/r/silhouettecutters
This is the place to talk about the Silhouette cutting machines, share tips, show off projects, and ask for help. Users of the Curio, Mint, and/or other cutting machines are welcome, too.
Questions | WIPs |
Assistance | Finished Projects |
Tips | Silhouette Curio |
Tutorials | Silhouette Mint |
Project Ideas | Other Cutting Machines |
Monthly Projects |
Questions: For general questions about the Silhouette cutting machines
Assistance: Need some guidance? Use this flair!
Tips: Share your tips in these kind of posts
Tutorials: For step-by-steps, instructional videos, etc
Project Ideas: These machines are powerful, so let's explore all they're capable of
WIPs: Working on something and want to show it off?
Finished Projects: Let's see them!
Silhouette Curio: Discuss the Curio machine
Silhouette Mint: Discuss the Mint machine
Other Machines: have a Cricut, Big Shot, or other cutting machine? This flair is for you.
NSFW: It's here, just in case.
/r/silhouettecutters
Hey everyone! I was donated a silhouette cameo 4 from a friend who never used it. I’m looking to use it to create copper etchings. I have a lot of experience in using photoshop and illustrator but have never used a silhouette before.
Basically, I want to use this the top layer of hard ground on my copper plates to then be etched and printed. Im assuming I would use the cutting tool but put it on the sketch setting. Additionally, I would like to cut halftone images so I can get more photographic images onto my plate.
I’m having trouble with how I would go about this in silhouette studio. Do I just upload a halftone image, and push the sketch option? Does silhouette only recognize vector images to cut?
Any advice would be so appreciated!!
Looking for recommendations on which of these machines would likely handle the use case better.
I will largely be using the machine for prototype board game material, and so the 12" flatbed seem better as 12" is the max dimensions I'll be working with and it'll be easier to visualise. My concern is if such thick material can be held in place whilst cut through without pinch rollers?
Any recommendations or experience very appreciated!
Hi everyone, I recently updated the studio app, and I normally use it with scan n cut, but manually. And in this update I can't find the record button, to do the reading, any help?
Has anyone successfully stuck/mounted their front layer to the inside part of the frame on the protective layer, i.e. to the see through bit. The protective surface I have for the frame isn't glass, but is made of acrylic. Just looking for ideas on how to do this without affecting the clarity when seen from the outside. Trying to avoid air bubbles and minimising warping of the paper. The reason for doing this is because its a very big frame and theres large heavy pieces in the first/front layer that wont stay put unless glued to the acrylic. Any thoughts please?
Hey! Does anyone have experience about these vinyls? I’m from finland and its pretty hard to find oracal or some other known htv vinyls, so thinking about Loklik or teckwrapcraft vinyls. I’m making shirts and need a long lasting vinyl. Also Loklik is the only manufacturer that has really long rolls. Thanks
I'm using Cricut's stencil vinyl on a Cameo 5 (included Autoblade, roll-fed, auto-crosscut, etc... no mat) and all was well until I enabled auto-weeding cuts. I'm using the matte vinyl default settings, but with the blade depth set to 2 as it yields better results.
Problem is that when it does the auto-weeding cuts, it sets the blade depth so deep it cuts all the way through the backing and then jams the cutting head (which is making me absolutely love the fact that the "pause" button isn't even remotely immediate). I've purchased the business license for Silhouette Studio, and do not use starter mode, and I can't for the life of me find a setting for the auto-weed cutting depth.
Is this a static setting based off the selected cut depth? I'm about to lose my mind.
Thanks in advance.
I had to update to v5 today and now when I try to open pngs they are blank. I didn't have this happen before the update. I don't know what to do. I make my designs in PS and then import them as pngs. I have png files I've downloaded directly from the internet and they open. But if I make a new document on PS and place the project on the new document and save as a png, they won't open in studio. Also, all my previous pngs that I've made don't open anymore. Only the ones I specifically saved in studio as a silhouette studio file type will open. I'm not sure what to do. It seems the update caused this issue. Any help would be appreciated
Hi guys
I am absolute beginner.
Looking to start selling stickers online .
Also thinking about taking custom orders to get the ball rolling as I am just preparing for interviews of day job and have free time.
Should I buy the curio2 or cameo 4 To make stickers.
Also should I first only outsource to sell the first few ones ?
I feel maybe if I start making a few , I'll get better feel, ideas, drawings going...
