Vinyl Cutting & You!

This is an ongoing blog post series covering tools in the makerspace one can purchase for their at-home making needs.

3D Printing | Laser Cutting

This is an educational post and I have not been sponsored by any of these companies in any way.

I personally think vinyl cutters are and often slept on machines in the Makerspace. Sure, it cannot cut wood or acrylic, or even leather in some of the cases of these machines, but it is fast and just as effective as the laser cutter with all kinds of paper without the fire hazard. (And unlike a laser cutter– it can cut vinyl without releasing toxic gas!) And price wise, they are more affordable than some of the smaller laser engravers I mentioned in my last post, like Cubiio and Laserpecker.

A vinyl cutter is another type of CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machine, much like the 3D printer, laser cutter, and other machines like mills and lathes! While a 3D printer has its nozzle, the laser cutter its laser, the mill its drill bits, the vinyl cutter uses blades (and other tools) to cut and score materials.

These machines are used very often in the DIY community in creating papercraft, cards and invitations, paper decorations, and even vinyl stickers and tee shirts! Some of these machines also have other accessories that can plot calligraphy with markers, and with some they can be bundled with a heat press or one can purchase it extra. 

(You can in the case of iron ons still use an iron too! Presses make sure the heat is evenly distributed and make for a better press in my opinion, but in a pinch an iron is just fine!)

Unlike some of the other machines mentioned in my previous posts, some of these vinyl cutters have a good fortune of being able to be easily purchased in store as opposed to online only. Michael’s Crafts usually has a few aisles dedicated to Cricut or Silhouette machines.

This isn’t entirely a comprehensive list, but my search has led me to very little compared to some of the other machines. The prices listed are the starting price– accessories, addons, and shipping is not considered. So be mindful if you’re budgeting!

Some Things to Consider:

Some of these machines come with a proprietary software to design and export. If you plan on learning how to design in them, that’s great, but be advised you may be limited, as they aren’t entirely all that great or sophisticated as say, a design program. I prefer using another vector editing software like Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw or Inkscape first and importing it to the proprietary software to print it. 

Inkscape is free, and open source, and used among the DIY community in tandem with their cutter’s software, so there’s bound to be plenty of tutorials and guides online for you!

Also be aware of what machine you get and what blade you need to use. You will need to replace the blade frequently. How frequently is determined by how often it is used and with what material. Working with thicker materials might need more frequent replacement. Working with cardstock very frequently may need a replacement every 3-5 months. We replace our blades usually every semester or so. Make sure to do a test cut before each job to check the blade. If it doesn’t cut through even something like paper– it might be dull and need to be replaced.

As each machine can only use their own brand of blade, make sure what you purchase is the right thing! You can use a Silhouette blade on a Cricut, try as you might!

Craft Vinyl Cutters:

Cricut: Cricut has several machines: the tiny (and adorable looking) Joy, to the Explore Air, to the workhorse Maker. All three have the ability to cut, score, and plot with a marker for calligraphic elements.

The Joy is small but excellent for starters or people who are casual dabblers. It operates through a bluetooth connection instead of a wired connection and can be used on your mobile device or computer. Reviews say it isn’t great for very intricate designs or thick materials. But at $180 USD, it is a nice starter machine.

The Explore Air at a glance uses a dial any you manually set the material you use (with a custom option for newer materials/setting in the design space), and a slot for the older Cricut cartridges. Like the Maker, it has a dual tool slot, meaning it can do two actions at once, ie. cut and score. It also has a “Fast Mode” increasing the speed of the cut for certain materials. At $250 USD is it also a good starter machine for someone who is more than a casual DIYer. This can be used over a bluetooth connection or if using a computer, can be plugged in directly with a USB cable.

The Maker is what we use in our Makerspace. As I said before, it is a workhorse, and can work with thin cardboard and leather. It has a dual tool slot, and a wide array of tools to use, some you may need to purchase on your own. But the adaptive tool system includes blades, scoring tools and wheels and embossing devices for a wide array of projects. Adjusting your material and tools are done in the proprietary software. At $400 USD it is a bit of an investment, but frankly in my opinion a worthy one.

