# Cutting rhinestone templates



## prezzz (May 9, 2008)

I read and watched several tutorials on cutting rhinestone tutorials and placing actual stones.

Right now I'm waiting for my first delivery of rhinestones, my main concern being availability (or lack thereof) of any popular cutting material in my area. It'll take many days, especially in this time of year, to bring them from the US here to Poland.

As far as I could see, besides stones themselves, it's a matter of 3 factors:
- template material (in which the holes are cut)
- backing material (where stones are placed)
- brushing tool

I assume that the template material needs to be thick. Would it be possible to use any other vinyl (i.e. car decal vinyl) instead of the rubber sandblast vinyl for this purpose? I don't care about the durability for now, I just need to get the work done for first several transfers.

For the backing material, what kind should it be? Is it important at all for this kind of job? Should it be rough or smooth? Again, can any common material be used instead of dedicated one?

For now I need to improvise with easily available methods. Hopefully with your help, I'll be able to enjoy my first rhinestone transfers 

Prez


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## charles95405 (Feb 1, 2007)

what cutter are you using? Do you have the software to cut the circles or are you using Corel? For cutting, the thicker vinyl *might* work. I am sure that in Poland they have sand blast material that might be a source for temporary use. once you get the vinyl cut, you can put it on any reasonably stick backer board for the rest. To transfer, you should have a mylar tape..this is in two parts..on has a sticky side which you will use to pick up the stone and the backing you put back on to protect the transfer. you can wrap a microfiber cloth around a sponge and use that to brush the stones in. Once you have the transfer picked up on the mylar tape. When picking up the stones with the mylar, you have some static electricity, and to avoid having the stones 'jump' up...and get mis-aligned...spray with any type of static free spray


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## prezzz (May 9, 2008)

Charles,

thank you very much for your answer. I have just found out that the rhinestone package arrived today, so I have both the stones and transfer foil with its backing - at least I'm safe on that and once I get the actual template done, I can move it around.

I use Graphtec CE5000-60 plotter, which has been great for any kind of vinyl and other foils so far. I am familiar with both Illustrator and Corel (for which I have purchased the LED Tool 3 script just couple of days ago), so as much as it can be time consuming, I'm not too worried about designing actual templates - it's the technical side of it that gets me worried.

I will contact my local vinyl supplier to see if they have any material available that would suit my needs. I couldn't find any sandblast material in their catalogue, but who knows, I'll need to ask further.

Prez


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## joeshaul (Mar 1, 2008)

prezzz said:


> I will contact my local vinyl supplier to see if they have any material available that would suit my needs. I couldn't find any sandblast material in their catalogue, but who knows, I'll need to ask further.
> 
> Prez


You may want to look up sign supply shops and see if you have better luck there. Even though the two industries are very intertwined, vinyl suppliers usually stock sign/digital vinyl, a very small amount of substrates, and a wide variety of other printed materials. 

Sign supply shops generally stock lots of substrates (aluminum, plexiglass, MDO, things you commonly put the vinyl/paint/etc on) as well as some of the harder/pricier to find print/cut materials (reflectives, backlit films, and sandblast mask), as well as electrical ballasts/bulbs/etc. 

Even though these companies probably have no locations in Poland, it gives you the idea of the difference between a sign supply store and a vinyl supplier. Yes, the vinyl supplier I marked says it's a sign supplies, but you should immediately notice the difference in product offerings when visiting. 
Sign Supplies - Montroy Sign Supply - Products - Home (sign supplier)
Sign Supplies, Sign Making Equipment, Vinyl Films, T-Shirt Supplies for Vinyl Cutters, Heat Presses & Wide Format Inkjet Printers - Beacon Graphics, LLC (vinyl supplier)


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## DTFuqua (Jun 26, 2008)

You also might try asking around a the (cemetery) monument makers what they use. the more detailed monuments are usualy sandblasted with a resist of some type.


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## prezzz (May 9, 2008)

Thanks a lot for all your answers!

My vinyl supplier didn't have any sandblast vinyl in their offer, but kindly pointed me to another company. Tomorrow I will ask them for samples - in the meantime I got a sample of thick regular vinyl, will give it a try as well.


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## charles95405 (Feb 1, 2007)

with some vinyl, you can cut the circles but the vinyl is not thick enough and too much of the stone sticks out and when you try to brush the stones in, the brushing motion pushes out the stones already in.