Please guide a bit.
Thoughts are welcome
Cheers :)
Hi, so I'm still deciding what type of machine I need, cricut or silhouette, and what type of vinyl I need. I need the vinyl to use as a stencil for curb painting address numbers and other designs on concrete. What would be best for this? I need one that adheres well and prevents paint bleeding and peels easily with no residue. It also should be compatible with a heat gun. Unfortunately, it's hard to find any information on this specific technique. I see it done with professional businesses but they don't say what machine or vinyl they're using. Any information would be great! I'm also leaning towards silhouette, but I'm open to other machines. The most important factors to me would be if it has the correct kind of vinyl I need, and then the price.
I want to cut something from a photo (printed on Canon Selphy photo paper) with my Portrait 3.
I tried with the regular AutoBlade on 10 and it will cut but just so. There are still a lot of places where it doesn't quite cut through. I want to try another blade but I'm unsure if I should get the 2mm Kraft blade or the Deep-Cut Manual 2mm blade.
I just got four whole sheets of stickers cut through properly for the first time in maybe 1.5 years?
Users whose machines are fine seem to dismiss our problems as user error, but a lot of us with Cameo 4s know that some of these machines can be horrifically buggy with calibration and some of them simply stop cutting through properly after some period of normal performance. There's a lot of us who have tried every recommended fix, including sending videos of ourselves using the machines to unhelpful customer service (who confirm we're not doing anything incorrectly). And I couldn't afford to ship it to them on my own dime to get a "free" replacement that may do the exact same things.
Here's how I have fixed all my Cameo 4 problems so far:
Accuracy of cuts becoming worse towards bottom right corner of page:
Make sure mat is supported at entry and back of machine, not flopping down. I also use off-brand mats now because they're more rigid than the Silhouette ones and I get less distortion. I also started using INVERTED registration marks (make note of how to orient on cutting mat-- goes in the right upper corner, not left upper corner), which helped a ton (and of course, don't place any images in the little blocked out areas around the registration marks).
Burred edges on all stickers (looks almost like the perforation on the edges of a stamp) from blade:
Every single Silhouette brand blade I use does this except the kraft blade, and the kraft blade is bad for diecut sticker shapes. I tried a bunch of different autoblades, the premium blades, the deep cut blades, and every possible range of force and blade depth (the recommended, the super gentle, the super forceful-- all bad). So much wasted money. I switched to the CB09 (I actually use a cheap knockoff, not the Graphtec CB09) and it literally never happens anymore.
After over a year of regular use (mostly with Silhouette brand blades), machine would no longer cut all the way through paper backing, specifically on right side (or downstroke) of each design:
I switched to a 60 DEGREE BLADE instead of the 45 degree ones I had been using with the CB09, and with some tweaking, my problems are fucking solved and it's like heaven!!!! My current settings for my laminated vinyl sticker paper are: set blade as the 2mm cut, blade depth 5, force 25, passes 10, speed 10. Still obviously not normal settings, but it is WORKING and the stickers look great. Previously, I had worked all the way up to blade depth 5, force 33, 10 passes, and still the right side of every sticker would need scissors for the backing paper every single time, and the blade would sometimes drag across areas of the paper and create faint visible scoring (and to anyone saying "well it's because your force is way too high! Or the depth is too much!" I tried a million combinations lower and gentler-- this has been like 1.5 years of this shit).
If you have any Cameo 4 problems that troubleshooting has not helped, feel free to ask and I can tell you how I worked around it in 3 years of using my awful machine.
Brand new beginner here, I set up my new silhouette curio 2 and tried cutting vinyl for a wooden tray. It is a rather large image that fills the space 11.25x11.25 roughly.
The test cut works perfectly, then when I send to cut the whole thing, it will not go all the way down to the Matt to cut.
I’ve tried the auto sensor for material, set the settings for vinyl Matte, but cannot figure out why it’s not going all the way down to cut, especially when the test cut works just fine.
Help!
#beginner #firstcut #silhouette #silhouettecurio2
Somexs I love a lasercut file so much and drive myself nuts trying to get it to work with paper. This was such a PIA but I had to make myself this. Never again tho 😂
Gift for my dad, he’s always been down with Sly long as I can remember! Got this from Etsy and I can’t wait to get more. Gives a sort of Warhol feel to it. Great cut file, smooth cutting 😍
Last year I bought a cameo 4. I installed and calibrated and.... let it drop. What were some of your first projects? I'm having a hard time starting and I spent good money on the machine and it's just sitting there.
