Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with cutter

Sound of Science

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 09:32:22 -0800

Sound junkies, I need your help: it's a two-parter. 1. Can anyone recommend a good, (preferably) open source cue cutter?

2. What's the best freeware available for converting .tta files to .mp3 or .wav?

Sign Vinyl Cutter Info Needed!

Ponderance — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 19:49:47 -0800

I want to buy a moderately/low priced sign vinyl cutter for a project. What is a decent brand? I want to buy a moderately/low priced sign vinyl cutter for a project. What is a decent brand? I see lots of cheap ones on ebay and they scare me.

I want the low end of a decent brand that will have some longevity, and I can buy supplies for (God save us from gear that has picky proprietary needs).

Any advice is appreciated!

Grant Me This Christmas Miracle!

Sassyfras — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 10:29:03 -0800

Does anyone know where I can buy cheap generic gingerbread man cookie cutters in or around Mesa, Arizona? I want the regular size – not the mini, and I want around 20 of them. I have already tried Bed Bath and Beyond, Target, two WalMarts, The Orange Patch Too, Big Lots, and The Dollar Tree.

Help me help a friend cut lots of precise tiny holes

Acari — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 17:50:41 -0800

Artbook publishing help needed! Difficulty: crazy cutouts. Help me help an artistic friend save his work from admirers. [very] extended explanation follows. The internets have let me down so far, so I'm placing my hopes in the arms of askme.

So here's the deal:
A friend of mine creates wonderful multi[multi!]layered books of art, and I'm trying to help him get them published. They are fragile, and are slowly being destroyed by people flipping through the pages to look at them.

The books contain drawings with intricate cutaway portions such that the background of any one image might be a dozen or so pages away from [and look much different than] the 'starting' page. I don't know if I'm being clear here, so I will link to a couple of photos of the book's innards:

picture #1

picture #2

I've tried [and he has tried] asking around at a few publishing houses, and the price quoted to do this seems astronomical.

The real problem seems to lie in the cutting of the pages. Each page would need a unique die, and it must precisely line up with the printed image. Also complicating things [maybe? does it matter?] is that these books are already bound.

I don't know anything about the art world or the publishing world, but I want to help because I think it's a worthy project and the artist is a really swell guy.

Ideally, he just wants a small [circa 100] run of books, but I think that he is flexible about that.

I've tried to talk to the Canada Council for the Arts to see if there are grants available for this kind of thing, but I am having a rough time finding the right person or making myself understood or both. I've written science-y grant applications successfully before, but this world of arts grants is very foreign and confusing to me.

The one option that I see as most economical for this is to just get the images printed and then buy a laser cutter off of ebay and cut the holes with that, but I've never used a laser cutter before, and I might be imagining things to be more simple than they really are.

I guess what I'm looking for is some creative thinking and practical advice.

What gasoline brushcutter should I buy?

Runcible Spoon — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 20:37:11 -0800

I need to purchase a heavy duty gasoline brushcutter: I have to clear small trees, multifloral rose bushes, and lots of vines over 25+ acres. I need a 35 to 55 cc engine as some of these vines are 5+ inches wide. Have you used one, and do you have any suggestions as to make and model? I am not looking for a chainsaw.

Looking for machine to make stickers

edjusted — Wed, 13 Jul 2005 12:08:50 -0800

Can anyone suggest equipment to produce custom photographic quality *small-sized* (anywhere from 1/2" to 2") stickers with custom shapes? We currently use an Impressa 3 which is a very nice all-in-one printer/cutter that prints out the stickers and cuts them out. The Impressa is now pretty old and obsoleted, so we're looking for something to replace it with. Everything we've looked at that would work involves multiple machines and steps (which we might still consider) or the print quality isn't good enough (the Impressa is a dye-sub printer and shows no grain). Any suggestions? We're looking to spend under $15-20k if possible.