2. Razor Cutter Guide - dfierros/cohen_lab GitHub Wiki

Important notes:

these blade break very easily using the wrong cut settings (especially force or blade height) or by slamming the blade into the cut surface when reloading the blade (Matt has done both of these), and it is very hard to tell whether a blade has been damaged.

Remember the blade height is set manually on the blade- the indicator on the software is only a reminder of what the blade height should be. Blade height is set by removing the blade from the cutter and turning the white round bottom until the red dot lines up with the desired height number. Be sure to not let the blade slam onto the cut surface when you reload the blade.

If the cutter is not working the way it usually does (making uncharacteristically unclean cuts), it is likely that the settings are wrong or the blade is damaged.

Standard Operating procedure:

  1. Design your cutting shape on the silhouette software DOWNLOAD LINK.
  2. Retrieve your desired cut media from the drawer under the cutter. The standard 250 um PDMS film we use most often is labeled in English units, which is 0.010”
  3. The PDMS film has a protective layer above and below the film. Carefully stick the media with the protective layers still on to the cut mat, careful to not form bubbles below the cut media. If you do see bubbles, roll them out using the double stick tape roll or some other hard roller.
  4. Remove the top protective layer so the cutter cuts directly into the film
  5. Load the cut mat perfectly straight in by holding it next to the rollers and pressing “load media” on the touch screen. The edge of the cut mat should line up with the indicator line on the cutter
  6. Go to the “Send” menu (instead of design) and cut a calibration line to make sure the cutter is lined up. Adjust the cutting design appropriately to cut the right location. Press “Send” to cut.
  7. Cut your designs
  8. Weed either with tweezers or using the special “auto-weeding” technique shown below.
  9. Place stencils on the dish or coverslip (make sure the side that was face-up on the cutter is also face-up on the dish. If you use autoweeding, the side face-up after auto-weeding will be face-down.

This section should include information about those special blade settings

(DJC--06/18) -- you guys can write the SOP, I’m just adding tips/tricks

250 um PDMS film (HT6240): Blade length at 5-6, speed at 3 cm/s, ‘thickness’ at 6-8. Remember to remove the upper protective film first

Special auto-weeding technique:

  1. Once your film is down and the cover is off, put scotch tape over the section you want to cut out
  2. Cut your stencils with the standard settings for the film
  3. Remove the stencils from the film using a price of scotch tape. Now when you turn this piece of tape over you will have the following layers from top to bottom: pdms, cut tape, uncut removal tape.
  4. Remove your stencil from the top piece of tape using tweezers. This will leave behind any shapes you desired to leave as a “cut-out” and requires no weeding

PSA ARCare Double sided tape: Remove upper film first, cut at blade(3/6)/speed(1)/thick(33)

  • Inserting the cutting mat: make sure it’s making equal contact with the rollers so it doesn’t go in at an angle
  • Blade adjustment: DO NOT FORGOT to adjust the blade for different material thicknesses (must adjust manually)
  • Cut a small notch in upper left corner of where you want to cut to calibrate
  • Weed using scotch tape to remove small features at one time Scotch tape can clean the sample and is effective prior to use with cells.