3D Printer: Cutting Vinyl Stickers and Etching Glass

 I saw a thing on Etsy that I sort of wanted to buy but didn't because I thought I could make it. An LED edge light lamp with various scenes or figures. I figured I could 3D print some stencils then use that as a template for painting or etching. While it IS possible, (see video below) I kept screwing up my stencils. The lines and details were getting lost. But the video does detail how to make an etching without having to modify your 3D printer. (To be fair, I was printing on the default bed and not onto the glass directly. I have never printed onto acrylic glass before so...something I may need to try.)

Turned into a whole thing. But here's where I've ended up. (Currently, this is untested by me. I will update this post once I give things a go.)

UPDATE: I have tested some of these methods with great success. See my Art Blog for details about these projects. 

So CNC machines like the Cricut can cut vinyl and engrave things like acrylic glass or leather in some cases. So that inspired a couple ways I thought I could use my 3D printer to get similar results. 

I should mention, Creality makes an official modification for Ender printers that make them into Laser cutters. So if you want to burn wood or cut glass or engrave more, it's worth looking into. It does require switching out some wires which I didn't want to mess with. So, you can dive into that if you want.

I have a Creality Ender 3 Pro machine and I use Cura as my slicer program. 

Method Ideas

1. Cut a vinyl sticker to use as a stencil template. This results in a frosted glass etching look. 

This is inspired by this video method: 

2. Use an engraving tool (preferable portable) and score the top of the acrylic to make an outline directly onto the glass. This results in only showing the line art but you could add some etching. 

This is the video that inspired this method.

Materials

All the methods assume you have a 3D printer, an acrylic glass blank, and an LED base lamp or display stand. 

Vinyl Sticker Method

This will require: 

• An adaptor for the 3D printer to hold a blade casing.
• Blade Casing and 45-degree blade to cut vinyl
• Sticky Mat or cutting board to adhere to the bed
• Painter's tape
• Removable Adhesive Vinyl 
• Transfer Tape
• Scraper
• Weeder Pick, Sculpting Pick, or Toothpicks
• Armor Etching Cream or Frosted Glass Spray paint

Engraving Method

• Adaptor for a 3D printer to hold a plotter pen/engraving tool
• Portable Engraving Tool
• Acrylic Blanks (2 - 4 mm)
• Sticky Mat and lots of painters tape

Preparing the Machine

This will depend on the make and model of your 3D printer. You should be able to find adaptors for your printer by searching for "Plotter" or "vinyl cutter" or "CNC" or "drag knife". Download the files and print the model out as normal in your preferred filament. 

I downloaded Ender 3 Vinyl Cutter.

Some adaptors will replace the filament extruder while others hang off the side or front. If the holder for the blade does not require you to replace the filament nozzle then you will need to measure the distance between the nozzle tip and blade tip. This is so you can offset the design correctly and place the vinyl or acrylic in the right spot. 

Make or Find Stencil Files to Print

You can download stencil files off repositories or you can create your own from SVG vector images. 

(You can convert pixel-based images to SVG files if you like.) 

When it comes to cutting vinyl stickers or paper, ideally you want an image with solid shapes or very thick lines. If you have a stencil with a bunch of fine details or lines, it is a better candidate for engraving or plotting with a pen. 

Batman - good, solid shapes. Ideal for cutting.

Loona - some big shapes and big lines. Ok for cutting.

Ruka and Kyojuro - Mostly thin fiddly lines. Difficult to cut, good for engraving.

The Batman and Loona images are better for cutting since they are mostly made of large shapes or thick lines. You could cut the Ruka and Kyojuro one but it would be tedious work. Engraving would make more sense since it is mostly lines and the solid shapes are small and few. (Eyebrows and Hair really.) 

Convert SVG to a 3D printing model using a program like TinkerCAD (available online)! Make it one layer high. Then export as an STL file. This should import into your Slicer program. 

Slicer Software Settings

You have to set up the gcode to only follow the walls of a print and not add any top or bottom layers. (Note: You might add a bottom layer for the engraving option but we'll get to that in a sec.) 

I use CURA. But regardless of the slicer you use, you must make sure that you have the following things set for cutting vinyl or paper: 

• Layer height or quality is set to .2 or .3 (Adjust the model's z position until get you only 1 layer after slicing.)
• Wall Thickness/Count: 1 wall or minimum diameter of your nozzle. (Mine is .4mm so I'd put in that measurement to get 1 wall)
• Top/Bottom Layers: Set to 0 (Fiddle around until you get 0 top and bottom layers.)
• Flow: Set this to 0 or very low so no filament is coming out of the extruder. (I'm too lazy to unload filament but you probably should remove filament.) 
• Print Speed: You need to slow this down. Mine is set to 25 mm/s overall. Walls will print at 12.5mm/s. 
• Temperature: Set everything to 0. We don't need a hot plate or to melt plastic filament. 
• Enable retraction and Z-hopping: So the blade picks up and moves without cutting. Mine goes 3mm.
• Cooling Fan: You can leave this on or turn it off
• Turn off Bed Adhesion: No need for a skirt or brim

With these settings, once you set down your vinyl the 3D printer will follow lines to make the walls, then stop. Just like a Cricut machine.

