(I'm reposting this from my forum so as to keep both WWG and Ebbles in sync on cutter resources.)

Huh?

When you use a craft cutter, a sticky plastic carrier sheet is included. You mount the printout on it, feed the carrier into the machine, and cut. The purpose of the carrier sheet is to keep parts from coming off the sheet during the cutting process.

So why would I want to make my own?

Reason #1: The plastic carriers that come with the machines are sometimes much too tacky, resulting in tearing, curling, or crumpling of parts during the removal process.

Reason #2: Speed. With just the plastic carrier, you are forced to stop between cutting jobs to peel off parts before you can use it again. When you make your own sheets, you can prepare enough sheets beforehand so that you can feed and remove pages quickly. For large cutting jobs, the time savings that DIY backing sheets provide amounts to anywhere from 30 seconds to 5 minutes per page because you can immediately feed in the next sheet without worrying about the previous sheet.

Reason #3: When each page has its own backing sheet, you are not forced to peel parts immediately. You can leave them safely on the backed sheet until you're ready to peel and build. This allows you to optimize your time into discrete task chunks, and you ultimately get a lot more done in a shorter time.

So...how do I go about making my own carriers?

You don't need anything special. Regular cardstock works nicely, and this is a good use for misprints or scrap sheets. You simply apply a coat of repositionable adhesive to one side of the sheet, then cover it with wax paper until you need it.

What kind of repositionable adhesive can I use?

The quickest, cheapest, and neatest method is to use Krylon Easy-Tack 7020 spray adhesive. A light dusting will do--too much will leave residue. Use outdoors or with plenty of ventilation--this stuff is smelly and flammable.

Sulky KK-2000 quilt basting spray is non-toxic, nearly odorless, can be used indoors, but is much more expensive and the tack wears off as it absorbs into the paper. Heavier coats are needed than with the Krylon spray in order to counteract the short-lived tack. I used to like this stuff, but I've found a better and much cheaper indoors alternative, discussed next.

When I can't spray outside due to weather or other circumstances, I've found that brushing a thin layer of Elmer's No-Wrinkle Rubber Cement (in the brown bottle with the orange/white/blue label) on the backing sheet yields a nice repositionable bond that is good for several uses. Let it dry before you mount the print on it.

But it only costs $20 for 2 brand new plastic carriers! You're telling me I need to spend $6 on another ream of cardstock, $8 on spray adhesive, $2 on wax paper, et cetera, et cetera...

These $20 twin-packs of plastic carriers don't last very long. If you assume that each carrier is good for 125 uses (I'm being wildly generous here), you're essentially spending $20 to cut out one 250-sheet ream of cardstock, or 8 cents per page.

When you make your own carriers, a $8 can of Krylon Easy-Tack yields about 100 pages' worth of coverage. Yes, that's about 8 cents per sheet right there, but bear with me.

If you assume that the cardstock costs $6 for a package of 150 sheets, that's 4 cents per page. So, each sheet costs you about 12 cents to make.

Each of these pages can be used at least 5 times, however. That brings the cost equivalent down to 2.4 cents for each page that you cut. Over the long run, using your own carriers costs almost 75% less than buying replacement plastic carriers.

-Mel

I have to note that I've had really good luck with using thin plastic file folders for replacement carriers. Cut off the front and back and you're good to go. So long as they are roughly the same thickness as your original carrier and the non-textured type, you can use them over and over again (respraying when needed).

Using a light dusting of Krylon, I recently ran about 50 pages on a single spray using this technique. Its starting to give way a little now but its still going.

The only downside is that they aren't as speedy to use as Mel's above mentioned technique.

If you have enough of those plastic file folder sheets handy, you get the same speed benefits. The more carriers you have, the more you can batch the cuts.

When I have one carrier for each printout and use cut scoring instead of perfing, the whole process is lightning fast. With perfing, the 1:1 carrier-to-printout ratio is still fast, but is bottlenecked by the speed at which the machine perforates the fold lines. If you're just doing a handful of pages, using a single carrier sheet isn't so bad. When you have to do a lot of pages, though, you start seeing a huge time savings when you don't have to peel anything between jobs.

I like the idea of using plastic file folders as raw materials--if they're soft enough, they're a lot gentler on the blade than fibrous substrates like paper or cardstock. Next time I visit Officious Despot or Malwart, I'll check out file folders and dividers.

-Mel

My tips on cardstock carrier sheets:

1) Spray the absolute minimum EZ Tack you can on the sheet. It takes almost none to get a page to grip.

