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I have a silhouette SD and I was cutting a lot of snowflakes the other night, out of some pretty thick cardstock. It cut everything perfectly fine, beautiful intricate details. Well the next thing I tried to cut was a shape similar to SU's top note (i think that's what it's called) and it won't cut all the way through! I have made the blade as deep as it will go, the thickness as high as it will go, put it on double cut, tried everything. At first I thought it was just that I had dulled my blade, but thinking about it, it just didn't make sense that it goes from cutting a beautiful snowflake to not being able to cut at all. If I were a dull blade, shouldn't it have worn down over time? Does that make sense. I'm praying it's not a dull blade because I have some etching projects I wanted to do for Christmas and cannot afford a new blade. I'll try some vinyl tomorrow and see what it does. Thanks for any and all suggestions!
Could maybe be some card fibres wrapped around the blade point?Also, I have an older Silhouette original, and something I discovered is that the cutting strip on the machine itself wears over a lot of cuts. I got a replacement, and when I changed it, the old one was literally cut in two.As the blade only moves left to right, it's always cutting in the same place, iykwim. For new blades, try e-bay. With mine I just change the blade, not the whole thing, and I can get them reasonably cheap on there. I have also seen on forums that you can sharpen a dull blade rather like you would a punch, by using a thick Aluminium cooking foil to cut.
Sometimes after I've cut a lot of shapes, the SD suddenly won't cut or cuts shapes wrong. I shut it off and back on and reboot my computer and it usually helps. I try to make sure that I don't do too many shapes at once. I don't know if it's the cutter, the software, or my computer (which is a cheap laptop).
This happens to me as well. I think maybe the buffer gets kind of overloaded and the machine acts funny. Another thing you can check is to see if the blade or blade house has come loose. I changed from a pen back to the blade one time and the housing wasn't seated properly and wouldn't cut anything.
I have a silhouette SD and I was cutting a lot of snowflakes the other night, out of some pretty thick cardstock. It cut everything perfectly fine, beautiful intricate details. Well the next thing I tried to cut was a shape similar to SU's top note (i think that's what it's called) and it won't cut all the way through! I have made the blade as deep as it will go, the thickness as high as it will go, put it on double cut, tried everything. At first I thought it was just that I had dulled my blade, but thinking about it, it just didn't make sense that it goes from cutting a beautiful snowflake to not being able to cut at all. If I were a dull blade, shouldn't it have worn down over time? Does that make sense. I'm praying it's not a dull blade because I have some etching projects I wanted to do for Christmas and cannot afford a new blade. I'll try some vinyl tomorrow and see what it does. Thanks for any and all suggestions!
My machine is doing this exact same thing too. I am so frustrated because I know die cut machines. I had my DH look at the machine. He can fix die cut machines and rebuilds them. I modded out a different blade housing for the machine. My blades work great for intricate cutting and then I try to cut a square and I can't get the cut to go all the way through. This is with my modded out blade and my regular Cameo blade. I changed the packet setting. Tweaked a couple of other settings. Tried the software on two different computers. I also tried to cut with MTC and the same thing happened.
I am completely stumped. What is really frustrating I bet it's something simple to fix too.
Could maybe be some card fibres wrapped around the blade point?Also, I have an older Silhouette original, and something I discovered is that the cutting strip on the machine itself wears over a lot of cuts. I got a replacement, and when I changed it, the old one was literally cut in two.As the blade only moves left to right, it's always cutting in the same place, iykwim. For new blades, try e-bay. With mine I just change the blade, not the whole thing, and I can get them reasonably cheap on there. I have also seen on forums that you can sharpen a dull blade rather like you would a punch, by using a thick Aluminium cooking foil to cut.
Shaz- This is what is bad about the new Cameo, we have to replace the whole blade housing. Can you believe that? You don't have to answer. I saw on your blog about your accident. You get better really soon.
Cameo users just can't change the blades any more. Love the Cameo really hate the blade housing. My DH can make the housings. He designed me one of the aluminum blade housings that are so popular with the old Robo/Silhouette machines so I could buy just the blades again. I kick myself for getting rid of my old blade housing on the Silhouette because we can use that in the new Cameo. If you ever upgrade save the original housing.
Hi Lylacfey- I wondered about the blade/ blade housing. I vaguely remember some early posts on here about the housing getting full of bits.I have seen so many negatives about them, to be honest it has put me off upgrading. As long as my original keeps going, I will put up with it doing less than the new machine.Your hubby could probably make a small fortune selling the modded blade holders, and make himself a lot of grateful fans too , and thanks for the tip about the blade housing, I will most definitely keep it now I know.
Thanks too for your good wishes, I am getting there. My left handed typing is getting much better, lol, though it does require proof-reading before I post anything!To be honest, it is more of a nuisance than painful now, the splint makes me feel twice as wide- bit like a bull in a china shop.And I know it could actually have been a lot worse, so I am grateful for small mercies. I'm just more annoyed with myself for doing something so stupid :oops:.
