(no subject)
Sep. 13th, 2014 09:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calzephyrIt's hard to believe that I bought my Pazzles years ago and never really mastered it. Maybe it's because I want to use it for something other than just cutting paper. I knew at the time that it would require a lot of experimenting and learning to get the most use out of it. Now that I'm an art college dropout, I certainly have the time and have been venturing into the drafting world to see what I can make with it. In some ways the projects and tutorials out there are too crafty and not makey enough for me - maybe this is part of the problem. Plus the clunky software has been a turn off.
Anyhow, the alternatives are not quite there for home use. 3D printers have not gone up in quality and down in price like I had hoped, and those $700 laser cutters on eBay beg the question of how much you want to spend fixing or tweaking it instead of cutting. One poster on Ask MetaFilter suggested a Shapeoko, and after watching it in action, I realized that it was a less pretty Pazzles.
So far I have tested the engraving tool on soft wood, acrylic and copper. The results are OK. Nothing too spectacular though. I'm on the fence about this one until I try it on more materials. Much like how the pen tool can leave a blob of ink when it picks a new place to draw, the engraving tool kind of stabbed the copper the same way. It's possible that the copper was too soft as I did not notice the same thing on the acrylic. The other tools available is a distressing tool and a piercing tool, but I can't see buying them any time soon. It's possible to make your own tool with the right sized dowel, but I haven't thought of what could be stuck on the end :-D
I also suppose that I could have saved myself the laser cutting experience by using my Pazzles to draw. The tool cradle holds Crayola markers perfectly, while the pen holder will fit most markers. I had to wrap ultra fine Sharpies in craft foam to fit in the tool cradle. They don’t fit in the pen holder.
I bought a ton of new materials to sacrifice to the Pazzles, but haven't tried them out yet - stencil plastic, craft plastic, vinyl cling film and chip board. I also thought I was ordering coloured mylar, but it turned out to be the flimsy stuff you get in gift baskets :-D
Anyhow, the alternatives are not quite there for home use. 3D printers have not gone up in quality and down in price like I had hoped, and those $700 laser cutters on eBay beg the question of how much you want to spend fixing or tweaking it instead of cutting. One poster on Ask MetaFilter suggested a Shapeoko, and after watching it in action, I realized that it was a less pretty Pazzles.
So far I have tested the engraving tool on soft wood, acrylic and copper. The results are OK. Nothing too spectacular though. I'm on the fence about this one until I try it on more materials. Much like how the pen tool can leave a blob of ink when it picks a new place to draw, the engraving tool kind of stabbed the copper the same way. It's possible that the copper was too soft as I did not notice the same thing on the acrylic. The other tools available is a distressing tool and a piercing tool, but I can't see buying them any time soon. It's possible to make your own tool with the right sized dowel, but I haven't thought of what could be stuck on the end :-D
I also suppose that I could have saved myself the laser cutting experience by using my Pazzles to draw. The tool cradle holds Crayola markers perfectly, while the pen holder will fit most markers. I had to wrap ultra fine Sharpies in craft foam to fit in the tool cradle. They don’t fit in the pen holder.
I bought a ton of new materials to sacrifice to the Pazzles, but haven't tried them out yet - stencil plastic, craft plastic, vinyl cling film and chip board. I also thought I was ordering coloured mylar, but it turned out to be the flimsy stuff you get in gift baskets :-D