2) Never attach the printout to the carrier sheet until immediately before you want to cut.

3) When you attach, use almost no pressure. Just get it aligned right -- the rollers on the SD will keep it together fine.

4) Peel off the cut work immediately, don't let it sit too long attached or it will be hard to peel off.

Loyd

The supplies Mel mentioned:

Easy-Tack Repositionable Adhesive:



Elmer's No-Wrinkle Rubber Cement:

This is the opposite of Mel's method and I wonder why he has no trouble leaving printouts attached to carrier sheets prior too, and extended times after, cutting?

Is it a difference in which products used?

A difference in how products are used?

I have to disagree with Loydb on those myself. I've had no problems attaching printouts and then gettting them into the cutter when I get around to it, usually within an hour as I don't prep sheets unless I'm about to cut something.

Likewise I leave cut prints attached to their carrier sheets for hours, days, weeks, and don't have any problems removing things. YMMV, I think the key is in the application of the spray adhesive. Loydb is spot on there; light coat, about 8" from the sheet.

There could be some climate differences affecting the adhesion process- Loydb is in Texas (hot and dry), and I'm in Alaska (cold and wet).

I guess Loyd's using too much Easy-Tack--the stuff he describes happened to me frequently when I used heavy coats of the spray. The light dusting I do these days doesn't cause that problem.

I've got stuff that's been mounted for *weeks*, and it still comes off easily. I've also shipped sheets countrywide, and the only time the testers had trouble with them was when I got too hamfisted with the spray.

-Mel

I gave this a shot but couldn't find the Krylon EZ-Tack. Instead I picked up the Elmer's re-positionable spray adhesive. I suspect I sprayed too much on, or that the porous nature of the cardstock I tried caused it to adhere more... I'll give it another shot tonight.

I use the elmers myself ak, it works like gangbusters. Just have to wait for it to dry a bit first. It's slower, but eminently cheaper than the aforementioned methods. If you're patient like myself, I highly reccomend the elmers. VERY light spray, then wait about a minute to 2 minutes (humid days take longer) and then see if it tacks to your fingers when you touch the page. You'll quickly get a feel for the right amount of tackyness.

This might be a stupid question but how does a custom carrier sheet get loaded into the cutter? The reason I ask is because the carrier sheet that comes with the SD is larger then a standard 8.5x11 page and has very specific instructions on how to load it; is there some settings you'll need to enable on the software for the SD to use a custom carrier sheet?

Nope, I just feed it in between the marks on the base plate of the machine then hit the feed button on the pad.


Lord Abaddon of Wormwood

The option isn't in the software (RoboMaster), it's a menu option in the CraftRobo itself. You need to scroll through and select 'load media'.

What if, when you create a new document in ROBO Master, you UNcheck "Use Carrier Sheet". Will the robo itself then simply prompt you to 'load media' or will the robo still prompt you to 'load w/ carrier'?

The "use carrier sheet" option automatically sets the paper size to "carrier sheet" and adjusts some other settings as well. I believe the option you ACTUALLY want is in the "Craft Robo" dialog when you go to cut. I'm away from my silhouette right now, but I believe there's an option in there that tells it whether you're using a carrier sheet or not. On the silhouette-1 there's no effect. For the SD version however, it automagically causes it to cut a little deeper (0.5mm or something along those lines).

Picked up a can of Krylon repositionable spray adhesive and love this! I spray a mist into the air about 12" above my cardstock carrier sheets. I don't actually direct the spray at the cardstock but rather just spray the air above and let the stuff fall down on to the paper. A light mist is all it takes; you'd be surprised how much comes out!

Mounting is so much easier than trying to line up on that stock carrier sheet. I just line up one corner of the print out to the DIY carrier and press gently then line up the other corner then lay the print out down on the DIY carrier sheet. No need to press firmly; I just lay it flat gently run my hand over it to make sure it's on evenly with no air bubbles.

I've been able to reuse them about 4 or 5 times. It may seem like after the first use the adhesive has worn off but that's not the case. Just mount a new print out to it and press a little more firmly this time (a gentle burnish if you will =). It will stick on there just fine and not slip around or pop off. I guess that's the repositionable nature of this adhesive; very cool.

This has relieved many frustrations I was having with the stock plastic carrier sheet.


I also felt this is worth mentioning here:



Line up the printed out page (not the carrier sheet!) on that edge. Doing this essentially centers on the white roller wheels. Now if your DIY carrier sheets happen to be the exact width of your print out sheets then you can line up carrier sheet / print out sheet on that line. For example if you use cardstock carrier sheets that are the same size as your print outs.

