My Cuttlebug just went BANG!

[RedSquirrel]

I've been and gone and done it. It's been cutting less and less consistently, and today I put through an intricate die with a metal shim and a little square of card over the weak area, and there was this almighty BANG. DH took it apart and the actual metal itself has cracked through completely on both sides of the handle hole. My beloved, well-used Bug is 9 years old and owes me nothing.

But I have to replace it, and I'm coming here for advice. My work area is small, and I go to a monthly crop, which is why I liked the Cuttlebug. It folds up so its footprint is small, and it is portable. I would love a Big Shot, but unless I did a major rearrangement of my craft area, that would pretty much halve the amount of working space I have. And it would not be light-weight to transport to the crop. Ditto with the Grand Calibur I believe?

I have lots of thin dies, many of them intricate, and my Cuttlebug has never been very good at cutting them well, even with the metal shim. I don't know whether that was because it was an old V1, or if that was a symptom of its problem all along. Maybe the V2 Cuttlebug can cope with them better?

Please, amazing crafters, give me whatever advice you can?

[yizzard]

Personally (since there is little between the cost of them) I would re-arrange my craft room to fit in a big shot and borrow someone else's machine at crops. That way you could use the bigger dies as well as your small ones. I've only ever had a zipemate which I finally replaced with a big shot in November of last year so I cant really advise you on the other machines, but I am really loving being able to put larger cards and cut apertures, do fancy things with my embossing folders and mostly use the Bigz dies to make Tim Holtz village dwellings which I couldnt do with my smaller machine.

[CoventryAnn]

I have to agree with the above comment, I have had my Big Shot since they were first released in the UK (around 12 years ago) and the build quality is so good it is still going strong. With the metal Precision Base Plate (an added extra) it will cut intricate dies I struggled with in one pass. It does take up room, but it is totally worth it.

[RedSquirrel]

Thank you for taking the time to comment, ladies. I really appreciate it.

As a side comment, I haven't been on UK Scrappers for quite a while after I went back to work and stopped having time for scrapbooking. I still make cards, but my spare time is limited. I'm really surprised at how slow this site has got!

[phoenix rising]

What I would do is buy the Xcut Xpress which whilst being an A4 cutter folds up to a footprint very similar to the Cuttlebug and has the advantage that it will cut all dies owing to the dial mechanism for pressure. It comes with a metal shim. The cutting pad isn't clear but any of the clear A4 cutting pads can be bought & also when I got mine there wasn't an embossing mat but I bought a spellbinders one. I've found it to be the most amenable of machines!

It is a bit heavy for taking to out so maybe a Baby Blue as well which has 3" wide aperture so can cut quite a few dies.

[grannyscrap]

I love my baby blue, to take to crops. A lovely machine.