I posted this in another subreddit but have still yet to get an answer/fix (I figured this one was more official). I've tried restarting, repairing, and reinstalling and nothing has helped or worked. (Lenovo Ideapad Gaming 3, 32 GB RAM, Windows 11)
I've had my cameo 4 for about 7 months and use it very lightly (once or twice a month). Today, it started squealing very loudly when the carriage moves to the right. Any ideas? The cameo 4 is already a loud machine, but this is just unbearable.
Had a neighborhood chili/cornbread cook off, and I made these aprons as the prize! Just got a Cameo 5 off Woot after borrowing my daughter-in-laws Cricut anytime I needed to use it. So far really liking the Cameo. Seems easier to use. Bought the aprons on web restaurant, and used HTV vinyl I had on hand.
So I cant seem to find a solution for these jagged text and cut lines. (https://imgur.com/a/Rn6vDnf) Its not just text it anything I import to studio as well. The text in the picture is written in Silhouette studio itself not imported. We have 4 different desktops and 2 laptops (all high end) and I have tried on all of them. The weirdest thing is that I had another laptop that i had sold recently that it didn't do this on. I've tried uninstalling, legacy versions, and still no luck. It wouldn't be bad if it was just a visual thing but the cameo 4 cuts like that too. Any help would be much appreciated.
I may have an order for some t-shirts coming up. I've made a few shirts for people and charged them what I paid for a shirt. But for a person with a company that may buy a bunch of shirts, how much should I charge for a simple graphic on it?
After a long time I finally got this blade to 'cut' without causing the Cameo 4 to lock up. I'm cutting a real basic shape - a business card with rounded corners. It couldn't even get that accurate. The corners are all off and it looks like i tried to cut it by hand with a blindfold on. Could this be down to the mat not being tacky enough to hold the substrate perhaps? It doesn't seem like the material slid any, but i suppose even a slight shift would mess things up.
Does anyone else have any experience of such things?
I make vector files in Affinity Designer and save them as SVG. When I upload them into Silhouette Studio they always load in as small as 1x1 inches or so rather than the size I saved them as. Resizing isn't a huge issue but seeing if anyone has a solution.
Like the title suggest, is there a pad or pencil I can draw and edit designs with that will connect to my computer from Bluetooth or plug in?
I have a print problems, I send to print, it scans and moves to 2nd page of print, at this stage there is a full box of print missing of my original page. How to rectify please
I uploaded an SVG file I made in Afinity designer and if I use the select trace area function it traces the outside of the paths rather than tracing along the paths themselves. I went straight to SEND and it seemed to be showing just the path itself but when I started cutting it cut probably 12 passes on one of the shapes (I'm not kidding) when I had passes set to 1 before I paused and canceled the cut. It also said it had 18 minutes remaining on what should have been a 3 minute cut. Not sure if it is an issue with the software or the file I am importing. Thank you for your help.
I purchased a new Cameo 5 machine this past Christmas and have been having issues with it from the beginning.
The machine is new and came with an auto blade and a silhouette branded standard 12x12 mat. I am using OraCal 651 permanent outdoor vinyl and CriCut branded vinyl, cut to different sizes.
The first problem is that the auto blade will not cut with the default settings for the type of material. When blade depth, force, and speed are modified, it will cut, but it will rip the vinyl, and in some spots, the vinyl is not cut, making it difficult to weed.
The auto blade was checked with the included tool to tighten and I tested the blade by pushing to see the red line move. It will move sequentially when it is pushed x numbers of times and when it gets to the end, a loud click is heard and it resets. The blade is properly placed in holder 1 and secured properly with the clip. It still does’t cut well.
I went ahead and purchased a Silhouette 1mm manual blade to try and fix the issue. This new blade cuts much better and I can weed with no issues. However, the problem that I still have is that the blade pulls the vinyl as shown in the image. The vinyl in the image was cut with the manual blade at blade depth 1, force 3, speed 3. I have tried other settings to try and fix the issue but it still persists.
I have previously used my daughter’s cricut explorer and it has none of the issues that this new Cameo 5 has.
I am using Silhouette Studio basic, release 5.0.081ss