Cheapest I’ve ever seen it, has it’s issues but still a good deal.
Cricut Maker $345 Delivered (Free VIP Membership Required) @ Spotlight
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I had issues with the silicon and the plastic rollers after a while that it took sooo long to actually get anything done because I’d have to tinker with the machine so much and the plastic rollers left indents in all my projects. I ended up replacing the silicon rollers so it works a lot better still annoying to load the mat in, and I’ve pushed the plastic rollers to the side and just try not to have any vinyl there so no indents. Useable, I just avoid it now.
As a cricut user and owner, the machine itself is… fine.
But what isn't is the poor quality software that is required to make the machine run. The machine cannot run independently of the software, so you're constantly at the mercy of the frankly unoptimised apps and programs, and you're constantly being nickel-and-dimed by Cricut, who sell the machines at a loss so they can push their subscription services.
You're much better spending more money on a machine that is less reliant on paygated software, and that won't become a paperweight if the software ever stops working and/or the manufacturer drop support for their machines.
Oh yeah, the software is pretty bad too. I usually make designs in photoshop and import them but have issues with updates etc as well.
You're much better spending more money on a machine that is less reliant on paygated software
I’m new to it. What other options are out there?
I just went down the rabbit hole and am staring at $3.8k bundle for the combination laser and cutter… wtf… (the xtool m1 complete)
https://www.creativebloq.com/buying-guides/best-cricut-alter…
Alternatively there's a good Brother option.
The Silhouette Cameo 4 is as good as the maker for a little bit more money, and the software it uses is much more professional https://www.spotlightstores.com/art-craft/paper-craft/paper-…
However, it still has the "relies entirely on proprietary software" issue. If you want one that's much more independent and don't mind spending more, I'd recommend the Brother Scan n Cut DX, which has its own scanner and program built into the machine, meaning you don't have to tether it to a separate device https://www.spotlightstores.com/art-craft/paper-craft/paper-…
Yup, just a different colour!
Don’t support Harvey though.
What does this gadget do?
The software is its issue, when it works you can work, when it doesn’t it’s painful to reconnect. It’s the only device or software I’ve ever had not work on my wife’s older iMac 27” Intel and my new M1 laptop. We have connection issues every month, slightly annoying and isolated to just this device
The cricut software is also extremely limited in what it can do. The print and cut, for example, is pretty much the worst of all the consumer cutters software… It only supports letter size paper, not A4, so practically useless in Australia. And even if you get it to work it is extremely limited in the number of cuts per page because of the super thick margins needed for the machine to orient itself, so you lose I reckon at least a third of your sheet to dead space, which when you're using expensive printable vinyl sheets worth like a dollar a page is pretty unacceptable beyond that, the system it uses for centring, which is a thick black border around all four edges of the page, isn't always reliable, so you can make a print and set it to go only for half of your page's elements to be cut off, often by several millimetres. I ended up losing so many that I made all the designs I printed with a 10mm thick border and then hand-finishing them with a scalpel, which… Pretty bad for a 400 dollar machine. And that's after several weeks of tinkering, calibrating, following every instruction I could find online on how to improve the accuracy, and even going so far as to print in a perfectly dark room so the line scanner had zero interference from any external light sources.
The arrangement system in the software is garbage too. You make something that you know fits a page or the size of the cutter, and it will arbitrarily tell you its the wrong size, or rearrange the elements for no real reason, which makes cutting precise sizes pretty much a crap shoot whether you'll get the size you need or some random size that doesn't fit.
Are you able to elaborate on those issues?