breetheflea
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,591 
Location: PNW
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Post by breetheflea on Oct 4, 2023 22:06:53 GMT
I spent half the day wresting with my Silhouette. I have three blades. An old one, a brand new one, and a defective one.
After many attempts to cut a title, test cuts, and trying several colors of cardstock... One will cut fine on depth 3, one won't cut unless it's at depth 4, and one won't cut at all (even with borrowing the missing cap off another blade.) Of course, I mixed up which is which, and finally got smart and wrote on them with Sharpie...
How did you day go?
Needless to say, I did not get any scrapping done today.
ETA the title: I also bought a copy of Word because I have writing in there, and Microsoft won't let me get it off the computer without a paying up. That took 3 email addresses, changing my password, getting DH to help, and lots of swearing to get it working.
Some days...
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Post by mom on Oct 4, 2023 22:19:13 GMT
I feel your pain. I spent literally all day trying to get my PM400 to recognize a new ink cartridge with zero luck. Ugh.
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Post by grammadee on Oct 4, 2023 22:30:12 GMT
They are all set up to fail unless you buy a whole bunch of extra stuff, plus maybe a subsciption, and then once they have all our money we come to believe it must be all our own fault...
If you figure out how to get your Silhouette to heel, please let me know, @breetheflea. Mine quit cutting through anything several months ago, and although I bought new blade, new mats, nothing seems to work, so I have quit using it altogether...
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scrapnnana
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,451
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Post by scrapnnana on Oct 5, 2023 1:46:00 GMT
I am so sorry to hear that you have issues with their Silhouette. I love and use mine all the time. Grammadee, check to see if the roller arm accidentally got unlocked. I’ve had that happen, and it wasn’t obvious. It sounds like something is keeping the machine from being able to apply enough pressure to cut. That can also happen if the blade isn’t locked into place, but I assume you checked that. The only issue where my Silhouette defeated me was the stupid PixScan mat for cutting out stamped images. I ended up finding a work around eventually, but I wasted so much time trying. I completely gave up on the Pix Scan. I eventually bought the Scan-N-Cut, just for cutting out stamped images. I use my Silhouette for everything else. breetheflea , I don’t know what blade you use, but I prefer the self adjusting blade. While I sometimes have to cut twice, or increase blade depth, I like the self adjusting blade so much better, and it seems to last far longer than the older, regular blades. I mark the date on them with a fine point Sharpie when I first open the package. Also, before I remove the mat after cutting, I always check to see if I need to cut again to get a clean cut. As long as I just lift a corner, or one of the cut images, and don’t unload the mat, it will cut again in the exact same spot. Different papers/card stock can have different thicknesses, and it can vary from brand to brand. I never unload the mat until I know it cut through. Sometimes I have to tweak the settings, sometimes I need to increase the blade depth, or cut twice. It isn’t always the same fix. I hope it goes better for you now that you have marked the blades. |
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Post by elegantsufficiency on Oct 5, 2023 10:40:21 GMT
It feels wrong to "like" all your posts above but really, I'm nodding along in agreement! There are indeed "days like this" and yes, they usually involve technology in some form or other.
I bought some of those "other" silhouette blades - are they carbide? - but have had no joy whatsoever using them. So, I return to the old familiar. Then around this time last year I began muttering about perhaps a newer model of Silhouette might be fun to have if Father Christmas was in search of ideas. Sure enough, on Christmas Morning, there was an enormous box for me....one of the large format Silhouettes which, I'm ashamed to say I have not used because I have yet to make enough space in my workroom for it! Now of course, there are newer models promising even more tricks and perhaps most tempting, a quieter machine!
Am I up for wrangling with a new machine?! If it takes a self adjusting blade (oooh...now there's a thought!) Perhaps the one essential ingredient I need for all of this is a bucketful of patience?
