Great!
Sadly the roller Silhouette roller blade can't cut this small without ruin the aluminium; the knife swivels but it is passive so it must do loops and circles in order to turn.
The Cricut Maker 3 roller blade can actively turn by itself but can't handle the 15cm width I'm using as cutting mat.
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Thanks TNT. I thought that SMAPPP looked like the monolith/slab from the film 2001 A Space Odyssey, hence the music from the same film.
I've just finished the second full length SMAPPP and I will hopefully have the first full length membrane finished in a couple of days.
Then I will measure and measure and measure...
And the looks of them - very professional and serious... wow!
I absolutely came tp think about the Odyssey 🙂
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I absolutely came tp think about the Odyssey 🙂
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Since the reMount adds weight to the foil in step 5, another option should be to spray the reMount to the sandwich paper from 6. and then apply it. My theory is that the temporary glue will then stick to the paper more than the alu foil and thus not stick to the foil when weeding the sandwich paper.
And good idea of the sandwich paper, I tried a very similar way with basically thin printing paper but the paper itself was not strong enough and ripped since I am cutting with 0.5 mm gaps. I have been looking at stronger alternative that is cheaply and easily available to buy, the transfer paper I use is a PET film but sandwich paper might do the job.
Some updates on the method described above.
The sandwich paper in 2 didn't adhere that much to the cutting mat I am using, so I have to use the 3M 77.
Before cutting in 7, talc powder needs to be applied. Otherwise the roller will clog and possibly adhere to the mat.
In 8, I found that the top sandwich paper adhered too much to the aluminium foil.
So there's some more refinement to be done. The actual cutting went well.
The sandwich paper in 2 didn't adhere that much to the cutting mat I am using, so I have to use the 3M 77.
Before cutting in 7, talc powder needs to be applied. Otherwise the roller will clog and possibly adhere to the mat.
In 8, I found that the top sandwich paper adhered too much to the aluminium foil.
So there's some more refinement to be done. The actual cutting went well.
Since your traces are only 3 mm wide, have you thought about using different alu thicknesses for the traces and the filled areas?
You could bump the thickness of the traces go gain efficiency while keeping the filled areas thinner. And if you want maximum stiffness you could move the filled area to the back of the membrane and not cut it, then you should have less issues with loss of stiffness due to the trace cut margins.
And if you can get your hands on vacuum aluminized mylar / desired material then you can do away with the glue to the fill, reducing weight by a lot.
You could bump the thickness of the traces go gain efficiency while keeping the filled areas thinner. And if you want maximum stiffness you could move the filled area to the back of the membrane and not cut it, then you should have less issues with loss of stiffness due to the trace cut margins.
And if you can get your hands on vacuum aluminized mylar / desired material then you can do away with the glue to the fill, reducing weight by a lot.
Very good advice, OllBoll!
No, I haven't thought about using different aluminium thicknesses for the traces and the filled areas. There will for sure be some alignment issues.
But using a second uncut aluminium layer on the flip side of the membrane is another matter and aluminized PET that also replaced the carrier is then a good choice .
I have 25µm aluminized PET (15µm aluminium and 10µm PET) and I have tested it before, but as far as I can remember it didn't measure well with the 6µm aluminium foil that I used then. It corrugates very well though.
But now when I can successfully cut any aluminium foil thickness, especially 14µm, I shall for sure retest this.
It'll be the same process as above, but I'll weed out the fill before applying the aluminized PET.
No, I haven't thought about using different aluminium thicknesses for the traces and the filled areas. There will for sure be some alignment issues.
But using a second uncut aluminium layer on the flip side of the membrane is another matter and aluminized PET that also replaced the carrier is then a good choice .
I have 25µm aluminized PET (15µm aluminium and 10µm PET) and I have tested it before, but as far as I can remember it didn't measure well with the 6µm aluminium foil that I used then. It corrugates very well though.
But now when I can successfully cut any aluminium foil thickness, especially 14µm, I shall for sure retest this.
It'll be the same process as above, but I'll weed out the fill before applying the aluminized PET.
Have you found a specific paper to work the best? Are you using the one you linked in this post with good results? (I'm on the lookout for affoardable good enough paper toppings to help cut thinner material, and that one looks affoardable and easy to buy)
No, that paper didn't work. It wasn't glossy on both sides.
I've found that ordinary sandwich paper works very well, but not with reMount all the way.
Here's the revised order of things:
Fattaru?
The Spray Mount must "win" over reMount, otherwise the foil doesn't stay put when the second layer of sandwich paper is removed after the cut.
I get 100% yield with this method.
