[Lab] Cricut & other cutters (was Re: Lab Digest, Vol 39, Issue 29)

[Paul & Andrea Mumby]

Yes the Cricut is VERY vendor locked. A few third parties even released
software which allowed cutting of generic SVG files on it via it's USB
interface. And Provocraft (the manufacturer) sued those companies over it.
Limiting your options to only their cartridges which are rediculously
expensive.

We had a Cricut for a couple years, and used it with the third party
software, but once they shut that down we had to look at alternatives. (by
the way I still have a 24" Cricut that I'll be putting up for sale soon, if
anyone's interested lol)

My Wife has the Silhouette machine now, and it's quite nice. The software
for it is free, and works with an online store with a wide selection of
designs. And also lets you create your own designs with drawing tools, or
by importing images and "tracing" them and so on. But for an extra $50 you
can buy the "Pro" software which lets you import generic SVG art from
hundreds of sources on the net.

Also one nice feature the Silhouette has is "print and cut" which lets you
print on an inkjet, and it has an optical sensor that lets it detect
registration marks, and accurately cut out the printed image.

Considering the Silhouette is in the same approximate price as the Cricut,
I'd say it's far more value for a hobbyist.

(the one we have is the 24" model, and yes it will work with vinyl as well
as other materials).


On Tue, May 28, 2013 at 1:57 PM, Andrew Plumb <andrew at plumb.org> wrote:

> On 2013-05-28, at 1:47 PM, John Nicol wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> Have you looked at the Cricut?  http://www.cricut.com/home/
>
> This is a hobby machine that cuts stencils and I believe has a large
> format version as well.  I also saw a machine in a hobby shop in the US
> that was for fabric stencil creation for screen printing.  Can't remember
> what it was called, sorry.
>
> John
>
>
> Maybe it was one of the (older) CraftROBO or (newer) Silhouette machines
> by Graphtec that you saw?
>
> http://www.graphteccorp.com/craftrobo/
> http://www.silhouetteamerica.com/
>
> They tend not to be as vendor locked-in as the Cricut system with its
> proprietary cartridges.
>
> Andrew.
>
> --
>
> "The future is already here.  It's just not very evenly distributed" --
> William Gibson
>
> Me: http://clothbot.com/wiki/
>
>
>
>
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