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Post by quinmm14 on Oct 5, 2023 15:40:40 GMT
Perhaps the one essential ingredient I need for all of this is a bucketful of patience? This is what my problem is for sure! I've tried to learn how to use both my machines (Silhouette and Scan-N-Cut) and they both sit in my room as expensive paper weights pretty much. I've tried watching YT videos, going to websites to learn, and a plethora of other learning techniques to just basically throw my hands in the air and give up. First, I don't have a lot of time to spend learning how to use them. Secondly, I have zero patience to learn at this point. If I could have a do-over, I don't think I would have purchased either machine. |
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Nov 25, 2024 8:39:07 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2023 0:14:05 GMT
“I don't have a lot of time to spend learning how to use them. Secondly, I have zero patience to learn at this point.”
Oof. I feel this so much! I do not have time to learn the intricacies of my cutters either. I don’t mind having purchased them but they get less use than I’d like. I think I’ve used my scan-n-cut once.
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Post by refugeepea on Oct 6, 2023 0:20:09 GMT
I still use a Cricut expression with software. I do stupid things like not placing the paper right on the mat because if you use a cartridge vs the software the orientation is different. So, sometimes I cut into the mat.
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Post by elegantsufficiency on Oct 6, 2023 8:02:11 GMT
First, I don't have a lot of time to spend learning how to use them. Secondly, I have zero patience to learn at this point. I understand this exactly, though personally, I enjoy the initial voyage of discovery and find it quite exciting to unbox a new toy and discover the clever things it can do. My patience flies out of the window when it doesn't....when after years of doing something it suddenly turns stingy and stops working properly for some reason. When the technology fails me and I don't have the understanding to correct it. I accept that sometimes, it's user error  (rare, I know) but I just want machines to *work*! |
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breetheflea
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,591
Location: PNW
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Post by breetheflea on Oct 6, 2023 14:17:10 GMT
They are all set up to fail unless you buy a whole bunch of extra stuff, plus maybe a subsciption, and then once they have all our money we come to believe it must be all our own fault... If you figure out how to get your Silhouette to heel, please let me know, @breetheflea. Mine quit cutting through anything several months ago, and although I bought new blade, new mats, nothing seems to work, so I have quit using it altogether... I read online to turn the machine off, move the carriage (the thing the blade holders are attached to) all the way across the machine back and forth three times, and it's supposed to reset whatever makes the blade adjust before it cuts. I have no idea if works or not, but it might be worth a try... |
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breetheflea
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,591
Location: PNW
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Post by breetheflea on Oct 6, 2023 14:24:21 GMT
I am so sorry to hear that you have issues with their Silhouette. I love and use mine all the time. Grammadee, check to see if the roller arm accidentally got unlocked. I’ve had that happen, and it wasn’t obvious. It sounds like something is keeping the machine from being able to apply enough pressure to cut. That can also happen if the blade isn’t locked into place, but I assume you checked that. The only issue where my Silhouette defeated me was the stupid PixScan mat for cutting out stamped images. I ended up finding a work around eventually, but I wasted so much time trying. I completely gave up on the Pix Scan. I eventually bought the Scan-N-Cut, just for cutting out stamped images. I use my Silhouette for everything else. breetheflea , I don’t know what blade you use, but I prefer the self adjusting blade. While I sometimes have to cut twice, or increase blade depth, I like the self adjusting blade so much better, and it seems to last far longer than the older, regular blades. I mark the date on them with a fine point Sharpie when I first open the package. Also, before I remove the mat after cutting, I always check to see if I need to cut again to get a clean cut. As long as I just lift a corner, or one of the cut images, and don’t unload the mat, it will cut again in the exact same spot. Different papers/card stock can have different thicknesses, and it can vary from brand to brand. I never unload the mat until I know it cut through. Sometimes I have to tweak the settings, sometimes I need to increase the blade depth, or cut twice. It isn’t always the same fix. I hope it goes better for you now that you have marked the blades. I had a Portrait for eight years, never had to change the blade, it worked perfectly almost all the time. I only replaced it because the software stopped working with my version of Windows (DH is a computer guy and gave up trying to make it work). My Cameo is like the die cut machine version of a 3-year-old. "I don't like cutting things today." |
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scrapnnana
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,451
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Post by scrapnnana on Oct 6, 2023 16:25:48 GMT
breetheflea, I assume by your last statement that you mean the Cameo throws tantrums like a 3 year old. If your tech DH can’t fix it, you’ve obviously had far worse issues than I’ve ever had. Sometimes with machines/technology, you get the occasional lemon. It happens with cars, and just about any other mass produced equipment. They are all supposedly made the same, but for some reason, some machines never work right consistently. It’s frustrating. Just curious, which Cameo do you have? The original, Cameo 2, 3, or 4?
