(06-08-2022 04:39 AM)lmamakos Wrote: I, er, "my wife" bought the Cricut Maker variation of the product. I don't know if its the "Cricut Maker 3" specifically, or if we've got a 'Maker 2".
There's some variation in the machines, and I think I settled on the "Maker" vs the "Explore" model because it handled a wider variety of materials, which really means the cutting force (which is adjustable) can be much greater. It also has additional cutting tools that can be used.
I think that if you're cutting vinyl, it likely doesn't matter. I used the default cutting blade supplied with the machine. And if you're cutting a single layer of vinyl that ought to be fine. I think it's described as the "Fine-Point Blade" among the various choices.
My first sets of overlays were printed on a sheet of vinyl on a laser printer, and then I applied a clear vinyl sheet over it to protect the toner for durability. That required some experimentation with the cutter to get the right amount of force to cut through those two sheets, but not through the backing.
A few months ago, I printed a few more overlays and this time did them on an inkjet printer. I then sprayed them with a UV resistant acrylic clear coating and let that all dry before cutting it out with essentially one of the standard vinyl cutting pressure settings. They turned out really great. And I've not noticed any wear on the labels obviously happening. (Though I admit it doesn't get heavy use.)
From that experience, I think the double layer of printed white vinyl with a clear overlay sheet isn't worth the trouble and the single sheet sprayed with the clear coating works great and ought to be able to be cut on any of the machines for sure.
I don't think there is any difference in cutting resolution, etc.
Now, I really sort dislike the company that makes these things and the very closed software ecosystem around them. I think that if I wasn't trying to talk my wife into this as an upgrade (because she already had a much older Cricut machine nearly as fancy), I'd maybe look pretty hard at one of the Brother machines. However, for "crafty" people, there's a big community that uses these machines, and her prior experience with the brand had some considerable influence on the decision process.
That said, I have no idea what the software ecosystem is like for the Brother machines, though I'd imagine it would be similar in capability.
Thanks for the reply! I missed it for some reason until just now.
I ordered the Maker (not the Maker 3, and there was no Maker 2 from what I have found), and it just arrived today. I have been playing around heavily with it for the last couple of hours, and there is a big learning curve here.
My biggest struggles are with the best way to create the SVG files. I finally managed to get a decent cut (on just a blank white sheet of paper) where it wasn't cutting each key label twice. (My template is very simplistic right now - it looks like the attached image). I am thinking I won't even try to do a background template - just key labels, since the Prime has very little space between keys (and all of its markings are on the keys themselves.
My next challenge is how to do the "cut then print" with the Cricut software. I tried creating a PNG image of the template shown here, but it ends up cutting twice around each key label (I think it cuts on each side of the line around them, rather than treating those outlines as a single cut). This causes all kinds of problems (the labels come unstuck, etc). It also attempts to cut all the letters out - also a big problem.
All I want is to print that image, and have it make a single cut around each key label. This doesn't seem like it should be that difficult, but I have yet to figure it out!
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