I had read about the Cricut Explore craft paper cutting machine being used to cut thin styrene sheet, among other heavier materials, and finally bought one. I had a lot of plans for this to help in the fabrication of ‘scratch built’ structures. I had an application today where I needed 14 roundhouse doors (7 pairs) and decided to put it to the test. I was somewhat surprised at how easy it is to cut parts from .030" styrene sheet. I used a deep cut blade for this and had to run the cutter over the parts 4 times and still didn’t cut through. It cut about 80% through and was relatively easy to remove the parts, just had to flex them back and forth one or two times and they came right out (just like scoring and snapping styene sheet). There is a slight ridge along the inside edge of the cut line, but cleans up very easily. I made all my parts in about ten minutes and they are exactly the size I drew in CorelDraw (have to export as a .svg file). The photos attached show the parts cut and the sheet as it is left with the parts removed. I also cut some clear adhesive film for window masks (round top windows) that made it easy to mask out the windows for painting. I am sure I will find many other uses for this machine once I get more familiar with it. I thought I would pass this info along in case any others are curious about the Cricut machine. Now I have to finish the doors by adding raised (.020") trim and hinge blocks.
We bought my daughter a Cricut machine several years ago when she was still interested in non-computerized physical arts and crafts. I recall that basic school-grade construction paper was easily cut, but heavy weight 80 lb drafting paper required at least 2 passes, as a single pass left uncut portions.
I would suggest that .010 styrene sheet might qualify as a suitable medium for this machine, but anything thicker where cutting pressure is required to pierce the styrene or where several knife blade passes are needed to cut down through the styrene, would be very difficult to accomplish with a Cricut machine.
Alas, my daughter discovered the Adobe series of creative softwares as she entered college and the Cricut machine, now a dusty castoff, is slated to be sold online- sigh!
My machine handled 110 lb index card very well with only one pass, but you have to set the pressure to match the material you are cutting. I also believe that you MUST use the Deep Cut blade, an extra cost item that I purchased with the machine, knowing that I planned to cut heavy/thick materials. I am sure it will handle .010 or .020 styrene with only 1 or 2 passes; not a big issue, just pressing the ‘cut’ button again if needed. I did cut some heavy clear adhesive laminating film with only one pass and it actually cut through the backing in places (to much pressure setting!) but did a great job. I know this machine has it’s limitations but I think it has a place in the model railroad world, just depending on what your needs are. I plan to test it on some structure walls with window cutouts to see if it will give me satisfactory results. I know how labor intensive cutting window openings
The Cricut cutting machine might be just what I’m looking for to help me scratch build several more structures. Even if it can’t cut all the way through thicker styrene, the score and snap method would still work. At worst, you might have to go back and deepen the cuts with a hobby knife but at least the cut pattern would be set. Such a machine would make cutting all my storefront window systems a breeze. I would imagine you could also create your own individual door and window assemblies by cutting out each layer of the door or window, then gluing them together. I wonder if the optional scoring stylus could be used to score the styrene to make your own siding or other 3D features. Keep us posted Bob as to what else you discover about this machine.
I haven’t tried it yet, but I think I could just keep repeating the ‘cut’ command a few more times and get all the way through the .030" sheet. I thought about the scoring blade (have to buy one) but I don’t think it would do anything to the styrene, maybe using the regular cutting blade and set it for a low pressure, it may just scribe the surface; something I will have to try. I am still learning about the machine and particularly how to make ‘drawings’ that will do what I want. I think there may be a limit to how much it will do in one project without removing the sheet.
The machine will also do a ‘print and cut’ where you print on your inkjet printer and then put the paper into the Cricut and it will cut the object out. It uses registration marks that it prints and then uses them to align the Cricut to the design; quite ingenious. I tried it once and it works OK but I haven’t played around with it to see how ‘accurate’ it cuts the printed item.
Hmm, I never heard of these machines before so I checked it out. If it can make small cuts - like to cut window openings - I definitely have some uses - and not expensive, either. According to the information, the deep cut blade is good for up to 1.5mm thick material, which is about .060. So cutting .030 styrene should not be a problem.
My wife had an old one that looked very capable, even cutting lace patterns out of fine paper, but hers used proprietary cartridges with a very limited shape library. Have these been “unlocked” now so they can make home designed shapes or did someone hack the cartridges?
I have the newer Cricut Explore ($229 at Walmart online) and it can use any software design as long as you can export the files as .svg or .dxf formats. It will also still use the cartriges if you have them or want to purchase them.
I made a small test cut today using .030" styrene sheet and an arbitrary wall with a door and window in it. The window is about .50" x 1.03" (just picked a rectangle?) and it cut it quite well, but not all the way through. I ran the cut cycle 5 times and it still left a little material, but I could bend/flex it to snap the parts out and they are pretty clean cuts with a slight radius in the corners.
The top of the panel (see photo) was cut off since I didn’t align the sheet properly with the cut layout???
This was a quick test so I didn’t spend time with dimensional control, something that needs to be addressed. If I can figure all the details out, this machine will provide a lot of ‘support’ in the scratch building arena. I think I can still use the parts with only 3-4 cut cycles as the cut depth is enough to finish with a sharp No 11 or even just flex and snap, depending on the part geometry.
BTW, the machine will handle 12" x 24" sheets! Something else to consider?
