If you continue to have problems, I would be happy to bring the Cameo in to be tested, we can give it a thorough going over and check your blades for you to see if we can work out what is going on.
If you continue to have problems, I would be happy to bring the Cameo in to be tested, we can give it a thorough going over and check your blades for you to see if we can work out what is going on.
Let me know if you would like me to do this.
Thanks Brian.
I have just tried a sample today with my original auto blade and it went through all the clicking motions but stayed on 0. Then put in my new auto blade and it worked perfectly.
Brian would it help if I sent you my original auto blade for you to test?
I have just tried a sample today with my original auto blade and it went through all the clicking motions but stayed on 0. Then put in my new auto blade and it worked perfectly.
Brian would it help if I sent you my original auto blade for you to test?
Yeah, I'll check it over for you if you'd like to send it in.
I have repeated the project I was having difficulty with, to test the original autoblade sent with the Cameo 3. Using Margaret's method of manual adjusting I set the autoblade and changed the setting to read ratchet and sent to the machine keeping the speed slower as I have been doing recently at 2. Cut perfectly. I then changed the blade to autoblade, kept the speed at 2 and it cut perfectly again. It's almost as if the machine knew I was cross with it and had decided to behave! ( Joking!)I haven't done any firm upgrades recently as I was rather nervous as to what might happen.
I have repeated the project I was having difficulty with, to test the original autoblade sent with the Cameo 3. Using Margaret's method of manual adjusting I set the autoblade and changed the setting to read ratchet and sent to the machine keeping the speed slower as I have been doing recently at 2. Cut perfectly. I then changed the blade to autoblade, kept the speed at 2 and it cut perfectly again. It's almost as if the machine knew I was cross with it and had decided to behave! ( Joking!)I haven't done any firm upgrades recently as I was rather nervous as to what might happen.
Claire mine did exactly that a few times then stopped completely and now always shows the auto blade at 0.
I think I might have got to the bottom of why Margaret's blade wasn't working.
The auto blade has two click methods, a short click which is used to take the blade back to zero and a long click which is used to move the blade from zero back to ten. When I received Margaret's blade it would do the short click fine and move to zero as it should but it would fail to do a long click so would never move to 10, meaning it got left on zero no matter what setting it was told to set itself to. I removed the blade cap to try to inspect the blade and noticed there was a fair bit of white card debris inside the cap, so I cleaned this out, reassembled the blade and tested it again - this time it worked exactly how it should (as shown in the video below).
Whilst there could be other factors involved, since cleaning the blade cap and reassembling it the blade has worked as expected, so it does look like the debris could have been preventing the long click, causing the blade to stay stuck at zero. This would also explain why the blades worked when set manually.
So if any other users are having problems with the auto blade not cutting then please remove the cap and check for debris. Once the blade is clean screw it back together (make sure you only tighten the cap to finger tight because they can be a nightmare to remove if over tightened) and test it again to see if it has resolved the problem. I'd be interested to know the results.
@ Margaret: I'll return the blade in the post, could you please give it a try and let me know if it works ok for you now. Thanks.
I think I might have got to the bottom of why Margaret's blade wasn't working.
The auto blade has two click methods, a short click which is used to take the blade back to zero and a long click which is used to move the blade from zero back to ten. When I received Margaret's blade it would do the short click fine and move to zero as it should but it would fail to do a long click so would never move to 10, meaning it got left on zero no matter what setting it was told to set itself to. I removed the blade cap to try to inspect the blade and noticed there was a fair bit of white card debris inside the cap, so I cleaned this out, reassembled the blade and tested it again - this time it worked exactly how it should (as shown in the video below).
Whilst there could be other factors involved, since cleaning the blade cap and reassembling it the blade has worked as expected, so it does look like the debris could have been preventing the long click, causing the blade to stay stuck at zero. This would also explain why the blades worked when set manually.
So if any other users are having problems with the auto blade not cutting then please remove the cap and check for debris. Once the blade is clean screw it back together (make sure you only tighten the cap to finger tight because they can be a nightmare to remove if over tightened) and test it again to see if it has resolved the problem. I'd be interested to know the results.
@ Margaret: I'll return the blade in the post, could you please give it a try and let me know if it works ok for you now. Thanks.
Thank you Brian, I will.
I had cleaned the blade out twice since it was new so does that mean it needs cleaning more than the ratchet blade or the debris was further up and I could not see it. The first time there was nothing I could see or brush out with a fine painting brush and the second time there was not a lot in there. Up until it went wrong I had only made five cards. Four of which I used 250 Super Smooth card as they were print and cut. The last card was Centura Pearl Snowman card in a box.
Because of those locating lugs each side of the blade housing I found the tool does not work very well, The tool seems slightly too small to go over the flat edges of the piece that needs undoing and those flat edges are in line with those lugs. I resorted to those long flat edge crafting tweezers.
I agree the tool for unscrewing the caps is useless because of the lugs, it is really hard to use it once the cap is tight. I am not a fan of the auto-blades at all.
When inspecting the blade I did notice the very tip had chipped, not bad enough to make the blade unusable but enough to make the cut a bit scratchy so it would probably make a bit more dust & debris than normal - this may be why it had a fair bit of debris in the cap. WIN_20170215_11_39_37_Pro.jpg
Thank you Brian. The postie delivered my auto blade this morning. I will keep it for simple cutting, nothing intricate.
That is one very close up photo, I presume under a microscope.
Another bad design of the auto blade I find is even when on 0 the blade does protrude slightly and I can feel it with my finger and it does not come with any protection cap. At least with my ratchet blade when at 0 I can feel nothing and the grey adjustment piece acts as a protection cap when left on.
The ratchet blades do actually protrude slightly when set to zero, I know of a few people who cut very thin vinyl with the blade set to zero. The only blades that don't are the premium blades which is why they always need slightly higher settings than the ratchet blades do.
As for the photo, that was taken with this little blade jig I made with a 3d printer, which holds a high res USB microscope.
The ratchet blades do actually protrude slightly when set to zero, I know of a few people who cut very thin vinyl with the blade set to zero. The only blades that don't are the premium blades which is why they always need slightly higher settings than the ratchet blades do.
As for the photo, that was taken with this little blade jig I made with a 3d printer, which holds a high res USB microscope.
It's very useful and lets you inspect the blades much better than you can with an eye glass or similar.
I agree with Shirley that is amazing. Those 3D printers look amazing too if you have the need of one and the money to buy it. I have to give my blade's to hubby to check with a jewels eye glass.
I will keep that in mind with regards the Premier blade as I had two amongst my Christmas presents.
Not sure why but my blue ratchet blades go below 0 to 9 and then I can't feel the tip at all.
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