Shaz- Your welcome. My DH did seriously think about making jigs for a side job. We both actually designed a new die cutter. I did have the prototype laying all over my floor, lol. It's boxed up now for the time being. We decided we want to play more so we gave up on the die cutting industry. Way too stressful, lol.
Gale- The blade housing is what houses the blade. If that makes any sense.
Silhouette Cameo replacement blade about $12 to replace for one and you have to replace the whole thing and just not the blade.
Silhouette original blade holder I can order five blades for around $13 on Ebay. Huge price difference.
I can get even cheaper than that. You can buy the Roland Carbide blades and use them too. A lot of aluminum blade holders use this system. Now you can buy 5 Roland Blades for $5-$8.
CyndiRay- Not trying to jack your thread. I did some research on the problem we are both having yesterday. I did find some other users complaining of the same thing but no help or resolves for this issue.
No problem, I appreciate all the info! I called Silhouette and they are sending me a new blade and new housing, but now I'm not confident that'll work anymore. Oh well, we shall see. Maybe if there's enough calls to silhouette they might take action. When you did your research online is this problem happening to one specific machine or all of them?
All the problems I remember seeing were being posted straight after the Cameo launch, and all seemed to be about the housing getting clogged with paper fibres, as I recall.
Well mine is the SD and its doing it. I did discover that i need to clean little paper fibers out of it and thoight that would work, but it didnt :( As of now it still cuts vinyl and thats mostly what i need it for so as long as it does that i'm okay.
My problem with the cameo is that it cuts the left side of the mat cleanly but the right side doesn't cut clear through - sent an email and waiting on an answer.
__________________ What if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday? Author Unknown. Karla
Karla, i called them directly and they were absolutely wonderful. I had a problem with my display when i first got it and i called and someone walked me through how to take it apart and make sure all the ribbon cables were tight. I tried that again the other night with the ribbon cable that is connected to the cutting mechanism and it didnt work. Even if this is a bad machine and i have to end up buying a cameo i will have no complaints because their customer service is amazing!
Thanks Cindi Ray, I think you are correct! :p Got an e-mail response - checked the blade housing and I did have some paper fibers around the blade (gotta be careful doing that!) and cleaned the mat as she suggested and so far it really has helped. First you have to "unstick" the mat then you need to make it sticky again.
I knew it was something I did or didn't do. :rolleyes: Gotta get back to playing before the Steeler game - gotta make some Christmas, thank you and get well cards.
__________________ What if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday? Author Unknown. Karla
With a mild dish liquid ;) just washing it off - leftover the smaller paper fibers, dust, etc. (plus whatever you used to unstick the mat) let dry overnight. I didn't wait overnight though, :rolleyes: I just had to see if it worked - probably dried about 9 hours....though I did shake most of the water off of it.
She was correct, I remember reading that on someone's thread earlier, just didn't think I had to do it yet. I was surprised how much yuk was on it. I guess I put my arm on the mat more than I thought when taking images off.
__________________ What if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday? Author Unknown. Karla
No problem, I appreciate all the info! I called Silhouette and they are sending me a new blade and new housing, but now I'm not confident that'll work anymore. Oh well, we shall see. Maybe if there's enough calls to silhouette they might take action. When you did your research online is this problem happening to one specific machine or all of them?
My research only found problems with the Cameo. I did work with my machine for several hours yesterday to copy all the problems.
I asked my DH if he could take another peek at my machine again. Check for cracks, loose ribbons, loose strips, loose anything. Everything in great working order. My DH pointed to a piece of tape and said "What is that tape for?" I am so confused "What tape?" There was a piece of tape on the blade mechanism from the packaging. It blends right into the machine. I never noticed. My DH never noticed. I think the tape was coming lose and hitting on my blade housing. Taking that piece of tape off my machine is working great now.
I cut several files of my design and they all cut beautifully after I removed the tape. I tried some of Silhouette's files and started having trouble. I looked at the nodes. They are a mess! I think that could be a lot of the problems is that some of Silhouette's Designs have way too many nodes. I have seen this happen on the Cricut cartridges too. Once I cleaned up the nodes I was cutting a lot better. I have always said and a lot of die cutting experts will also say that bad node editing is a death knell to our machines. A lot of designers do not check. Always check the nodes. I have been die cutting since dinosaurs and I forget too. I managed to bumble a few of my files also over the years.
The software is glitchy. I ran the software through some tests. I think there are some communication errors between the software and the USB cord. I don't think the right communications are going from the computer to the Silhouette. I tried several USB cords and got several different results. I am trying to simplify this without being too techy. I hope I wasn't confusing.
I have also noticed the software tends to make the machine run harder. Gale that might be why your cap came loose. That has happened to me before my blade housing popped out. It was in tight. The blade housing also popped out on my SD when I use Silhouette's software. Strangely when I used the old Silhouette software or Inkscape to cut this did not happen.
I do own MTC & SCAL3 but I did not test the Cameo using those two software packages yesterday. I did peek at the MTC forum and I am not seeing any complaints about the machine behaving oddly. I am starting to think it's the Silhouette software. I did see Cameo complaints but not like this. I didn't really dig either.
