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<h1 id="vinyl-cutter">Vinyl Cutter</h1>
<p>Day 3 was the start of learning about the fab machines. In this day I have learned about using the vinyl cutting machine. This machine is used to produce stickers and logos. First thing to do was downloading <strong>inkscape</strong> software which will convert the required image from Raster to Vector and then back to Raster. This conversion process is performed to improve the quality of the image.</p>
<p>After I have exported the logo (I will cut Jaguar logo), I have started to set up the vinyl cutter.</p>
<ul>
<li>Photos 1-3 show the unboxing the vinyl cutter</li>
</ul>
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<img src="images/1.jpg" />
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<ul>
<li>Photos 4-6 show the manuals, vinyl roll plate and power connection.</li>
</ul>
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<img src="images/2.jpg" />
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<ul>
<li><p>Photo 7 shows the Pen force, by default it is 0. Pen force is the force exerted by the cutter on the vinyl.</p></li>
<li><p>Photo 8 shows the place of the cutter, it should be hard to notice the cutting edge, otherwise the cutting edge will touch the machine bottom.</p></li>
<li><p>Photo 9 shows the vinyl roll.</p></li>
</ul>
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<img src="images/3.jpg" />
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<ul>
<li>Photos 10-12 show the process of inserting the vinyl roll into the machine.</li>
</ul>
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<img src="images/4.jpg" />
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<ul>
<li>In the following photos, I have powered up the machine and learned how to control the roller, setting up the origin and where to cut the roller after finishing.</li>
</ul>
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<img src="images/5.jpg" />
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<p>After setting up the machine, I have downloaded fab software which is used to convert the image into .rml file and send it to the machine from <a href="http://kokompe.cba.mit.edu/downloads.html">this link</a>, then installed the dependencies by the following command <code>sudo apt-get install python python-wxgtk2.8 python-dev python-pip gcc g++ libpng12-dev libgif-dev make bash okular libboost-thread-dev libboost-system-dev cmake</code>, python was not installed so I had a problem, but I solved it by downloading python wxgtk2.8 and the the command worked. Finally I have finished installing the fab program by the following commands <code>make fab</code> and <code>make install</code>.</p>
<p>The next step was to set up the communication between my pc and the machine. To do this I have opened a firefox tab and wrote <code>localhost:631</code>, At first nothing appeared on the page so I searched the problem and found that a software called cups should be installed. From administration I have added the machine as a printer successfully from the first try.</p>
<p>Last thing to do was to stick the logo, usually a transformation paper is used, but instead I have used a tape. Don't stick the logo directly like the following photo.</p>
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<img src="images/6.jpg" />
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