|
Post by kirshan on Jan 18, 2014 18:39:53 GMT -9
These seem to too be fairly priced, Just want to know if it will do the job? Anyone have experience with these cutters?
Thx Kirshan
|
|
|
Post by WackyAnne on Jan 18, 2014 20:01:12 GMT -9
Hey Kirshan! Nope, unfortunately, I don't have personal experience with any cutter, but fortunately several Cardboard Warriors do! If you do a search on the board for "Silhouette Portrait" or the Cameo, you'll come up with a wealth of information and cutfiles for the machines. Sirrob01 did an extensive review of the machine here. If I can stop buying so much content for a while, then maybe I can actually buy one of these this year
|
|
|
Post by squirmydad on Jan 18, 2014 21:47:54 GMT -9
I just bought mine to replace my silhouette SD, I'll be playing with it on monday.
|
|
|
Post by kirshan on Jan 19, 2014 4:49:44 GMT -9
Thx WackyAnne, your post was very helpful. Squirmy please post your feelings on the machine it will probably be a few weeks before I actually purchase unless a super deal jumps up and bites me.
|
|
|
Post by oldschooldm on Jan 19, 2014 7:49:33 GMT -9
I wouldn't be in the hobby, to the level I am, without a cutter (I own a similar model). Cuts build time down by quite a bit (esp. for large repetitive builds or for paper minis...) for me.
The more you want to build, the more this purchase pays off.
|
|
|
Post by squirmydad on Jan 20, 2014 19:49:50 GMT -9
|
|
|
Post by okumarts on Jan 20, 2014 19:55:25 GMT -9
I'm on the fence on this one. I still like cutting out my paper craft by hand.
|
|
|
Post by squirmydad on Jan 20, 2014 20:05:36 GMT -9
I'm on the fence on this one. I still like cutting out my paper craft by hand. Me too, but one advantage to this that I've found is that I can leave cut models on their carrier sheets and transport them to a place where I can't really set up a cutting area and need to keep most of my eyeball focus up and out and build models/minis at my workstation since I don't really need my eyes to work on pre-cut and pre-scored pieces. I get more build done while running theatrical events. Plus my job, in the lead up to a show, can seriously fatigue my hands, so it's nice not have to hold a knife to relax.
|
|
|
Post by kirshan on Jan 21, 2014 17:56:34 GMT -9
love the video, now I know what to expect. I do have a bunch of questions, but think I'll hold off asking them till my machine shows up. I like to work in application.
|
|
|
Post by kane on Jan 21, 2014 22:52:48 GMT -9
Was just looking for this! Thanks, Squirmy! For how cheap it is, sounds like its well worth the investment. Will make army building SOOOO much easier.
|
|
|
Post by mproteau (Paper Realms) on Jan 22, 2014 5:48:01 GMT -9
It's crazy how sticky the mats are originally, but it should get better. I vaguely recall taking a scrap piece of cardstock and just applying it to the mat and then removing it over and over. Some folks prefer making their own carrier sheets - will the Portrait be happy with that? The SD had two modes for feeding things in - with and without a carrier sheet. Does the Portrait support that?
|
|
|
Post by squirmydad on Jan 22, 2014 7:28:24 GMT -9
Silhouette Portraitkane - I bought mine from Amazon for $120 on sale, which is less than what I paid for my SD four years ago. mproteau (Paper Realms) - In the video there is a close-up of the buttons; the top one is Load Cutting Mat, the next one down is Load Media. The instructional manual talks about loading other media that's not mounted on the crazy-glue sheet and recommends lining it up in-between the white rollers, which is what I always did with home-built sheets on my SD. So this morning's experiments, since I'm working nights for a while, are to try out the new blade in the old machine and see if that was the real problem with all of the skipping issues, and to run home made carrier sheets through the Portrait. I'll repost in a few hours with an update.
|
|
|
Post by oldschooldm on Jan 22, 2014 8:37:03 GMT -9
|
|
|
Post by mproteau (Paper Realms) on Jan 22, 2014 8:51:01 GMT -9
[...] see if that was the real problem with all of the skipping issues, and to run home made carrier sheets through the Portrait. Very recently (like, within the last two weeks) my cutter has been slipping in the same place pretty reliably. I've since dropped my cutting speed down to 5 rather than 10, and it hasn't slipped. Don't know if it's a sign that I should squirrel away the $120 for a new cutter, or what. Just a data point to consider. I've also been experimenting with using an old blade at depth 1 to do scoring by cutting the cardstock lightly. At a speed of 10, thickness of 1, and a blade depth of 1, it does a nice job of scoring the page without cutting. It's been faster than letting the machine perforate the page. I still let it perforate the reverse-score lines. It does mean I need to manually tweak the cutfiles before cutting. Overall, it might just be a waste of time, but since this is a hobby I use to 'waste' my time (the crafting is an end, not a means to an end) I'll continue to think that my tinkering has improved my end result.