For Engraving: 

• Layer Height/Quality: You want the layer height to give you only 1 layer when sliced
• Nozzle Width: To make sure you're capturing all the lines, set the nozzle size to .2mm or .1 mm. 
• Speeds should be pretty slow. Test speeds without the engraving tool installed to keep things even.
• Z - Offset: You may need to download a plugin but you should set the z-offset to be the thickness of your acrylic (2mm - 4mm)
• Top/Bottom layer: You'll want 1 initial bottom layer. Set it to make lines and not to make any extra walls. (You may try a zig-zag motion instead.) Get the lines close to the walls. 
• Z-hopping and travel are important here. 

What the printer will do is follow the wall lines, then create scoring marks to fill in spaces. Likely it will make one more pass of JUST the walls. 

You may need to run the gcode more than once to get deep cuts. 

The Whole Process

To make that LED lamp, we'll do the following for each method.

Vinyl Sticker: 

1. Get our Vector File encoded with gcode. 
2. Secure the vinyl to the build plate. 
3. Load a blade onto the blade holder. 
4. Run the gcode and wait. 
5. Take the vinyl off the build plate.
6. Use a toothpick or weeder tool to remove parts of the sticker 
7. Use the transfer tape according to its instructions to lift the vinyl sticker off the sticker backing.
   
   
   
   
8. Remove the protective paper from one side of the acrylic glass base. 
9. Center the sticker and use the transfer tape to secure it down. 
10. Remove the transfer tape carefully. Only the vinyl sticker on the acrylic blank will be left. 
11. From here you can either use Etching Cream or Paint with Frosted Glass or Sea Glass spray paint. Follow the instructions for applying. 
12.  After the paint has dried, remove the sticker carefully. If using etching cream, rinse it off in water and remove the vinyl sticker. 
13. Stick the glass into a base with LED lights.

Engraving/Etching glass directly

1. Encode your image into gcode. Make sure the z-offset is set to your glass blank's thickness. 
2. Remove the protective paper of your glass blank on one side. 
3. Secure the acrylic blank to the build plate. 
4. Load an engraving tool into the holder. 
5. Turn the engraving tool on then run the gcode and wait.
6. Once done. Use tape to clean off some of the dust or debris. 
7. Remove the protective paper on the other side. 
8. Enjoy your lamp! 

Tips/Reminders ☝

• If the blade holder is hanging beside the extruder nozzle, you'll need to test the offset before placing your vinyl or acrylic blank. You can move the STL file in your slicer to not be in the center. Or set up your vinyl/blank closer to the edge. 
• Test your placement for your acrylic blank or vinyl sheet by running the gcode without the blade installed. 
• Check if your slicer has a z-offset setting by default. If not, look for plugins or use a different slicer. 
• Keep the speed relatively slow. Things won't take as long as regular 3D printing. 
• When cutting vinyl, use a cutting board or scrap material to protect the bed. I have a magnetic bed so flat magnets help keep the cutting board in place. Tape or clamps are also an option to hold it in place.
• Secure the vinyl to the bed by using a sticky mat + tape, tape it down around the edges, or clamp it down. Try to make it as flat as possible. 
• Secure the acrylic blanks with painter's tape or glue. You can use your normal bed cover or a cutting mat.
• Etching or Engraving directly may be best for complicated characters with lots of detail. You still need to use vectorized line art. 
• A Frosted Glass look works best with shapes. Line art may be used, but the lines need to be very thick. Small thin shapes are very fiddly. 
• If you are buying a lamp base pre-made, check the size of the slot compared to your acrylic blanks.  
• If the acrylic blank is covered with a plastic protector instead of paper. Remove the plastic protector and cover with Masking Tape or Painters tape if using the paper protector method. (Get the extra-wide tape.)

Costume Applications

I got so excited about the method, it took me a while to explain why this might be related to costumes. 

There's a lot you can do with vinyl stickers or Cricut-style projects in relation to costumes and cosplay. 

These machines can make vinyl stickers, iron-on designs, engrave leather/EVA foam, cut thin EVA foam, and engrave acrylic glass or jewelry metal. 

All these things can be applied to a costume in some way! But if you don't want to buy another machine, using a 3D printer as a plotter cutter is possible. 

Primarily, vinyl stickers serve as stencils for painting decals, lettering, numbering, or complicated runes. It's especially helpful if the area you are stenciling is curved or uneven in some way. 

Alternatively, the vinyl sticker can be the decal, lettering, numbering, or what have you. 

Cutting or engraving acrylic is great for props that need edge lighting. Custom Jewelry is another accessory. 

Cutting machines can cut fabric so making some appliques is much easier. (Especially cutting circles!) And speaking of cutting circles,  you can cut thin, craft foam shapes or engrave into thick EVA foam (or leather).  

The process here can also be used with markers or pens as a "plotter" tool that can draw for you onto various surfaces. 
Pen/Pencil Mount for Ender 3

Decorative Details and unique personalizing with machine precision are why someone might opt to go this route over freehanding. Sometimes I don't want to freehand things. 

This was quite an intense post. I will update you with MY results later. One of these days I'll get into the basics of 3D Printing and how I picked my printer. Cheers!

UPDATE 6/2022: If anyone was wondering whatever happened to this project, I abandoned it. The amount it was costing me to turn my printer into a CNC machine was starting to cost the same amount as an actual CNC machine. So I ended up getting a Cricut maker. I've been using it on a few costumes here and there.