of giving my money away to the online stencil makers and the need for more custom stencils is growing and growing.

Any recommendations?

[Rodger 527]

Buy whatever cutter is in your price range . The cheapest cutter will still make a bunch of money & enough to upgrade . If you are sure you will not let it be a fad , I would buy at least the medium grade class cutter . SignBlazer ( design & cut ) & Inkscape ( design only ) are free & will do anything you want as they do for many here .

[sarconastic 29]

I use a laserpoint 24 for doing exactly what your describing. the only short fall of a budget cutter, is that lettering at or below 1/4" is a little tedious to cut. If all your wanting is for that size work a professional 12" cutter by be the best option.

Kevin

[jforbush 0]

Thanks Kevin!!!  Yea 1/4 in and below is my main need right now.  If you are doing what I am doing....CeraKote and DuraCoat firearms and knives you know what I am talking about!  It is a pain to get small stencils and when you do find them they cost a arm and a leg and they still aren't that great.

I would love to be able to get something that I could import images into and cut a custom stencil for my customers! As far as cost goes....you know, in what we do there is not a lot of money to be made....margin is tight as it is!! 

[Rodger 527]

I don't know what material is used for stencils , but if it is anything like the reusable stencils sold at stores , cutting stencils 1/4" & smaller is going to be tough . If you want to cut regular vinyl for a 1 time stencil , then not near as tedious .

edit: I was thinking reusable stencils ( must have been thinking about another thread as this thread is about blasting glass ) , so the only thing that would work is 1 time stencils .

[jforbush 0]

Yea....regular mylar stencils are think....if I bought a machine to cut stencils it wouldn't bother me to have them as a once or twice use item.

[locknload1 17]

I own a cheap cutter ($180) and a top of the line blade holder, cutting .25" and smaller lettering has been no issue since the $50 upgrade.

RG

[jforbush 0]

What exactly do you have?  I would be interested to learn more.

[locknload1 17]

What exactly do you have?  I would be interested to learn more.

If you were asking me, I have a CR630 I won on ebay from cutterpros.com during an auction that was being held on a holiday. As luck would have it (it's my stratigy to bid the higher ticket items when others are too busy) I won the plotter, stand, basket, flexi starter and some vinyl for just $180.

Since then I've made some minor MODs but all in all the thing's worked flawlessly since day one. The customer svs is horrible at cutterpros but I've come to find out that it's a generic machine from a company in China that imports lots of other private label machines for the more mainstream "manufacturers" so based on the specs that the importer sent me most items seem to be interchangable with other manufacturers that have much higher price points.

If you want to see what I've done with it I've posted about 10% of my jobs in "show your work".

RG

[jforbush 0]

Thanks man...I will look into that.