Not Ready To Commit To Cutting Dies? Time To Explore Acrylic Templates!

[ducjes]

Cutting dies are amazing... but they can be a big initial investment. If you're not ready to jump into such a huge commitment, I think it is time for you to check out some acrylic templates.

I have used this company prior to getting cutting dies made and still occasionally use them for mocking up more complex designs. They are very affordable in terms of what you get and the turn around time is fantastic.

Company Details

The company I use for acrylic templates is called Ponoko. From their website:

Ponoko provides laser cutting, 3D printing & metal machining services to turn your designs into custom products. You select from 80+ beautiful materials, download our design template, add your design to it, then upload it to get an instant online quote to make your design real. Pricing starts from less than $5. You can make 1 or 100,000. And your designs are made & delivered as fast as same day.

What Can They Do?

They offer a *ton* of different materials you can laser cut into. You can cut into various thicknesses and colors of acrylic, cardboard, wood, leather, metal and pretty much anything else you can think of.

You need to have a pretty good understanding of Adobe Illustrator / Auto CAD / Inkscape (free) / CorelDraw for this to work out well.

They have various "templates" where you can place your designs and they have specific directions on their website you need to follow to get everything to turn out correctly.

You can do some awesome things like etching into the material to show it's dimensions or lines (in this case I used it show it was a 20mm width design as well as where the "fold" lines are).

Pricing

I got all these designs cut out into acrylic templates for $56.59 shipped. This was on the 31" x 15" piece of acrylic but they have smaller sizes too which cost less. The designs were cut out on 3mm thick clear acrylic.

Turnaround Time

This was the fifth order I've placed with them. The most recent order was placed October 23rd, went into production on October 26th, was shipped on October 30th and arrived on November 2nd. So roughly 10 days from order to delivery at my front door. Pretty wild.

Outcome

Here are a few of the templates I've had made which help in either deciding if I'm going to get cutting dies made out of the designs or for more one off designs.

- Tall wallet

- Two piece watch straps which I ended up turning into cutting dies.

- NATO straps

Final Thoughts

As I said -- this is a good company to check out if you're still cutting out projects based off hand cut card board templates. This will definitely help your game!

I know this sounds like a company shill post, but I'm 100% not affiliated with Ponoko and receive nothing from this post. I just think more people need to know about them since they're so affordable. Let me know if you have any questions!

[biglew]

i have access to a laser and have made really nice templates for my craft

[OLDNSLOW]

its kind of late for me so please help me understand, did have to draw out for them what you wanted or do they have cataloged items, like the belt templates, I have been considering buying some thing like a laser cut belt templates as well as a few other items, so please help me understand a little more clearly.

Thanks

O n S

[TinkerTailor]

its kind of late for me so please help me understand, did have to draw out for them what you wanted or do they have cataloged items, like the belt templates, I have been considering buying some thing like a laser cut belt templates as well as a few other items, so please help me understand a little more clearly.

Thanks

O n S

Yeah, you need to send them in the templates already drawn in a computer graphics program that saves the info as lines such as illustrator or CAD, unlike photoshop applications which save the info as dots. CAD and alot of programs for web/print graphics are vector based, or based on lines. The lines are used as the paths the tool cuts on. ANY design is possible.

Blackriverlaser has pre made templates available for leather workers which are very well regarded. Ebay store goes offline from time to time, but comes back.

I have never used them, I cut all my own patterns the old way, out of frozen pizza and beer boxes. If I want to use them alot, I then glue to masonite and cut out on the scroll/table/whatever saw.

Edited November 26, 2015 by TinkerTailor

[geckostraps]

I've purchased several templates from Black River, and have been unhappy with the results.

I bought a biker wallet, and a med-large holster templates.

Not a fan.

Just my .02

[smirak]

Duc...very interested in learning more. I've downloaded inkscape, but maybe a primer would be good. Care to PM me when you get a minute?

Thanks!

Kevin

[Kulafarmer]

Im looking into this for my own templates,

Based on what i have found out it may be cheaper to make my own templates, buy the acrylic sheets, and use a router to clean up the final pieces, of course it depends on skill levels. Would be great to have someone cut these out on a water jet or laser, but being that i no longer have access to AutoCAD or even a PC for that matter the WJ or laser are most likely out of the question. Not to mention the cost for local sources for this type of service,, So jig jig jiggidy jig a few dozen router jigs ill be building,,,,

The good thing is i can make thicker templates,

[SantaFeMarie]

Very useful information.

For someone looking for an even cheaper solution, there is alway a roll of oaktag! Basically, it is like manilla folder paper, but in a large roll. It is the classic pattern-makers material.

[TinkerTailor]

Very useful information.

For someone looking for an even cheaper solution, there is alway a roll of oaktag! Basically, it is like manilla folder paper, but in a large roll. It is the classic pattern-makers material.

I already drank the beer and ate the pizza....Using the box saves me a trip to the tip.

I have used oak tag before and it is good, i agree, however it is not the cheapest in my case.

One thing to say about paper patterns, I frequently will make a pattern with flip up areas and tabs on the edges, so i can draw the outline, flip up the fold and draw the stitch allowances without moving the pattern for example. My lined card wallet pattern is 2 pieces. 1 for the pockets, and 1 for the back piece and also for the liner fabric with the tabs on the edge flipped up to the new smaller dimension.

You can put slots in an acrylic template for this, but i find them cumbersome

[Boriqua]

I will have to check the prices for some of the acrylic. I have been using file folders (oak tag) or poster board. I get the posterboard at the dollar store and its 2 sheets that are about 36"x24" each for a buck. It feels about the same thickness and rigidity as the oak tag. I get white and its nice for some larger patterns so it doesnt have seams.

But

You do have to trace the pattern then cut it out. Would be cool to eliminate a step on some of the more common things and have say 1/16" acrylic that you could hold down and then run your razor around without doing the tracing first.

Alex

Edited December 18, 2015 by Boriqua