(Many) Problems with brand new Silhouette SD

[Susie.A]

Firstly, I'd like to say that your pictures and the way you presented the details of your problems were amazing. Very precise, well done.

I've had the original Silhouette since it first came out and have never had to touch the machine, so as you say it seems odd that it needs calibrating straight out of the box. Perhaps another word with Graphtec might help.

[Fuschia]

I finally received a replacement today (after calling them and telling them this was taking way too long).

The new machine cuts a lot better than the previous one. Initial testing seems to indicate that the problems with cutting depth are gone, and the entire cutting patters is no longer rotated.

But the cuts are still off by about 1mm or so, but this should be easily solved by doing a calibration.

Still odd that it needs calibration at all.

I agree, it is odd, but I suppose if they've been boxed up and shipped about for a while, things could have 'moved' slightly, so worth trying.

Its good to hear that the cutting depth seems much better and you finally received your replacement.

[Neries]

I finally received a replacement today (after calling them and telling them this was taking way too long).

The new machine cuts a lot better than the previous one. Initial testing seems to indicate that the problems with cutting depth are gone, and the entire cutting patters is no longer rotated.

But the cuts are still off by about 1mm or so, but this should be easily solved by doing a calibration.

Still odd that it needs calibration at all.

Glad to hear they have replaced the Silhouette for you.

They are supposed to be calibrated at the factory but I had to recalibrate my new Cameo as it was slightly out with print & cut.

[catseyes]

neries i had to calibrate both my silhoutte sd and my new cameo as it was out on print and cut too.
susannah

[Zippy1970]

I calibrated the Silhouette and now it's as good as it can be. Although I must say it isn't nearly as accurate as my CC200-20 was. With the CC200-20, every single cut job was *exactly* the same. With the SD, one job can be 0.1mm too much to the left, while the next is perhaps 0.1mm too much to the right while the next can be spot on. It's very odd but it seems reading the registration marks is somewhat less accurate on the SD than on the CC200-20.

[Susie.A]

I calibrated the Silhouette and now it's as good as it can be. Although I must say it isn't nearly as accurate as my CC200-20 was. With the CC200-20, every single cut job was *exactly* the same. With the SD, one job can be 0.1mm too much to the left, while the next is perhaps 0.1mm too much to the right while the next can be spot on. It's very odd but it seems reading the registration marks is somewhat less accurate on the SD than on the CC200-20.

Surely this can't be right, to say that it is as good as it can be. It should be spot on and if it isn't then it needs correcting and that should be down to Graphtec or whoever to sort out - not you.

Now we need to know if other SD users have had this problem. I'm sure the ladies on here would know if this has been a problem before or check the Silhouette group although since it has been disbanded I'm not sure if you can find old posts from there. Angel13 ran it so she might know if this was a problem.

Sorry if I sound a bit put out but I think it's not on that you should have to put up with anything less than a perfect cut - otherwise what's the point of the machine!

I don't recall people complaining of this when SD came out but I wasn't doing print and cut then so probably wasn't paying too much attention. I would go back to Graphtec for advice again as they are always so helpful or check the old Quickutz site under die cutting systems.

Do you need to change the carrier sheet as that made a huge difference to print and cut for me. I can't use the plastic one, have to use the yellow one and even that is now narrower than my original, although it is supposed to be the original sheet. Graphtec told me to make sure the card was centred and straight on the carrier sheet and it was something so silly but so important that sorted it out.

[Susie.A]

Another thing my Silhouette does and I don't know if the Robo setting does this, is to have printer settings to A4 but the carrier sheet always jumps back to letter and I have to make sure I change it to A4. I noticed that the clear plastic carrier is letter size but not sure about my yellow covered sheet, I think it's smaller.

Forgive me if you have this sorted on your SD - you obviously know more about print and cut than I do but I just thought I'd mention it anyway.

[Zippy1970]

Hi Susie,

I don't use a carrier sheet. I use sheets of vinyl with backing paper. Like I said, print and cut with the CC200-20 was always spot on and exactly the same each cut-job. Other than it not being able to cut perfect circles (of which I didn't know was actually a defect), I was very happy with it.

The first SD was obviously defective so I returned it. This second SD has some quirks of which I do not know if they are "normal" or not.

The first quirk is that it seems that reading of the registration marks is somewhat less accurate than on the CC200-20. As I mentioned in my previous post, never are two cuts exactly the same. It's always off by a very slight margin, but can't be corrected since it's never off in the same direction.

I also have the distinct feeling that it's horizontal distance setting is a little bit off (unfortunately you can only correct vertical distance, not horizontal).

And the last small problem that I'm encountering is that sometimes, it for some odd reason doesn't cut deep enough. I have a design here that's cut perfectly except for one small 0.5cm line. That single line isn't cut through and through so I have to increase the blade's pressure just so that single line is cut deep enough as well. It's very odd since everywhere else it actually cuts a little bit in the backing paper. It's just that single line.

[catseyes]

zippy when i needed to calibrate my sd i was able to do both the horizontal as well as the vertical,so am sure you must beable to do the same,the same thing with my cameo i did both too.