Your suggestion, OllBoll's that is, that in 5 spray on the backside of the second layer of sandwich paper instead of on the aluminium foil didn't make any difference and it was also a little bit messy to handle the sprayed foil.
I've found that ordinary sandwich paper works very well, but not with reMount all the way.
Here's the revised order of things:
- Spray 3M SprayMount on the cutting mat. In my case I use 0.15m times 2.5m milk carton as cutting mat.
- Apply the sandwich paper.
- Spray 3M SprayMount on the sandwich paper.
- Apply the aluminium foil. Any thickness should work. I currently use 14 µm.
- Spray 3M reMount on the aluminium foil .
- Apply a second sandwich paper.
- Tape down the sandwich paper on the sides and on the top.
- Apply talc powder to avoid roller clogging up with adhesive residues.
- Cut with the force according to thickness of the aluminium foil. For 14 µm it's D1, F10. That cuts without ripping and leaves the first layer almost intact.
- Remove the sandwich paper in 6. The first sandwich layer and the aluminium foil must remain. Only use knife and tweezers. Avoid touching the aluminium as it might stick to your finger and come loose.
- Spray 3M 77 adhesive. *
- Weed the unwanted aluminium foil parts. *
- Apply PEN (or BOPP or Kapton or PET). Use a rigg or a short ruler to stretch the plastic.
- Rub it in thoroughly. I use an Letraset rub stick.
- Pull off the membrane from the cutting mat. The sandwich paper in 2 should remain on the cutting mat. This stage is optional.
- Cut out the finished membrane.
- Peel and wash away the rest of the paper.
- Apply talc powder to mitigate the adhesive rests on the back of the membrane.
- Corrugate.
Fattaru?
The Spray Mount must "win" over reMount, otherwise the foil doesn't stay put when the second layer of sandwich paper is removed after the cut.
I get 100% yield with this method.
Your suggestion, OllBoll's that is, that in 5 spray on the backside of the second layer of sandwich paper instead of on the aluminium foil didn't make any difference and it was also a little bit messy to handle the sprayed foil.
I've made PEN, BOPP and Alu+PET membranes with 14µm aluminium foil.
For the tweeter the Alu+PET had the less distortion almost at par with the best PEN membrane but sadly all 14µm membranes dropped too much in the highs.
For the mid none of the 14µm aluminium foil membranes could match the 6µm aluminium foil with PEN membranes.
So PEN and 6µm aluminium foil it is. I hope that this was the last rabbit hole.
Sadly that means that the resistance will be too high for any straightforward layout; there will be return leads and possibly external resistors.
For the tweeter the Alu+PET had the less distortion almost at par with the best PEN membrane but sadly all 14µm membranes dropped too much in the highs.
For the mid none of the 14µm aluminium foil membranes could match the 6µm aluminium foil with PEN membranes.
So PEN and 6µm aluminium foil it is. I hope that this was the last rabbit hole.
Sadly that means that the resistance will be too high for any straightforward layout; there will be return leads and possibly external resistors.
Now I am close to give this up:
One last straw though.
What if I use the 14µm aluminium foil only for the 3mm wide circuit and then the 6µm aluminium on the flip side of the membrane?
The weight will be the same as for a 14µm aluminium foil with fillings.
It'll behave as one membrane throughout the width and it'll corrugate easy and there will be no need for alignment.
At the same time I can remove the foam surround and replace it with Quilt Batting:
One last straw though.
What if I use the 14µm aluminium foil only for the 3mm wide circuit and then the 6µm aluminium on the flip side of the membrane?
The weight will be the same as for a 14µm aluminium foil with fillings.
It'll behave as one membrane throughout the width and it'll corrugate easy and there will be no need for alignment.
At the same time I can remove the foam surround and replace it with Quilt Batting:
Is there a specific reason you have decided to not use the Clas ohlson white foam strips anymore or is this just for testing?
I suspected that the foam strips were not even compressed, it would seem like the compressing side is compressed more than the stationary side and by doing so gets the membrane not exactly in the middle.
According to the Technical Data Sheet, the sprayed layer should be about 27 gram/m², that's 0.27 gram additional weight for a 10cm by 10cm piece of membrane.
In comparision, a 10cm by 10cm piece of the 6µm aluminium with paper backing weighs in total 0.44 gram were the paper weighs 0.21 and the aluminium weighs 0.23 gram.
So perhaps skip the PET, PEN or BOPP based membranes and use the paper backing as the membrane with the sparse 14µm aluminium foil traces glued to the back of the paper?
Of course I'll weed after that the glue has been applied so that the amount of glue is minimized.