Cameo media settings guide and test cuts

I hope this advice might help people have trouble deciding what settings to use on their new machines. These are methods I developed when using new media on my CraftRobo. For newbies to electric cutting machines I would like to say that these machines are not an electric version of hand operated die cutters, there is software involved, so even the most software challenged person needs to be prepared to learn a little something or you are going to end up frustrated with a lot of wasted card.

The settings in the Studio software are only a guide and are obviously aimed at Silhouette products, because a settings says Silhouette * 163 gsm doesn't mean that all 163 gsm paper/card will cut well, results will depend on things like, is the card smooth or textured, does it have a coating on it etc.

Graphtec have already told us that the settings 1-3 correspond to the CR blades with coloured caps, 1 being blue etc, so that is a good starting point for many people.

There are 2 ways to determine what number setting to use with your new ratchet blade... Hold the blade against the edge of your media and the blade should not extend more than the thickness of your media. Now you can do test cuts as described further down.

The other way is to take a piece of media you want to cut and place it on top of another piece of card on a cutting mat take the blade unit in your hand and using normal pressure, do not lean on it make a small cut in the card. If it doesn't cut through turn the ratchet up 1 unit, if it cuts through the media and marks the media underneath then turn the ratchet down by 1 unit. Always 1 number at a time or use some common sense and if it's cut through both pieces of card turn it down 2 or 3 numbers and try another small cut.

Once you have found a number on the ratchet that cuts through the card or you have done the eyeball test :wacko:, do machine test cuts on your card starting with a low or medium pressure, increasing or decreasing the pressure by 1 unit each test cut, until you get a nice clean cut.

To do test cuts with Studio, use the blue arrows to move the blade to a clean area on the media you are using to test cut, so that your machine doesn't keep test cutting in the same place.

If you would rather do a test cut with shapes that are curvy and not just straight lines, choose a letter from a decorative font such as Black Rose. You can do multiple test cuts by positioning your letter so that it will cut on the carrier sheet end that is nearest to you, that way you won't have to keep taking it out of the machine to see if it has cut. To do repeat tests, use the Replicate function in Studio to duplicate a copy of the letter next to the first one but set each previous test letter to no cut, so you don't keep cutting the same letters over and over again.

I hope this proves helpful and don't forget to ADD these Custom media settings to the list in the software or cut a small square and write them on the back and keep somewhere safe.

PS: Please when you get your machine or new replacement blade, do not turn the ratchet up to some high number eg. 7+ and and start cutting, things don't work that simply, remember as we said with the smaller machines "baby steps, start low work up" and I've also uploaded a copy of the flyer that is now being included with all new Cameo machines.

This was suggested by Tina as her method of cutting and Graphtec have agreed with this method, until they can get something official printed up I've copied Tina's idea here.

If you are getting wads of card stuck inside your blade housing and wrapping around the blade, try increasing the number on the ratchet blade by 1 unit to lift the plastic part of the blade housing away from the surface of your card so it won't catch on any small bits that might lift off the carrier sheet, BUT decrease your cutting pressure to compensate so you don't damage your carrier sheet and blade. Test cutting is advised using a curvy font until you become used to using this method.