My Cameo is my least used machine. I have a fondness for Graphtec machines (Cameo, Robo's, Wishblades, Silhouette's) but it's not the machine I rely on. I tend to rely on my Roland cutters like my Gazelle & Cricut. I work with a lot of thicker mediums. I use my Cameo mainly for extreme detailed cutting on delicate papers. I use it for Print & Cut. I use it to make stickers. I have owned the Cameo for almost a year. I have just started noticing it not playing nicely with Silhouette Design Studio. I also should note I use the free version and not the full version which might behave differently.
...I tried some of Silhouette's files and started having trouble. I looked at the nodes. They are a mess! I think that could be a lot of the problems is that some of Silhouette's Designs have way too many nodes. I have seen this happen on the Cricut cartridges too. Once I cleaned up the nodes I was cutting a lot better. I have always said and a lot of die cutting experts will also say that bad node editing is a death knell to our machines. A lot of designers do not check. Always check the nodes. I have been die cutting since dinosaurs and I forget too. I managed to bumble a few of my files also over the years.
The software is glitchy. I ran the software through some tests. I think there are some communication errors between the software and the USB cord. I don't think the right communications are going from the computer to the Silhouette. I tried several USB cords and got several different results. I am trying to simplify this without being too techy. I hope I wasn't confusing.
I have also noticed the software tends to make the machine run harder. Gale that might be why your cap came loose. That has happened to me before my blade housing popped out. It was in tight. The blade housing also popped out on my SD when I use Silhouette's software. Strangely when I used the old Silhouette software or Inkscape to cut this did not happen.
...
I'm a little annoyed at some of the Silhouette files I've purchased for this very reason. I usually go in and use the "Simplify" tool to reduce the number of nodes and edit manually. I don't like their piecing files at all since they're just pieces with no base shape added. Just a pain to use.
I've also noticed that cutting with the Silhouette software is somewhat of a hit or miss - especially print & cut. I love how easy it is to use and design with it, but I had perfect cuts with the RoboMaster software. Maybe 1 out 3 cuts with SS is good. And it really doesn't matter whether its the basice of DE of the software. I have the DE and my cuts still are not always right.
@Gale: I had my blade housing come out once while I was cutting too. I only had the machine a short while and I was using a file I downloaded. It had way too many nodes so the machine was kind of jumping and jerking all over. It rattled it loose. That's when I learned about cleaning up nodes...
No not too techy, while I wouldn't have thought to go to that extreme while researching the issue, I can at least keep up with the lingo, lol. Now I guess I need to research youtube and find out how to clean up and simplify nodes.
A node is kind of like a marker on the design. It tells the cutter where to head to next. You need to achieve a balance between how many nodes are in a design and how smoothly the file will cut. The more nodes, the smoother the more detail the design can have, but too many nodes use a lot of ram & vitural memory on your computer and can bog the cutter down and sometimes stall it out all together because there's just too much information. Also, you reduce the number of nodes too much, you will loose detail on more intricate designs.
I'm a little annoyed at some of the Silhouette files I've purchased for this very reason. I usually go in and use the "Simplify" tool to reduce the number of nodes and edit manually. I don't like their piecing files at all since they're just pieces with no base shape added. Just a pain to use.
I've also noticed that cutting with the Silhouette software is somewhat of a hit or miss - especially print & cut. I love how easy it is to use and design with it, but I had perfect cuts with the RoboMaster software. Maybe 1 out 3 cuts with SS is good. And it really doesn't matter whether its the basice of DE of the software. I have the DE and my cuts still are not always right.
cat- I am so glad you posted too. You are always so techy and think outside the box. I am happy somebody that popped in with the DE software too. I was wondering if it was glitchy.
I had perfect Print & Cuts with the RoboMaster software too. I had perfect cuts with Robomaster. I wish we could still use it with our Cameo machines. I don't understand the reasoning why Silhouette stopped this but I am sure it's marketing and protecting their machines and all that what nots that make my head spin. I can still be annoyed about it, lol. I am more annoyed we can not use Inkscape to cut with our machines. I got spoiled with the older machines and the options we had.
My Print & Cuts have been decent with the Silhouette software but I would like a bit better. I have needed to fussy cut afterward. I admit I have been using the hinge method with my Gazelle for Print & Cut lately. I have one of the older models. I haven't upgraded the motherboard yet for Print & Cut on my Gazelle.
I did notice the node simplify option in the Silhouette software was horrible. MTC's simplify option is twenty times better.
I have not tried Print & Cut with MTC. I am almost tempted too. I use my Gazelle with MTC. I have only used my Silhouette with MTC once or twice.
Thanks so muc cat_woman!! There is a definately a learning curve with these machines. I think I'll stick to basics instead of intricut until I have more playing time.
__________________ What if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday? Author Unknown. Karla
Maybe I should try using SCAL 3 and see if it cuts with that program. I never thought about that. I don't have MTC. I really hope Silhouette takes note of these issues cause I do like their program!
Help!! Silhouette won't cut all the way through!!
