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  1. #1
    Graphtec GB BrianP's Avatar
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    Using a micrometer to correctly set your Silhouette blade

    I thought I would share this post because I have recently been getting a lot of queries about the best way to set your Silhouette blades.

    As many of you know, some of the Silhouette presets can be hit & miss for the media we use in the UK, so I always recommend that people create their own presets, and to do this you really need to know exactly how much blade you need for each material and I've found the best way to do this is to use a micrometer.

    Micrometers used to be quite expensive but these days you can pick up a cheap one for less than £10 on Amazon from different sellers such as this one and this one.

    Once you have a micrometer, you switch it on, reset it to zero and then clip it on the card you want to cut. This will give you a precise measurement of the card and a better idea of how much blade we need.

    Like so...



    Once we have the exact thickness of our card, we just need to apply that to our blade. In the example above, the 315 gsm card I want to cut measures 0.34 mm thick. The Silhouette blades move in 0.1 mm increments, so as we need 0.35 mm of blade if we set the blade to 3 then it won't be enough to get all the way through the card, so we round our measurement up to the nearest 0.1, e.g. 0.4 mm. So this tells us we need to set our blade to 4.


    Now we know how much blade we need, we can create a preset for cutting this type of card.

    To do that we go to the Send tab, click the materials list and add a preset like this:



    Once we have our basic preset created we need to do a few test cuts to find the required thickness\force setting. To do this, put some of the card we measured on to the cutting mat and in to the machine, then select the preset we created above from the list of materials and press the Test button. Chances are you will need to increase the force a bit to find the right setting but always test cut at a low setting first because otherwise you can damage the tip of the blade.



    If the test cut hasn't gone all the way through the card, increase the force slightly, and then do another test cut like so...



    You may need to do a test cut quite a few times until you find the right force setting for your card stock, for most settings this force will be between 15-25, but once you do the test cut will be cleanly cut like this...



    So now that we know the card cuts cleanly with the settings we have tested, we can go back to our preset and save those changes we made.



    You can now use this preset each time you use this card stock, safe in the knowledge that you will get a nice clean cut without risk of damaging your blade.

    This method works for all types of Silhouette blades but the premium blade may need half a turn more than the other blades.
    Last edited by BrianP; 25-01-2018 at 04:13 PM.
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  2. #2
    Dedicated Scrapper DJG's Avatar
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    Thank you Brian

  3. #3
    Dedicated Scrapper Neries's Avatar
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    Thanks Brian.

    You say the force should be between 15 - 25. With cardstock I have always used between 28 - 33 and if that was not enough a double cut rather than taking the blade depth up. So to keep within your guide lines I would have to go up with the blade setting not the force.

  4. #4
    Graphtec GB BrianP's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Neries View Post
    Thanks Brian.

    You say the force should be between 15 - 25. With cardstock I have always used between 28 - 33 and if that was not enough a double cut rather than taking the blade depth up. So to keep within your guide lines I would have to go up with the blade setting not the force.
    There will always be exceptions to the rule but the point I was trying to make is that you don't need to go to 33, most of the time the perfect force setting will be between 15-25. Too much force will stop the blade rotating freely, which will result in poor cutting and often a damaged blade tip.

    I never run my Cameo at 33, I've never needed to and I get really good cut quality from my machines. In my experience the number one cause of snapped blade tips and poor cutting is having the force too high, and I hear sooooo many stories from users who think the machine needs to have the force set to 30+, which really isn't the case.
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  5. #5
    Dedicated Card Maker - Limited Sponsor - Shirley Anne's Avatar
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    I use one of these and would not be without it. Mine is one of the ones from Amazon that Brian has given links to. Saves so much trial and error.

  6. #6
    Graphtec GB BrianP's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Shirley Anne View Post
    I use one of these and would not be without it. Mine is one of the ones from Amazon that Brian has given links to. Saves so much trial and error.
    If I had my way they would be included with all Silhouette machines as standard. They remove all the guesswork out of blade settings and are worth their weight in gold in my opinion because they pay for themselve with the money you save on blades.
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  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by BrianP View Post
    I never run my Cameo at 33, I've never needed to and I get really good cut quality from my machines. In my experience the number one cause of snapped blade tips and poor cutting is having the force too high, and I hear sooooo many stories from users who think the machine needs to have the force set to 30+, which really isn't the case.
    Thank you Brian - this is most useful - I have been having problems with my auto blade recently, I think the end may have got damaged so I will be reducing the force and increasing the depth.
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  8. #8
    Slave to Robbie Robo! Jampot's Avatar
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    I bought one of these when you recommended it before Brian and it is brilliant. It takes a lot of the question out of guessing the depths to use.

  9. #9
    Dedicated Scrapper Neries's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BrianP View Post
    There will always be exceptions to the rule but the point I was trying to make is that you don't need to go to 33, most of the time the perfect force setting will be between 15-25. Too much force will stop the blade rotating freely, which will result in poor cutting and often a damaged blade tip.

    I never run my Cameo at 33, I've never needed to and I get really good cut quality from my machines. In my experience the number one cause of snapped blade tips and poor cutting is having the force too high, and I hear sooooo many stories from users who think the machine needs to have the force set to 30+, which really isn't the case.
    Thanks Brian

    I will do that now. Already have the same multi-meter you show from when you recommended using them before.

  10. #10
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    Thank you Brian. . I've just received my micrometre, what a brilliant tool. thanks for telling us about it!

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