Avery Elle die - what should I do?

How does it cut? If it cuts ok, I'd email them back that the replacement die had the same issue but you were keeping it since it cut fine reserving the right to ask for another one if it broke under use.

Some of my dies are quite thin, others are thicker. I haven't have a problem with any of them.

If the narrow part is outside of the cutting edge, that portion of the paper gets thrown away. It is quite possible that I am not understanding your issue. Cut one and post a picture.

I pulled my Avery Elle More Furry Friends set and stamped and cut an image for you. When I placed the die upside down on my image, the inner edge of the die was right up against my stamped lines. When cut, it gave me a bit of a border all the way around the image.  When I look at the die, there's not much room between the cutting edge and the interior of the die and it varies a bit.  There is considerably more on the outside of the die.

Meaning when you use the die, it leaves a little debossed "ring" around the stamped image, and the debossing will not be equal?  

I have some SUPER crappy MFT dies that I bought and spent over $60 for and don't use because the inside edge is so uneven, and it leaves an impression when you cut.  The die itself actually cuts, but that extra impression is really distracting to me.  And it's not even just a little thicker on one side or another--it's jagged, uneven, curvy and looks like crap.  Since it actually cut, which is the literal point of the die, I felt like I couldn't complain to them, even though I hate the dies, won't use them, and haven't bought any more because of it.

Gale, without hijacking the thread, do you think I could pick your brain?  I watched the video you posted, but I have a different type of problem.

I have the Die-namics A2 Stitched Rectangle STAX Set 1 and Set 2 dies.  The image to cut is fully formed--the rectangle and stiches are all there.  The inside edge is really uneven and jagged, and when I cut the dies without any shims, it leaves a debossed impression of that sloppy ragged edge on my paper.  I can't use less pressure because I have no shims, only the plates that came with my Big Shot, and I've tried 2 sets of plates (one old, one brand new) and they both do the same thing.  On patterned paper it's gets hidden some, but it all but smacks you in the face on white cardstock (Neenah 80lb Classic Crest).  I'm not home right this second or I'd post a picture.  Do you know of any hints?  Normally if I was having a debossing issue, I'd cut a piece of typing paper and slide it inside my die before I cut to soften that inside edge, but because of the stitching, that doesn't work on this kind of die.  Do you know of any other tricks that might help?

What about using a teflon bone folder? I have some stitched rectangular dies where the stitches "pop up" after running it through the Vagabond. I glide the bone folder over the stitches to press them down and it looks great.

Okay 2 things and forgive me if I am missing something.
1.- How does the "shadow" part of the die affect the cut part? I can see if it was the impression you were talking about but you are talking about the actual cut. That would come from the part that sticks out not the part around it.
And 2. are you sure the stamps are legit Avery Elle?
And here's why I ask... I ordered a stamp and die set from Ebay and they do not line up either. The dies are real but not the stamps. They look exactly like the real ones but are just slightly off size wise. Maybe that's why getting new dies didn't work? Maybe its the stamps that are the "actual" problem??

**edited to add-- I only purchased the stamps from ebay. The dies were purchased directly from MFT.

OMG- that's BRILLIANT!

I have done it that way, but I more frequently want to make a bunch of similar cards so I will just cut a bunch of the shapes from the cardstock I ultimately want to stamp on first, then cut another of the same shape out of the middle of a scrap piece of paper to use as a frame. Using a hinged stamp positioner, I stamp the image on a different scrap of paper that’s taped down or on a Post It Note that’s stuck in the bed of the positioner, then I line up the hole in the scrap frame so it’s perfectly aligned around the stamped image I have inside the positioner and tape that down too, leaving the stamp exactly where it is on the lid of the positioner. Now I stick a diecut piece into the frame like a puzzle piece, ink up the stamp and stamp right on it and it comes out perfectly cut and positioned every time. I leave the frame taped inside the positioner until I’m done stamping on all of my cutouts, then I color them all in. If it happens to be a fairly small diecut and image, I will stick part of it down to the back sticky side of a Post It Note and use the larger piece of paper to hold the cutout while I color. Works perfectly.

THIS LINK kind of shows the second part of what I’m talking about, only instead of lining up the stamp with the hole in the frame the way this lady does, I actually stamp the image on a Post It first and *then* line up the frame with the stamped image so everything is perfectly aligned when I put a diecut piece into the frame to stamp on it. Doing it this way means it doesn’t matter at all whether the frame on the metal diecut is even because I’m cutting first and stamping second. Plus I can use the paper I’m diecutting more efficiently because I dont have to worry about cutting anything off or the images being stamped too close together.

This method would work with images cut out using an electronic diecutting machine too if you needed a whole bunch of the same image you don’t have a die for. You could scan one stamped image, create your cutting file outline, tile them all together to fit as many on the page as you can fit, cut all of the shapes to stamp on, then cut another scrap piece of paper with only one shape in the middle to use as your frame and proceed as usual. Even if you do have a die and don’t want to run the thing through one by one multiple times, you could cut one from black, scan that to import and make your shape to vectorize, multiply, tile, and have the cutter cut them for you all at once. Huge time saver.

It's a Gina K video and it's a similar idea (or might be the same idea-I don't think I've seen the Jennifer McGuire version of it). She makes a stencil with the die, puts the stencil over the stamped image so it is perfectly lined up, puts the die into the negative of the stencil, and runs it through the big shot. 

You’re welcome.   And you’re right, the stamps don’t have to be clear for it to work since you’re stamping the image onto the Post It stuck on the base plate and aligning the cutout frame to that.