Bottom line, and what's important here, is that you are centering the printed out sheet (the things you want to cut out!) on the little white roller wheels.

I've now been getting about 10 cuts on a carrier sheet before it needs more spray or it starts getting tore up too bad. That's a pretty good return for a single piece of cardstock and a little bit of spray.

Also if I have two carrier sheets (or more) and I need to put them aside for a while or even store them a few days I'll mount them (glue side to glue side). Then when I need them again I gently pull them apart and use them.

I cover mine with wax paper to keep them fresh and clean.

I found the following some weeks ago, ordered a set and tried them. It worked without a problem and I just ordered another set of 8 sheets:
http://www.pearl.de/a-VM6279-2316.shtml

For the non-german speaking users: These are contact transparent front cover A4 280my (plastic comb)
* 8-contact transparent front cover for plastic binding
* Format: A4
* Thickness: 280 my
* A4

They cost 2,90 Euros for a set of 8.

Perhaps someone can make use of this.

Best wishes,
Timo

I just got my Silhouette today, and I didn't want to mess with the carrier sheets or the DIY ones, so I am using yellow ticky tack, 4 small pieces, one in each corner holds the print to a second sheet and works perfectly.

Don't you have trouble with bit and pieces falling out as it cuts?

nope, ive cut 20 of them so far.

im also just using the Sihlouette studio, and I made a copy of each template with regular cuts for use with the .1 blade, then another copy and remove all the perferated marks for the finam .3 cutout.

Works well.

So your doing two passes through the cutter, first pass with a .1 depth for the perf lines as score lines, second pass for the cut lines? I can see that working well.

I am very curious as to how you are getting cut pieces to stay in place when they are not attached to a carrier sheet...I have had instances where a part pops up, because the glue on the carrier sheet had lost its stick. the part pops up and will jam the cut head , or throw the cut out of alignment.

Would love to know how to avoid this

This thread is old, but I just wanted to note that using my own carrier sheets made an enormous difference, mainly due to reason #1.

Using the "official" ones was frustrating and time-consuming, and more than half the pieces were ruined cause it was too tacky. Kinda put me off of using the cutter, it was almost more work using it than just cutting by hand.

With the cardstock and easytack, it's a breeze, and with the right cut settings it seems I can use one sheet of cardstock at least 5 times.

I personally gave up on my own carrier sheets - I might try it again now that I know my printer actually prints square... Still, I've been using the one carrier sheet that came with my cutter for over a year now, cutting hundreds of pages. I use some spray mount adhesive once in a while, and every now and then I scrub it with soapy water, which does wonders for bringing the tackiness back.

I wanted to mention in case it wasn't said before or obvious to others... When I bought my (first and only) house 16 years ago, my parents gave me two home fix-it books. I've never cracked them open. BUT, they are a great size to put in front of and behind my cutter. It prevents the sheet from bending at all while the cutter is working, which helps prevent pieces from popping up. It also is the right size behind the cutter for me to push it up against the wall and be sure the cutting mat won't run out of room.

I suppose using cardstock as a custom cutting mat would be more rigid, but since I use the product's cutting mat and it's rather, uh, floppy, this helps out.

True, washing the adhesive off and spraying the easytack on the original carriers would achieve the same effect as far as stickiness goes. I might give that a try as well, can't hurt.

This is the technique I use. Works great. I spray, let set for 30-60 seconds and "test mount" a sheet of scrap paper and then remove it and discard. This removes the excess spray tack.

By the time I got my SD cutting accurately and my printer behaving, my carrier sheet was pretty much toast. The second sheet that came with the SD was so sticky, it tore the sheet. I just didn't want to mess with it.
But I tried this and I'm amazed! Even when the sheets don't feel sticky (to me) any more, they have enough grip to hold the paper and I've been getting some awesome cuts! I have to say, it doesn't take much spray at all... And the first couple pages were a bit curled... But now that I know to expect that, I can use some scrap paper to de-stick the carrier pages a bit after the initial spray.

Just wanted to say thanks for the advice!

Just so I get this right, you use the same kind of cardstock, that you printed your template on, as a carrier sheet?
Or do you use thicker cardstock for it?

Either way works.
I had a bunch of cheapo 110lb stock (heavy and not too bright) that I quit using when I found a good 80lb stock (that was bright and sturdy) - the 110lb stock became backing sheets for my 80lb printouts. Worked great.