Paper Fun with Seklema Mat

this is fantastic. i will be doing a ton of paper work myself (as well as other very thin and lightweight materials), so this will be a lifesaver.

As long is there is no PVC in them, which there might be.

Well, I canā€™t seem to find what theyā€™re made of or anyone else using them in this way, so Iā€™ll go another route. There are a lot of tutorials online demonstrating how to re-sticky those cutting mats when they get worn out using spray adhesive. How about applying one of those techniques on a piece of acrylic or other approved material?

Edit: http://www.silhouetteschoolblog.com/2014/04/resticking-silhouette-mat-tutorial.html

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Iā€™m pretty familiar with using Seklema with rotary engraving, but canā€™t really address how it compares to the ones used by Cricut as far as use. I have seen the Cricut mats and it seems they are more ā€œstickyā€ as in an adhesive type of sticky. The Seklema (and there are a couple of other similar types of mat) is more like a silicone ā€œgripā€. Hope that make sense.

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Hadnā€™t seen this before. I wore out mats pretty quick when I first got one. This may Ben more economical than the expensive laser mats, but definitely more time consuming. Iā€™ll have to experiment when mine finally comes. Thanks for pointing it out.

I keep a log. But itā€™s way more than 5 columns. I track each color of a file for operation and the power/speed/lpi/focus and for PG the level of engrave ā€œcolorā€. Some of my designs have 15 or 20 colors so I can really tweak the order of the operations :slight_smile: Iā€™m really hoping theyā€™ll give us ā€œsave projectā€ options that will keep the settings for reuse later.

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Iā€™d be happy at this point with a simple logā€¦ So painfulā€¦

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I know itā€™s in the hopper. No telling where it falls in the priority list thoughā€¦some folks are a lot more strident about their priorities than others.

Iā€™m kind of hoping that once the machines go out and after people have had a chance to play with them a bit, they might consider letting us take a look at a few of the potential hopper items and maybe take a poll on which ones people would most like to see. I know the hopper is full to overflowing with great ideas and super extras ā€¦ :relaxed:

(cc @dan @tony)

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I canā€™t imagine there isnā€™t an internal log (if only for debugging) - if there isnā€™t, there should be; itā€™s so automatic in healthcare apps that I donā€™t have to tell my team to stick in logging, but for everything else yeah, stick in logging. Once you are already logging, making log entries visible to the user is way easier.

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That would make it easier to implement then, and weā€™re more likely to get those quickly, so no problem with that idea. :relaxed:

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Would be sweet to have a log of settings for sure. And print times. And lots of other things. Makes sense that this information would not be available for PRUs and initial units though. So much information can be gleaned from logs, the real how to book!

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Does it seem like it would be easy to cut the mat to a new size? If you got the 12" x 24" mat and cut a strip off the short side it would cover the entire cutting area. Would it be bad for airflow to do that?

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Yes, thatā€™s what I did and it worked fine.

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Per the good tests here, I also bought a Seklema mat. I can attest that it was indeed, a very generous gift from @shollg to @cynd11. :slightly_smiling_face: Havenā€™t tried mine yet, but am looking forward to it, soon.

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I just picked up a Seklema mat too (12x12). I have plans to try it soon. If I create anything interesting, Iā€™ll post it here.

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I just cut some veneer and it blows around quite freely when cut. I am very interested in this mat. The cost is quite high though. I am interested in how it is holding up for you.
Thanks
Trent

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This is the only reason I have not ordered. If it lasts it will be worth it.

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My thoughts exactly.

Although the mat is expensive, so are some of the alternatives. I just ordered about $30 worth of biggish magnets :slight_smile:

I havenā€™t been using it because I donā€™t need it right now for what Iā€™ve been working on lately. The thing about the Seklema mat is that it will get cut up, just like a cutting mat for a vinyl cutter, so just like the vinyl cutter you need to dial in the settings so as to minimize damage to the mat. Over time it will accumulate enough cuts to need replacing, but since both sides are usable it should last a good long time.

Of more concern might be whether your substrate of interest will actually stick to the mat. Most things do but I found a couple things that didnā€™t. Iā€™ll be glad to test a material for its stick-to-the-mat-ness if you like.

I just tested the PG veneer and it sticks to the mat quite well (that is, the peel off material on the back sticks).

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