How to? Laser-cut self-adhesive vinyl letters?

[merrill77]

I'll get right to the point and hold the detailed description until the end.

I know there are a few people on this forum with a laser engraver - could that be used to cut letters from a self-adhesive vinyl sheet? If yes - would you be willing to do that for my Cub Scout den?

TIA!
Chris

Here's the background on the project:
This is only woodworking-related in that it will be the final touch on a project I'm leading for our Cub Scout den. I've designed some nice stands for our scouts' Pinewood Derby cars - each stand will hold 5 cars (one for each year in Cub Scouts) and I'll post more about it when I'm done. They'll be painted Cub Scout colors and for the final touch I'd like to add "Den 5 Pack 352" lettering to the base of the stand. I wanted something that would hold up over time - more than just paper stickers, so I was looking at self-adhesive vinyl letters. But the best quote I could get (I need 12 sets) was $30. The per-scout budget on this stuff is pretty slim (I donated all the wood), but this is doable. However, since I could get a big sheet of vinyl (12x24) for $8+shipping, I considered hand-cutting them myself - and then thought about a laser engraver.

 

[Rick M]

Pay the $30. By the time you hand cut and weed all those stickers you'll wish you paid the extra $22. Vinyl is cut on a plotter like machine with a blade in place of the pen. I cut vinyl, if you send me the details I'll see if I can do it cheaper especially if you do the weeding (peeling off the unused vinyl).

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[Glennbear]

Have you considered a labelmaker ? They have come a long way from the Dymo embossed tape days. I use one similar to this to label my projects using clear tape with black type:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002KT1ZX0...vptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_7kmpyattgl_b

 

[Berta]

Did you check with the mothers to see if any of them do scrap booking? There are all kinds of stuff that go with that!

 

[merrill77]

Have you considered a labelmaker ? They have come a long way from the Dymo embossed tape days. I use one similar to this to label my projects using clear tape with black type:

That's a good idea, but I really need a rather specific yellow (cub-scout yellow, pantone 116) to match the stand as closely as possible.

 

[Endless Pursuit]

The laser manufacturers are very clear about NEVER cutting Vinyl or vinyl-containing plastics or paints on a laser. The heat vaporizes the vinyl chloride, it recombines with ambient moisture (humidity) and creates Hydrochloric Acid which is bad juju for metal parts. Same thing for Teflon-type materials, they form Hydrofluoric Acid which eats glass and aluminum components.

 

[merrill77]

Thanks - that's good to know. I assumed custom made vinyl lettering was cut this way. Now I'm wondering - how do they do it?

 

[manfre]

Vinyl is cut with a vinyl cutting machine, which is basically a CNC device with a knife blade.

 

[Hmerkle]

Did you check with the mothers to see if any of them do scrap booking? There are all kinds of stuff that go with that!

Chris -
Take Berta's advice - if one of the den mothers does scrapbooking they may have a cricut machine - not sure of all if its capabilities as far as a custom cut - but they cut a LOT of cool patterns on them...

 

[Rick M]

Thanks - that's good to know. I assumed custom made vinyl lettering was cut this way. Now I'm wondering - how do they do it?

I guess you didn't read my post!

And unfortunately I don't stock yellow vinyl.

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[Jeremy Scuteri]

My wife has a Cricut that can cut vinyl, but we are in Greensboro so that won't be much use to you...

 

[ehpoole]

That's a good idea, but I really need a rather specific yellow (cub-scout yellow, pantone 116) to match the stand as closely as possible.

The Brother P-Touch labelers (TZ type cartridge) support labels with clear backgrounds and either white or black (most common and available in all sizes) text. This would allow you to place black lettering up to about 3/4" high (for 1-inch tapes) against a painted background of whatever color you wish to use).

They are also available in black lettering on a yellow background, but it may be too bright of a yellow for you (I'm not at home so I can't compare against my Pantone swatches).

If you need the 1-inch label cartridges you will want to check compatibility with the label printer you choose as the cheapest models typically only support 3/4" or smaller cartridges. And if you get hooked on one of these label printers it is best to order label cartridges online where they often sell for as much as half of what the office supply chains want to charge for them.

 

[merrill77]

The Brother P-Touch labelers (TZ type cartridge) support labels with clear backgrounds and either white or black (most common and available in all sizes) text. This would allow you to place black lettering up to about 3/4" high (for 1-inch tapes) against a painted background of whatever color you wish to use).

I was thinking along the same lines - my first attempt at this was to print yellow letters on clear labels using our color laser. The yellow letters looked nice on a white background but were nearly as invisible as the clear label when applied to the dark blue wood. Complete fail.



I stopped at the craft store today to look at a set of rubber letter/number stamps - that might work and we could use our paint, so the color would be a perfect match. But I'm skeptical...not sure how well the paint will transfer from the stamps. I'm going to give that a try - if that fails I'll go for the $30 custom letter set.

 

[ehpoole]

I was thinking along the same lines - my first attempt at this was to print yellow letters on clear labels using our color laser. The yellow letters looked nice on a white background but were nearly as invisible as the clear label when applied to the dark blue wood. Complete fail.

This is a common contrast issue, but there is a simple fix for this issue.

Some word processors, and most decent graphics editor programs, support text OUTLINE, where you can assign a thin black outline to your yellow letters. The addition of a black outline makes the text stand out against the low contrast background.

Similarly, when the background and text are darker colors one would use a white outline to create the contrast.

Many of the Brother P-Touch label printers also have support for printing their internal fonts as an outline, which should also work well (for larger font sizes) with clear labels.