The older Cricut machines are pattern-specific and can only use preprogrammed shapes contained in the cartridges provided or bought separately. A quick look at the Web shows a new Cricut Expressions machine, which can interface with a computer, at a bit under $200, but that is relatively expensive as a workbench modeling tool, unless you are going to use it a great deal. Perhaps looking for used ones (Expressions) might be more cost-effective. Nonetheless, the capabilities are interesting.
I’ve been doing a little research on these machines and have found that the pro’s and con’s are all over the map. Although Bob statesthat the new CriCut machines can use outside software programs, the reviews say that you have to be logged into the company web site to use the machine (is this true Bob?). Other machines in the same price range can use either built-in proprietery software or any vector style software but appear to have less cutting capabilities. There are several other brands that offer greater cutting power with the use of several software programs but the price jumps to double that of the CriCut. Yet another option is the Brother Scan N Cut that consists of a stand alone (no computer connection) cutting machine with a built-in scanner. Print out your design from any software or CAD program, then scan it into the Brother machine and it will cut it. Again though, the reviews are rather spotty with several claiming the scanning feature doesn’t work right, quit working, or even never worked at all. Price is a bit high as well. Several reviews have also noted that the marketing plan for these cutting machines is similar to that for computer printers. Mainly, sell the machine cheap but stick it to the customer on the price of consumables (in this case, cutting blades, tack pads, and other accesories).
Bob, can you expand a little on what software you are using and how you get a structure design into the CriCut? I realize that you are still experimenting but, so far, what have you found to be the CriCut’s strengths and weaknesses?
The Cri-Cut does need an Internet connection. The ‘project’ is uploaded to the Cri-Cut website and the cutting instructions are sent to the printer. That said, just about any vector drawing software(like free SketchUp software) will work. The advantage of the Cri-Cut machine is it’s very fast and accurate cutting. I have cut .040" styrene with the machine(multiple passes). The Brothers machine does not have the accuracy, and the scanned images seem to ‘grow’ in size(not good for cutting building walls). Getting used to the SketchUp software took several evening of experimentation. I do not own the machine(a friend who does scrapbooking is the owner, and I supplied the deep cutting blades).
MRH’s has run a few video’s on their TrainMasters pay webside, and this is an inexpensive aternative to a laser cutter. I have one of the new ‘air’ models with the Bluetooth wireless connection(the USB port is still there). For a basic cutting tool, this machine is quite good, I am sure there are other cutters that are just as accurate are out there(or will be on the market in the next year).
I have been using CorelDraw and Anvil (2D CAD program) for my drawing/artwork. Anvil is a very good CAD program that I had when I was still working in the Engineering/Mechanical Design field. I do the precision drawing in Anvil and then can export it to other formats. CorelDraw is a graphic design program that can make accurate drawings/sketches but is more difficult to do so. Both softwares are vector based, that is they use lines instead of a bunch of dots, as in raster softwares like PhotoShop. Any design software that is vector based and can export to .svg or .dxf will work. I export my file as a .svg format and that is uploaded to the Cricut Design Space (yes it is online!) and then Cricut converts it to a cutting file, which is then sent to the Cricut machine. I can still make changes to the file components like change size or copy and paste to make multiple parts. This is all a little confusing right now as I haven’t fully understood how to control and make all the settings I want, but I believe it will all work out in the end. One thing that you must have for cutting styrene is the ‘deep cutting blade’ (about $10) which is a feature that I read about and kind of led me toward the Cricut Explore machine.
When Cricut says you can do things without the internet, they mean you can use their design cartridges, which you must buy from them, but they are all graphic images for crafts, not anything I would use for model work. Having to log into their Design Space is not a problem, I don’t even have to log in since my password is already in memory (I just click my icon!).
As for scanning an image and cutting it (other brands), this would result in a raster image (all scanners are r
Thanks for expanding on what you have discovered so far. Thank you Jim for jumping into this discussion, too. It would seem that the low price of the CriCut machine as well as it’s confirmed ability to accurately cut 0.040" styrene (per Jim) give it the nod of approval. I will have to see if the older version of DataCad I own can convert its files to .svg or .dxf formats. If not, I’ll just have to learn some new software. Now the biggest hurdle will be convincing the “boss” that the machine will be a good investment!!!
I’ve a question. It seems most of the focus is on the thickness of the styrene. Has anyone any comments about tolerance? I’m working in N Scale and for my “internal requirements” I try to keep everything within .003-.005 just so that the finished window (or whatever) looks right to me. It makes my life miserable using a #11 exacto knife. This would be wonderful.
I don’t know what the actual tolerance is for the cutting but so far it has kept everything within my needs and I would guess that it is within .010" or better. I haven’t used it in the past couple of weeks other that to make 40 angel wings for my wife for her craft project. I cut them from 1mm foam sheet and it worked great. I only measured the width and it was right on the dimension I drew, but in foam???
As for N scale, I don’t know if this accurate enough. It cut window masks for my roundhouse and they were a perfect fit, but again I didn’t measure to that degree. Hope this gives you some clarification. If I get time to do some test cuts with accurace in mind I will post the results.
According to the third party test results that Cricut has on their web page, the machine is accurate to about .005-.01 on the X and Y axis. Not too shabby.