Terry had a great suggestion...would never thought of the cemeteries as being a source of info on sandblast resist


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## prezzz (May 9, 2008)

Charles, that's the exact problem I've had with previous tries with some vinyls. Today I brought some thick vinyl home and will give it a try, but I don't think it'll do the trick as it's still way too thin.

Tomorrow I will try to get some sandblasting vinyl samples. It's not a rubber vinyl, but rather PVC based one. It's named HARTCON (as opposed to Hartco mentioned often on this forum), available in three thicknesses: 0.25mm, 0.35mm, 0.45mm, but since the maximum value for Graphtec CE5000-60 is 0.25mm, I will need to try this one out.


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## prezzz (May 9, 2008)

Guys,

first of all my best wishes for 2010 to all of you!

I really appreciate all the help I've been given so far - I have managed to get some sandblast vinyl and it worked great. I was close to bringing some of the Hartco material from the USA, but compared to the price of the vinyl I found here, the price is exactly 90% lower than what I'd have to pay for the Hartco material, shipping, customs and taxes. That's a great way to end the year!

I have one more question, though. Along with the first package of rhinestones, I received a small amount of transfer foil. It's of nice quality, but the price is horrific - single A5 sheet would cost me around $1.5 which, in the long run, would be unacceptable. I read in your posts that some generic mylar tape (mylar foil) would be good enough to do the trick. Could you point me to some online stores offering this, so I could try and find it locally? As far as I could see, mylar products are offered in wide range (most of them being non-adhesive).

My final thing to consider is finding a Korean supplier of stones once I see that there's a need to. I realize that business contacts are the best kept secret of most of you, so I will need to do the research myself. But in general, what would you consider a good price for, let's say, 500 gross of SS10 (3 mm) Korean stones? Such information would be a good start for me to weed out the rip-off offers.

I really appreciate all your help and hopefully some day I will be able to pay it back somehow.

Prez


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## skits (Jun 24, 2009)

hey prezz.... I'm a newbie wanting to start rhinestone too....I have the same graphtec cutter as you....

I will need to look for sandblast vinyl locally.... in the meanwhile could you send me any illustrator file you have used cos Im not sure how to layout the design.

when laying down the stones into the template how do you ensure the sticky side is at the bottom?


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## prezzz (May 9, 2008)

skits, for the first basic conversion from vector file to the rhinestone template, I used corel draw with the LED Tool 3 script (you can google it), setting the circle size to stone size + 0.2mm. Then there was a lot of hand tweaking, of course.

Then I poured about 10 gross of stones on the template to brush them in. So far a painting brush with natural hair worked best for me. If you do the right moves, stones that are placed correctly won't pop out.


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## skits (Jun 24, 2009)

thanks.

I guess initially if I dont have the LED tool I could outsource the design service to someone professional to setup the file.

Then with that file I will cut the tempalte myself.

Since Im based in kenya Im going to have a hardtime sourcing all the materials locally so can you guide me on which materials I need and which one supplier can supply them?

from my knowledge I will need:
1. sandblast material for template cutting
2. board to place the temaplate on
3. rhinestones
4. brush
5. transfer film to pickup the stones off the template

I already have a heat press.

Whats your opinion on the graphtec for cutting the templates? does it do the job? which blade are u using?


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## prezzz (May 9, 2008)

skits,

I would recommend you getting the LED Tool 3 script if you're going to do the template layout yourself:
MacroMonster.Com :: Product - Alexander Penkin's LED Tool 3
It's only 20 bucks and lets you do the basic setup of rhinestones with very little effort. Even fairly simple templates have 200-300 stones and if you wanted to set them all by hand, you would end up spending half a day doing that.

Regarding the materials:
1. sandblasting material - that's right, 0.25mm thickness is good enough in most cases; if you get a thicker one, you may have a problem with picking up smaller stones (like SS6)
2. board - I use a thick piece of carton; it has to be fairly thick, not slippery material with smooth surface
3. rhinestones
4. brush - but not any brush, this is something you need to figure out by yourself; natural hair brushes won't create static that would make the stones fall out of the template, so that's my chosen tool for now
5. transfer film

My graphtec does a great job, I use a 60-degree blade that I also use to cut flock. You will have to find the exact settings (like force, blade length, offset) by trial and error, as they differ from case to case.


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## skits (Jun 24, 2009)

thanks prezz....

I'm buying a starter pack from expres.co.uk but that doesnt include the software.
The software they sell is R-wear and it costs £100.00.