|
|
|
Post by squirmydad on Jan 22, 2014 12:25:43 GMT -9
My Silhouette SD cutter is 4.5 years old and has cut hundreds and hundreds of sheets of cardstock; It started skipping a couple of yeaars ago, so I reduced the speed and it was fine, up until this last year when even at the slowest speed the belt would 'pop' and get off track. The Silhouette support folks said I could manually reset the belt by turning it off, sliding the carriage back and forth to both ends, then turning it back on. Which worked sometimes, but was frustrating when it didn't. I tried the new blade in the old machine today and even at slow speeds the belt will hit a point and just 'ptang!' and be off-alignment for the rest of the rest of the sheet. mproteau (Paper Realms) - best of luck with the life of your machine. This morning's experiments; -yes, it will use homemade carrier sheets. -yes, the new blade works great in the old machine -oh my, that blade depth of six cuts through the homemade carrier sheet a little too well. I've reduced it to a depth of five now.
|
|
|
Post by squirmydad on Jan 24, 2014 17:58:20 GMT -9
More fun, and one of the things I like best about this machine - Three minutes to score and cut this page of Hybrid bits, nice and clean too.
|
|
|
Post by kirshan on Jan 25, 2014 5:39:19 GMT -9
Very nice, Mines on order should be here Tuesday.
|
|
|
Post by highlandpiper on Jan 29, 2014 0:21:31 GMT -9
I'm still using my Craft Robo CC200-20. It got better with the new Silhouette Ratchet Blade instead of the old red, yellow, blue caps.
My question for you guys (just so I can stay on topic) is how is this Silhouette Portrait better than the Silhouette Cameo. The Portrait seems to have a smaller cutting area.
|
|
|
Post by imnntt on Jan 29, 2014 6:26:56 GMT -9
They're exactly the same except for the cutting width. The Cameo can cut up to 12" wide, while the Portrait can only cut up to 8" wide. Unless you are going to enlarge the models and minis that are out there (or you do scrapbooking and like to be able to use a 12x12 sheet without having to cut it down) a Portait will do just fine. I have yet to encounter a model that is set up to be printed on anything except US letter or A4.
|
|
|
Post by Parduz on Jan 29, 2014 7:01:38 GMT -9
There's anyone that have found that importing images and cutlines (DXF) results in one (i guess the image) being a bit out of scale so misaligned with the cut lines?
I do my cutlines in CorelDraw... which i trust more thant the Studio. I draw super-precision cut on an exported PNG, export the lines as DXF, then import everything in the Studio and they're slightly misaligned. I have to resize one of the two (image or lines) to be good.
|
|
|
Post by kirshan on Jan 31, 2014 5:56:47 GMT -9
I've got my portrait, cut about 4 sheets of Fat Dragons deluxe edition. now I'm having issues with the registration marks, for some reason it will not recognize them. There was a spot on the last successful cut where the blade tore the paper and shifted the cutting head, which ruined the piece. Also for some reason the lower left corner seems to be off by a smidge. any ideas?
|
|
|
Post by mproteau (Paper Realms) on Jan 31, 2014 6:09:47 GMT -9
Here are some basics... 1) Make sure there's adequate light when it's reading the reg marks. If it's really dark, sometimes it messes up. Doesn't need a spotlight on it, but I don't know that working in the dark is good. 2) Sometimes I need to manually line up the cutter with the first reg mark. I can't explain when/why it gets into a state where auto-detection fails, but with a little practice, I've gotten good at lining it up manually. 3) If the blade has trouble cutting, make sure you don't have the blade too deep (a depth of 3 should be good - some people go as deep as 5) and don't cut too fast (I used to tell people a speed of 10 was a-ok for me, and it is for simple cuts, but in general, I now cut at speed 5). 4) If you're printing with any scaling, it could screw up the reg marks making them not read correctly (they might get read, but the cuts will be off). I suffered with a printer that didn't print square, and wondered why my cuts were always off. Sorry if these ideas are either not helpful, or just plain redundant with things already said. There's been a rash of robocutter questions along these lines in a couple forums, and my ability to keep track of conversations is limited.
|
|
|
Post by kirshan on Feb 2, 2014 7:17:38 GMT -9
mproteau, Thank you for your time and suggestions, I did find out why my machine wasn't reading the Registration marks, when the paper torn a small piece ended up blocking the sensor light. as for the cutting perhaps I am cutting to deep seems the blade has worn out very quickly, maybe that I was cutting into my carrier sheet a bit to much at first and then started cutting more shallow. I'm still having some issues with my machine not scoring correctly, but I'm still in the learning curve. I do seem to have to fill in the small black square on every print out, I'm not much of a computer guy so unsure how to resolve that issue.
|
|