Making a Sticker

Want to make your own stickers all inside /dev/hack? You're on the right page! This guide will show you how to print and cut your own stickers using what we already have.

Work in progress. Update this section once implemented.

You can manually design and operate the sticker printing and cutting machines instead.

In order to make your own stickers, you will need...

Your laptop. Either Windows or Linux will work, but their instructions will be different. Refer to each section appropriately. You may also use the web app, but this hasn't been tested yet.

The Silhoette Portrait 4 Cutting Machine. You will be using this machine to cut the stickers off your printed sticker papers. This machine is on the Sticker Station, which is inside the Foundry room, in-between the metal rack next to the door. Refer to the picture above, also.

The Epson ET-2750 Inkjet Printer. You must use an inkjet printer to print onto sticker paper. Do not use laser printers, such as the Brother HL-4570CDW Color underneath the Sticker Station, as sticker papers will jam them. If you have time and your stickers are colorful, you should consider printing on the highest quality and DPI settings, which will take quite a while longer to print.

Sticker papers. They can be found behind the "sticker/printing supplies" box on the second floor of the rack, on the top of the document organizer rack. A sticker paper is about 15¢ ea.

A laminator. There should be one on the left of the Silhoette.

Lamination sheets. They can often be found right underneath where the sticker papers are on the document organizer rack.

This section is for Linux users.

You will need driver for the Epson ET-2750 Inkjet Printer. Refer to that page for the instructions.

You will also need to install Inkscape with the Inkscape Silhoette add-on. This has been tested on Arch Linux; support for NixOS is unknown.

TODO: Expand.

Basically, generate the regmark (registration mark) template on Inkscape, draw stuff, print it, etc.

@nc or @lily can you fill this for me please...

TODO

Grab a lamination sheet. It has two layers joined at one edge; place your printed sticker sheet in between the two layers, creating a sandwich.

Turn on the laminator. The power switch is on the right side on the back. It is tri-state; center is powered off, left is 3 mil, right is 5 mil. 3 mil (left) seems correct but your mileage may vary. A red light indicates the laminator is powered on. Don't forget to turn off the machine when you're done.

Before you insert the lamination sandwich wait for the laminator to preheat. When it is done preheating you should see a red power light and a green ready light near the power switch.

Insert the lamination sandwich, joined edge first (see diagram on front of machine). A few moments later, you will have a laminated sticker sheet! Don't forget to turn off the machine when you're done.

By the way, don't forget to turn off the machine when you're done.

Turn on the cutting machine by opening the lid and holding the power button on the right side of the machine (in front of the USB port) for at least two seconds. It should make a concerning noise and then light up all the button LEDs.

The two up/down buttons at the bottom of the control panel (not on the D-pad) are the feed buttons. The up arrow feeds the sheet into the cutter, the down arrow spits it back out.

Plug in the USB cable to your laptop.

Insert the end of the laminated sticker sheet with the black square registration mark (there's a label to help you know where it goes). Press the feed button to let the machine grip onto the sheet. If it didn't evenly insert, use the other feed button to spit it back out and try again.

In general at this point, follow inkscape-silhouette/USERGUIDE.md § Plot with registration marks steps. The media type that seems to work fine is [P=10,S= 5,D=1] Vinyl Sticker. Ensure you've selected the correct options in the Regmarks tab.

When it's done, you can hit the feed button that spits the sticker sheet back out.

Tip: if you're unsure of what you're doing, select a single cut line in your sticker sheet and cut that first. Then you can select all the other cut lines in another run.

TBD. This hasn't been tested.