From what I understand the LED tool 3 and R-wear do a similar function..... the price is not a concern.... i just need to get the correct software first time around and get this business started....

thanks for all the other responses....


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## prezzz (May 9, 2008)

skits,

I don't know if R-wear would work with Graphtec plotter. But at this point that's about it when it comes to my knowledge of software. And I kind of envy the 'price is not a concern' part


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## DTFuqua (Jun 26, 2008)

Here's a few tips. For a graphtec cutter, I love mine, You'll need the red top blade holder with a 60 degree blade. The Graphtec won't cut directly from anything Roland at this time. If you want to buy a good program to use with a Graphtec cutter at close to the price of the R-WARE. try checking out the ACS software. I don't have it but it is well documented on this forum and has one of the best support people, Sandy, you will ever find. Good luck..


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## charles95405 (Feb 1, 2007)

I am pretty sure that R-Wear will NOT work with any cutter except a Roland product. To use the LED tool you will need CorelDraw (X4 I think) and may I suggest that before you start cutting the more expense template material you practice on lesser cost regular vinyl...then change blades and do the template when you are ready


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## skits (Jun 24, 2009)

thanks guys


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## DTFuqua (Jun 26, 2008)

charles95405 said:


> I am pretty sure that R-Wear will NOT work with any cutter except a Roland product. To use the LED tool you will need CorelDraw (X4 I think) and may I suggest that before you start cutting the more expense template material you practice on lesser cost regular vinyl...then change blades and do the template when you are ready


 I'm pretty sure that Charles is correct about th R-ware not working directly with a Graphtec but there are work arounds. I'm not sure but I think the ACS may be as good if not better than the R-WARE and it does more than just rhinestones and will cut to the Graphtec CE5000 series plotters.


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## lizziemaxine (Nov 14, 2007)

DTFuqua said:


> Here's a few tips. For a graphtec cutter, I love mine, You'll need the red top blade holder with a 60 degree blade. The Graphtec won't cut directly from anything Roland at this time. If you want to buy a good program to use with a Graphtec cutter at close to the price of the R-WARE. try checking out the ACS software. I don't have it but it is well documented on this forum and has one of the best support people, Sandy, you will ever find. Good luck..


I got the iDesignR software to go with the Graphtec cutter I bought. So far it has been easy to learn and the price is good.


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## skits (Jun 24, 2009)

yes xpres told me I need coreldraw & r-ware to be able to cut with my graphtec.

from what i understand r-ware will make the design and then using coral i will cut the material.


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## DTFuqua (Jun 26, 2008)

sorry to read that Jane. If you would have searched the forums, you would have found a/some posts about the I-Design software. the people that wrote the program also wrote the ACS software and the ACS has enough features added that I-Design doesn't have to be well worth the $50 or so difference in price. But that being said, would you mind being our tester for the I-Design software and let us know what it does do ?


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## lizziemaxine (Nov 14, 2007)

DTFuqua said:


> sorry to read that Jane. If you would have searched the forums, you would have found a/some posts about the I-Design software. the people that wrote the program also wrote the ACS software and the ACS has enough features added that I-Design doesn't have to be well worth the $50 or so difference in price. But that being said, would you mind being our tester for the I-Design software and let us know what it does do ?


I don't feel like I made a bad purchase decision. I read all the forums posts about all the different software programs available and made an informed decision that iDesignR would work just fine for me. 
Would you mind listing the things that ACS will do that iDesignR won't do?


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## DTFuqua (Jun 26, 2008)

i forget but I did call the makers which I believe is cadlink to be sure


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## ashamutt (Feb 22, 2008)

DTFuqua said:


> i forget but I did call the makers which I believe is cadlink to be sure


...based off of Signlab software? right?


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## sunnydayz (Jun 22, 2007)

Here is a thread on the Idesignr software that had the comparisons, although I think it does have some of the options in it that were listed as it not having. http://www.t-shirtforums.com/rhinestone-decoration/t95112.html


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## ashamutt (Feb 22, 2008)

sunnydayz said:


> Here is a thread on the Idesignr software that had the comparisons, although I think it does have some of the options in it that were listed as it not having. http://www.t-shirtforums.com/rhinestone-decoration/t95112.html


Thanks sunny! 

I totally forgot about that thread since no one had posted there in a while!
Thanks!
(now I can ask SandyM a question that I had TOTALLY forgotten about!!!) lol


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