# Stone Sizes



## dcbevins (Jul 31, 2011)

Hello all. I have never done a Rhinestone Template. A while back I cut some circles and did a brush test. I found that the ss size of the stone is definitely not the size to cut. You have to add some diameter to get a good brush in. Problem is it was so far back I've forgotten what I learned.

Right now I have CorelDraw X7. I am capable enough using blend along path options and such to manually make all my patterns. I've played around with the trials for the drawstone and rstone macro's. They would be a great help for doing this regularly. But for now I just want to test manually, just me Draw and the cutter. I just don't know what diameters to set the stones.

This is the template material I have: SGS Rhinestone Template Material Roll. I have a few ss10 ss16 and ss30 stones to test with. First test is looking like a t shirt for my daughter.

Poking around in the forums I've found these suggestions:

"We add .4mm to every stone size for example:

ss6 2.1mm we cut at 2.5mm
ss10 2.8mm we cut at 3.2mm
ss16 4.0mm we cut at 4.4mm"

"As a general rule of thumb, I use 3 sizes up to cut my templates. So for 6SS I design and cut 9SS and 10SS I use 13SS."

"HIya,I have been using SS10 stones from shine art.According to thier catalog they are 2.7mm-2.9mm.When I design I use 3.49mm to cut my circles and have no problems."​ 
All this just leaves me more confused. It is looking like in the end I am going to have to cut test templates for each batch of stones I get and do a brush test. Rinse, brush repeat until I find the right cutting size. If I don't limit myself to one supplier, there is a good chance there are going to be size differences.

Do all the specialty macro's and software out there include the actual size of the stone or do they add to the diameter of the stone to allow for easy brushing? Is it a case of having to select a stone 2-3 times up the ss scale when using those macro's. With DAS Stonecut Pro, TRW Stone Wizard, Rstones, drawstones, winpcsign, and OOBling Pro and pricing all over the board from $40 to over $700 I just am cross eyed.

Anybody got a good rule of thumb for setting the dimensions of the circles for ss sized stones for easy brushing?


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## kingwoo (Mar 22, 2013)

dcbevins said:


> "We add .4mm to every stone size for example:
> 
> ss6 2.1mm we cut at 2.5mm
> ss10 2.8mm we cut at 3.2mm
> ...


I'm a little confused about the numbers in your original quote, about the ss sizes of rhinestones got from Shine Art. 
Standard ss sizes should be established numbers, fixed diameters. And of course you'll get products which are slightly different but should be within the error range. I believe the following is the standard stone diameters.

SS SS4 SS6 SS10 SS16 SS20	SS30	SS40
Diameter 1.5mm	2mm 3mm 4mm	5mm	6mm	8mm

And I am using coreldraw and setting my circles mostly 0.1mm bigger than the standard SS. But for SS20, I do 5.2 mm. And for SS30, I go for 6.6 mm (because of the height of the stone.)

So to add a line of the circle diameters I set, here is a new form:
SS SS4 SS6 SS10 SS16 SS20	SS30	SS40
Diameter 1.5mm 2mm 3mm 4mm	5mm	6mm	8mm
Circles in Coreldraw 1.6mm	2.1mm 3.1mm 4.1mm	5.2mm	6.6mm	8.1mm

Here I answered another thread:http://www.t-shirtforums.com/rhinestone-decoration/t308769.html#post2627650










----Sorry, the formatting was removed when I submitted. So the above forms is a little confusing to read. Have no idea how to set it.


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## dcbevins (Jul 31, 2011)

That is a weird curve. Steady .1mm for ss thru ss4. A .2mm leap, then a .6mm leap, then a drop back down to .1.

I wouldn't have ever thought that it might be that way. I will try to do some test cuts with those settings and see how they brush. 

Thank you.


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## Dragon Slayer (Aug 19, 2013)

I use 2.7mm for ss06, 3.5mm for ss10 and 4.5mm for ss16. I use machine cut stones which are a bit larger. 

I have some of the SGS Rhinestone Template Material Roll but I find it very irritating to work with. The stones brush fine in the holes, but the stones not in holes get stuck between rows of stones in holes and won't brush off.


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## dcbevins (Jul 31, 2011)

What do you find better? The SGS seems at times to stretch oddly. Could be my cutter.


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## Dragon Slayer (Aug 19, 2013)

dcbevins said:


> What do you find better? The SGS seems at times to stretch oddly. Could be my cutter.


sticky flock works best for me. It's expensive but if you are doing the same design over and over it becomes much less expensive with each template sold.

I still use the orange stuff for one-off designs even though I hate it. It's hard to recoup the cost of sticky flock with only one shirt sold.


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## kingwoo (Mar 22, 2013)

dcbevins said:


> That is a weird curve. Steady .1mm for ss thru ss4. A .2mm leap, then a .6mm leap, then a drop back down to .1.
> 
> I wouldn't have ever thought that it might be that way. I will try to do some test cuts with those settings and see how they brush.
> 
> Thank you.


0.1mm for SS40 is because the big stone size makes brushing really easy and SS40 is not that often used as the smaller ones, so it's what recorded in my note. Maybe can find a bigger and better set. Don't know. Still testing and learning.

How did u find your test worked?


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