A Cricut for the Makery?

[Kevin Fusselman]

Over the weekend, I came upon the Cricut family of machines; Basically, they're a pen plotter, equipped with a cutting blade, instead of a drawing implement.  By default, the machines rely on a cartridge system, to make a series of standard (and purchasable) designs.  They also support a USB connection to a PC (with 3rd party software, about $30).

So here's the deal: These machines are available used in various work area sizes, from 6x12 (inches) on up to 24 inches square.  The smallest units can be had for about $50 bucks [used], with the big machines costing quite a bit more.  New machines start about $130, with the most common 12x12 around $200.

I see this equipment being useful for cutting vinyl stickers or making templates for painting or etching.  

So here it is: Is anyone else interested in this sort of equipment, and/or be willing to chip in?  Maybe more to the point, does anyone have a Cricut machine kicking around that they'd be willing to give to the group?

[Stephanie Jensen]

I would be in for $10.

On Mon, Feb 13, 2012 at 9:40 PM, Kevin Fusselman <ke...@fusselman.org> wrote:

Over the weekend, I came upon the Cricut family of machines; Basically, they're a pen plotter, equipped with a cutting blade, instead of a drawing implement.  By default, the machines rely on a cartridge system, to make a series of standard (and purchasable) designs.  They also support a USB connection to a PC (with 3rd party software, about $30).

So here's the deal: These machines are available used in various work area sizes, from 6x12 (inches) on up to 24 inches square.  The smallest units can be had for about $50 bucks [used], with the big machines costing quite a bit more.  New machines start about $130, with the most common 12x12 around $200.

I see this equipment being useful for cutting vinyl stickers or making templates for painting or etching.  

[Brandon Norris]

Just an FYI, I was looking around at the software portion of this.

The software that cricut sells is apparently horrible and you cant import svgs or any other format except their own proprietary format.

There are a couple other options I found. Make the cut (http://make-the-cut.com/) seems to be the best option at the moment.

EXCEPT the latest version doesnt work with cricut because of some lawsuit they had to remove it.

So, the workaroud is to use the version 2.0 to actually run the machine and the latest version or something else to create the files if you need the latest functionality. 

Or we could look at another brand of cutter, which all seem to be quite a bit more expensive.

-Brandon

[Kevin Fusselman]

Yep, what he said.

[Dan Collins]

My wife has a 6x12 and uses the sure cuts a lot software which can do svg.

The cricut uses a tacky adhesive cutting mat that wears out over time, some other cutters don't need mats.  Also the blades will dull with use.  Both would probably need replaced with a used one.

I could probably bring it down for a demo.

Out of the other devices on the market, she wanted the craftwell ecraft cutter most.  It doesn't need a mat, can be fed from a roll of material, and works with the same sure cuts a lot software.

[Kevin Fusselman]

I checked out the Craftwell, and they seem to go for about $200 new (in the 12" [only?] size).  Curiously, I didn't see any used ones. 

To Brandon's point, about using a Mendel, that'd be a slick idea;  I do wonder, though, what it'd cost to build an extruderless Mendel in a size that would be useful...  Brandon: Do you suppose that with a limited Z need, that we could build a "squatty" mendel frame, giving us more work area with less materials?

Dan, a demo would be pretty cool.

[Benjamin Hutcheson]

I don't know about modifying the Mendel design, but a PrintrBot would seem like an easy candidate for a machine with limited Z motion.

-Ben

[David Knaack]

On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 8:31 PM, Kevin Fusselman To Brandon's point, about using a Mendel, that'd be a slick idea;  I do wonder, though, what it'd cost to build an extruderless Mendel in a size that would be useful...  Brandon: Do you suppose that with a limited Z need, that we could build a "squatty" mendel frame, giving us more work area with less materials?

That sounds like an application for MakerSlide.

[Luis E. Rodriguez]

Hello from CCCKC! The Cricut is definitely hackable and members have
done so, we could connect on that for sure. For instance some
cartridges really are nothing more than jumpers!

Also I've seen someone in thingiverse maybe use a Cricut or similar
cutting bit in a Makerbot or Mendel.

I have a silhouette sd and it is wide open, has an illustrator plugin
and it's software imports vector artwork quite well!

A few folks picked up cricuts from Craigslist since most people seem
to upgrade to larger units.

I'll try to find the Cricut hacks.

Luis E. Rodriguez

[David Knaack]

On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 8:37 PM, Luis E. Rodriguez <lrodrig...@gmail.com> wrote:

Also I've seen someone in thingiverse maybe use a Cricut or similar cutting bit in a Makerbot or Mendel.

I'd be interested in more info about that, I'd like to see about putting Cricut bits on my little gantry mill. 

[Dan Anderson]

Is "Z" vertical on a printerbot? (I always thought of that as "X")

I've wanted to make a tool to mill copper-clad for pcb's with a Dremel.

Dan

[Brandon Norris]

I was thinking just strap something like this onto the current mendel.

http://www.cooperman.talktalk.net/files/11.htm 

Or even a commercial cutting unit.

Or build one of the makerbot unicorn plotter heads, and mount the cutter in that.

It looks like there is a gcode exported for inkscape, which would make it easy

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5986

As for the makerslide, I was thinking that would be put to use as a generic x/y table, with interchangeable heads.

Something that could be easily repurposed to do this, plotting, foam cutting, etc.

That may be a bit optimistic, but there are a lot of similar light duty, large format options for it.

[Kevin Fusselman]

Inkscape seems like a good gig for this;  I'm hesitant overall about using the existing Mendel, as we don't want to make it a bottleneck... "Sorry, you can't print [tonight, this week] as I've got the printer head detached / am using it for cutting"... 

Moreover, anything we can do to lower the entry barrier for first-time users is a good thing.

[Dan Linder]

They might be a bit hard to come by now, but I saw in the past (~10 years ago) where someone took an old X-Y plotter and replaced the ink head with a small razor blade.

To me, the hard part there is making the cutting blade pivot cleanly, but with powerful and small lasers getting more prevalent, could that be used instead?  (I have no idea what a laser capable of cutting a thin plastic mat would cost or weigh...)

Dan

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[Brandon Norris]

Good point. I was thinking mostly for testing, as it has a small "print" area for a lot of things.