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Post by 950nancy on Oct 6, 2023 17:28:03 GMT
I had the day off today and got up early to head to the Garden of the Gods to take pictures. My camera was stellar. It was the darn clouds and the wildlife that refused to cooperate.
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Post by anniefb on Oct 6, 2023 21:40:30 GMT
Ugh very frustrating. Hope you can get it sorted.
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PaperAngel
Prolific Pea
Posts: 8,012
Jun 27, 2014 23:04:06 GMT
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Post by PaperAngel on Oct 7, 2023 3:45:46 GMT
Technology is great...when it works! Hope you find a resolution.
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Post by judyc on Oct 23, 2023 11:05:02 GMT
I have had lots of technology rants lately, and not just scrapbooking related. I feel a lot of apps and equipment are released half-baked.
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Post by Texas Scrap on Oct 23, 2023 15:45:56 GMT
I felt this yesterday. I had not used my Cameo 3 for a few months, and when I updated the software, when prompted, all hell broke loose and the MAC could not recognize my Cameo no matter if I tried Bluetooth or a cord. I had to redownload the older software a couple of versions back and then completely unplug the machine. I probably spent 3-4 hours on this in total. They should have had release notes with the update so people with an older machine would know and not download. It took lots of hunting around websites to figure it out. Anyway, I finally got it working last night and told myself I have to write myself a note and put it with the machine so that next time I remember what I had to do to get it to work. This has happened a couple of other times too. When it works, it works well, but the older software is clunky and I may end up looking for a BF deal to upgrade to a newer machine.
My old and trusty laser printer is starting to die and I really love that thing. It has a built in copier and scanner so I really don't want to have to replace it but I will need to because that is my only way to copy and scan. I have an XP 15000 which I love for large photo printing but it only prints.
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breetheflea
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,591
Location: PNW
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Post by breetheflea on Oct 30, 2023 20:01:28 GMT
Feeling my own thread today, because suddenly my Cameo 4 won't cut. I had 3/4 of the cuts I needed to make done, and then it went on strike (the cap threads broke off inside the blade housing. I ordered an old-style blade off Amazon which will be here Wednesday... hopefully I can find the adjustment tool for it, I know it's here somewhere. I'm over messing with autoblades!
My car check engine light also came on this morning, so it's been a day.
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Post by hoopsfn on Oct 31, 2023 12:47:57 GMT
@breetheflea, my check engine light also came on! VSC code and 4WD lights. Car is in shop today. So far, $400+.
But my car is 16 years old and I can't complain too much, it's been a good one!
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Post by riversong1963 on Oct 31, 2023 23:35:30 GMT
Feeling my own thread today, because suddenly my Cameo 4 won't cut. I had 3/4 of the cuts I needed to make done, and then it went on strike (the cap threads broke off inside the blade housing. I ordered an old-style blade off Amazon which will be here Wednesday... hopefully I can find the adjustment tool for it, I know it's here somewhere. I'm over messing with autoblades! My car check engine light also came on this morning, so it's been a day. Doesn't the Cameo 4 have the adjustment tool built into the inside cover? I thought that was what that little notch-like tool was. I have one on the inside cover of my Portrait 2. Maybe I'm mistaken? |
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