The Cameo 4 arrived, but I'm a bit disappointed in it. The build quality is very flimsy/plasticy, and no comparison with the Elegoo 3D printer. I can't see it being much help to us for actual track construction. I think I was kidding myself that a blade cutter could match die-cutting or punching to create precision cut-outs in thick card.
The standard blades appear to have a cutting edge which is near vertical, which obviously isn't going to cut anything much thick than about 10 thou / 0.25mm with any precision, and it doesn't. Even at that thickness I can't find a setting which will cut through ordinary card cleanly without raising a burr or leaving rough edges. It would probably be fine for scoring plasticard for snapping, but that's about all.
I do have a couple of the alternative "Kraft" blades (isn't that cheese?) which have an angled cutting edge more akin to a craft knife, which may work better to create a proper slicing action, but I haven't tried them yet. Mainly because the instructions say they are only for soft craft materials such as cork or foam, although they do also mention thin balsa wood sheet. I have seen some 2mm foamboard with a foam core which might be worth investigating.
But all is not lost, because the machine does have one redeeming feature. By fitting a "Sketch Pen" in place of the cutter it is possible to have the equivalent of an A3 roll-feed pen plotter, with no restrictions on the page length (unless you regard 60ft as a restriction
). I say "equivalent", but that should be taken with a pinch of salt, given the plastic construction, and the ball-point pens, but it is actually usable:
View attachment 1634
So instead of taking files to a digital copy shop, you could print your own track plan in 2 strips to cover a typical say12ft x 2ft baseboard. Which makes it easier to do trial-and-error reprints, and saves the cost of commercial wide-format printing. Some standard A3 printers allow roll feeding, but not an unlimited page length (unless they still support the old "banner printing" option).
It's going to need some changes in the Templot DXF to be fully usable -- at present the paper is constantly feeding to and fro over the full length, which is obviously out of the question for a print several yards long. I need to do a post-edit function on the DXF to put everything into strict page order, and break long lines into several short ones. That's one more thing on the list.
For actual track construction I would want to use the proper printed templates, but for seeing the overall track plan on the baseboard this seems acceptable. If you are printing 3D track bases in small modules, this might be sufficient to align them, rather than fitting together lots of A4 sheets.
The roll of 300m wide drawing paper came from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006ZKHE58
It is too small in diameter to fit the roll holder properly, and I had to remove the end plates as you can see on the table. No doubt something could be improvised or 3D printed to solve that.
So all in all the Cameo has been a bit of a distraction -- back now to getting 228a finished for 3D printing.
cheers,
Martin.