So is there a quick and dirty “this is how to make your own custom plastic”? Banzai Run has one that’s both easy to break and while repros appear to occasionally get done, they also seem to suck. It looks like it’s possible with a Cameo from the things I’ve seen said, but I haven’t stumbled upon the how yet.

FWIW, I have a Cameo 4 and I’ve done some normal sign vinyl and I’ve also done some heat transfer vinyl for shirts. I’m pretty comfortable with AutoCAD, Inkscape, and Silhouette Design at this point, but have no idea what “frisket” is and haven’t used any of the wet transfer vinyls you guys seem to be discussing. Anyone got a clear guide for the best way to do a plastic repro?

—Donnie

I was worried about alignment, but found it surprisingly easy. I will say that if you do things that actually overlap (ie. you have two colors and want there to be NO gap between them) then you need to make one layer a “bottom” layer and one a “top” layer and expand your bottom layer’s outline so that the top layer is overlapping it a tad bit. That’s pretty easy in the Cameo’s software using the offset tool.

The other thing that you really need for doing shirts is an actual hot press. I’ve heard it can be done with a normal iron, but I’ve also heard it’s a bit of a nightmare. I started with a press and can say it’s pretty easy that way.

—Donnie

I don’t know how much you’re trying to do, but I gave up on trying to filter things into vector format and just re-draw it all. That’s actually the most popular way, even though it seems horrible at first. Most folks just take their graphic into something like AutoCAD as a layer and then you just zoom in and start drawing 3 point arcs. Once you get the hang of it, it goes WAY faster than you’d think.

That said, I started doing it when Inkscape was somewhat less user friendly than it is now, too. I still use Inkscape a decent amount, but mostly I simply use it to filter AutoCAD drawings to SVG and add things like text and whatnot using fonts since Inkscape is way better at that than AutoCAD. My use is usually to cut with my Glowforge, but I paid to upgrade my Studio edition to import SVG (I worked around that for a while, but it just got annoying and worth it to upgrade) and the workflow is basically the same.

Anyway, in this there’s no right answer, just whatever answer works best for you.

—Donnie

You also may not have your pressure on the cutter set quite high enough for the material, so there’s a tiny bit catching. Something to play with, anyway.

—Donnie