Mat board cutting for picture frames

[blackhawk]

I am interested in cutting mat board for picture framing on my bot. I have framed a lot of pictures for myself in the past, but always had a local frame shop cut the mats for me at an expensive price. I did some research on the forum and found some discussions from 2005/2006. One of the discussions said that Shopbot was working on a mat board cutting tool. There is nothing on the website about the mat board tool. Anyone know about it or if there are 3rd party systems that would work on our machines?

[myxpykalix]

Here is one for vinyl. I don't know if it would work for mats or not but possibly you could contact Russ and ask him, he might know:
http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/messages/15719/30269.html?1213372361
or go to a mat cutter to see if you can buy the tip and use it in this tool?

[myxpykalix]

sorry, that link was for their plotter pen. Here is for their cutter:

www.WidgetWorksUnlimited.com (http://www.WidgetWorksUnlimited.com)

http://tinyurl.com/4xy49u ebay

[blackhawk]

Jack - The mat board is about 1/16" thick. The vinyl cutter looks like it would be too small to cut through the mat board. I am glad that you sent the link anyway. Good info if I ever need to cut vinyl.

[myxpykalix]

Brad,
you might google mat cutting supplies and see what type of cutter is used and see if you can adapt it. I have never seen a mat cutting but my assumption is its some type of straight bit or "pizza pie cutter" type blade? Seems to me you could adapt something.

[blackhawk]

I found several websites selling computerized mat cutters, but only the complete machines. I pecked around about 30 minutes and didn't find anyone just selling a head. Check out this video: http://www.gunnar-europe.com/index.php?id=128&L=1%3F1%3D1

It looks like the head acts as a 4th axis. It rotates the stationary blade at 90 degrees when making rectangular cuts. On oval cuts it is rotating the knife blade dynamically. It seems that you would need some special software to control the 4th axis. Some of these mat cutters cost almost $30,000 can you believe that?

[myxpykalix]

nice machine but my next suggestion....scissors!

[kivimagi]

Here are some cutter heads.

http://www.valiani.com/articolo.asp?I_ID=7793

Might be a trick to get them mounted, and lined up.

Interesting though that these systems are so expensive.

[erik_f]

What about a V bit? Why not give it a try. My father has a mat cutter and it uses xacto blade and cuts everything at a 45 degree angle...if you don't want to see the angle...you flip the piece over. I don't know if you could get a sharp edge with a v bit...but what about making templates on the cnc and doing it by hand...I know thats not ideal...but would give you better results then trying to draw it and trace it with an xacto.

[zeykr]

The vinylmate or the other vinyl cutter might work with a 45deg sandblast mask bit. The sandblast mask we cut is over 1/16 thick. Problem might be toughness of mat material and how much weight it takes to cut through it.

Due to the angle of the knife, the vinyl cutter rotates on it's own when it turns corners to cut sharp corners.

Don't think I have any mat here or I'd give it a try and see how well it worked.