Post by Sirrob01 on Jan 10, 2013 22:12:02 GMT -9
So I've hammered a bit out of my portrait now so I thought I'd post up some thoughts as others might be curious.
I never had an SD so my comparison is with my Old RoboIII
My cutter lives in the lounge room, using the old robo cutting during a TV show would bring the wrath of my wife down on my head. The Portrait is much quieter, not whisper quiet but definitely usable during a TV show and only mildly distracting to her. For me this alone was well worth the purchase.
New cutting mat almost feels like a double heavy weight of laminate but it works well and rollers seem to have no issue picking it up. I'm little curious to try a piece of laminated A4 paper and see how that goes now.
I can't be certain as my Robo was playing up something horrible but the cutter seems more accurate...maybe consistent is a better word.
The drive blade seems to be slightly heavier duty in regards to notches so I'm hoping this will help over time, unfortunately I cant see the tensioning mechanism and I'm not pulling my cutter apart yet .
The addition of a micro switch to the head stops the head from becoming lost and grinding when it hits the left end of the cutter. my old robo would do that occasionally resulting in a horrible noise. It'll be interesting to see how that micro switch holds up over time.
Rego mark detection seems less particular
Downsides
The new blade and holder are a fully integrated units, this irks me no end not so much from a cost view but more from a shear excessive waste of plastic. Enough plastic in landfills already I don't need to add more to the pile (sorry I have personal dislike of excessive packaging, used to visit landfills as part of my day to day work ). I've ordered up an aftermarket aluminum cutting head which fits and takes just the blades, cost was an extra $30.
New rego marks, for me this is a minor annoyance on older stuff I just import to Gimp overlay new Portrait template, Print (save)and Cut. For others this might be slightly more annoying.
Overall very happy with the new cutter and for myself the price was right. I did contemplate the Cameo but I've never wanted to cut more than an A4/Letter sized object, so it didn't seem worth the extra money.
If your in Aus (or NZ) you can pickup a Portrait from these guys for about the same as it'll currently cost you to buy and ship one in from the US (at the moment):
www.craftonline.com.au/shopping/c-silhoette-machine-portrait.asp
If you see one on sale at some point I'd definitely snag one. I'll try and provide an update in a month or two and after my Alu head arrives.
I never had an SD so my comparison is with my Old RoboIII
My cutter lives in the lounge room, using the old robo cutting during a TV show would bring the wrath of my wife down on my head. The Portrait is much quieter, not whisper quiet but definitely usable during a TV show and only mildly distracting to her. For me this alone was well worth the purchase.
New cutting mat almost feels like a double heavy weight of laminate but it works well and rollers seem to have no issue picking it up. I'm little curious to try a piece of laminated A4 paper and see how that goes now.
I can't be certain as my Robo was playing up something horrible but the cutter seems more accurate...maybe consistent is a better word.
The drive blade seems to be slightly heavier duty in regards to notches so I'm hoping this will help over time, unfortunately I cant see the tensioning mechanism and I'm not pulling my cutter apart yet .
The addition of a micro switch to the head stops the head from becoming lost and grinding when it hits the left end of the cutter. my old robo would do that occasionally resulting in a horrible noise. It'll be interesting to see how that micro switch holds up over time.
Rego mark detection seems less particular
Downsides
The new blade and holder are a fully integrated units, this irks me no end not so much from a cost view but more from a shear excessive waste of plastic. Enough plastic in landfills already I don't need to add more to the pile (sorry I have personal dislike of excessive packaging, used to visit landfills as part of my day to day work ). I've ordered up an aftermarket aluminum cutting head which fits and takes just the blades, cost was an extra $30.
New rego marks, for me this is a minor annoyance on older stuff I just import to Gimp overlay new Portrait template, Print (save)and Cut. For others this might be slightly more annoying.
Overall very happy with the new cutter and for myself the price was right. I did contemplate the Cameo but I've never wanted to cut more than an A4/Letter sized object, so it didn't seem worth the extra money.
If your in Aus (or NZ) you can pickup a Portrait from these guys for about the same as it'll currently cost you to buy and ship one in from the US (at the moment):
www.craftonline.com.au/shopping/c-silhoette-machine-portrait.asp
If you see one on sale at some point I'd definitely snag one. I'll try and provide an update in a month or two and after my Alu head arrives.