Other Cricut accessories heat presses for their iron-ons, as well as mats to use the presses on. They also have a wide array of materials made for their machines to use from iron vinyl to pleather.

Cricut’s proprietary software, Cricut Design Space, is a browser based application. It has some preselect designs, and more to purchase, or you can import your own designs. It can be used offline too.

Silhouette: These are probably the most direct competitors to Cricut. The Cameo 4 is their basic standard machine. It too, has a dual too housing for multiple actions. Unlike the earlier model of the Cameo (like we have), the newer version you can cut on the mat, or if your material is on a roll, it can be set up in a roll feeder. It does come with a few blades and accessories to start with, but you will need to purchase others at need and over time. At $300 USD it does beat out the Cricut Maker in price, but not by much.

The Cameo Plus, is exactly the Cameo 4, but as a wider workspace (up to 15 inches wide) and according to Silhouette, can cut thicker materials. At $400 USD, it is comparable to the Cricut Maker, but can do designs up to 15 inch wide. The Cameo Pro is just like the Plus, all the same features but with a 24 inch wide workspace. At $500 USD it is high for a craft level machine, but it is starting to dip towards an industrial cutter by terms of size.

The Portrait 3 can work with material up to 8 inches wide, and while not as robust as the Cameo, is likely more closer on par to the Cricut Joy. At $200, it is an excellent beginner machine so long as you keep it to small projects.

The Curio is limited to an 8.5 by 6 inch space, but not only can cut paper and vinyl, it also has embossing capabilities (that can even do metal)! At $250, it is an affordable machine, but I feel its appeal is more if you are more into embossing than cutting.

Like the Maker, these Cameos have many material and tool settings in its proprietary software, Silhouette Studio. It too comes with some free designs and more you can purchase from the, This is an actual application installed on your machine. These can all be used with bluetooth or with a USB connection.

Silhouette has other machines too! The Mint makes rubber stamps and the Alta is a basic 3D printer!

Brother: Brother, as you may or may not know, is a company more known for inkjet printers, and embroidery machines, which is why I was surprised to find out they make vinyl cutters too! Brother machines seem to be more geared toward quilting, but you can cut non fabric materials and even foam.

The ScanNCut SDX125E starts at $400 USD, and allows you to edit on a computer or mobile device wireless, or through a USB connection, or on the screen of the cutter itself. As the name suggests, it scans (at 600 DPI) as well as cuts. It only has the one too housing, but it can autodetect thickness, but only limited to a .1 inch thickness. Brother has its own software called Canvas Workspace, that is similar to Cricut’s Design Studio being web and cloud based.

The SDX85 goes $350 with many of the same capabilities.

CM350E goes for $350 with many of the same capabilities, save the CM350E has a .08 inch thickness limit and only scans at 300 DPI.

At the time of the writing many of these machines are out of stock, or unable to find prices to compare, but it looks like their machines are between $300-$400 USD and have the bonus of a scanner as well as a cutter. However, further research indicates it doesn’t have a great blade force compared to the Maker or Cameo, meaning it may be limiting in material. Perhaps this might be more for those into quilting than anything else.

In Short: There’s a nice handful of machines with pros and cons, some a little more specialized than general use. On top of price, I’d also connoisseur the frequency of use, the materials you wish to work on and whether or not you’re going to do more in the future.

My Pick: The Cricut Maker. Overall it has the best reviews, and the most capabilities in materials to use. They also can be purchased in stores and have a whole slew of materials and add ons you can buy physically in stores and online. The software is something to be desired but if you’re like me, you’re probably using Illustrator/CorelDraw/Inkscape for your designs anyway.

Though I will say for all the material Circuit has…Silhouette has inkjet friendly temporary tattoo paper that actually lasts well. You can use it on the Cricut too, though!

Industrial Cutters/Plotters:

These are the sorts used for signage and large scale projects, I won’t focus too much on them, as I’m sharing them more for educational purposes. Maybe it’s something you plan on investing on in your makerspace because you want to do large scale work. I’m not here to judge, just provide you with some models to check out.

(If you are interested in getting an industrial plotter on a budget, you might be able to find older models on marketplace sites like eBay, Craigslist, or Facebook Marketplace. But I’d still use these sites as your starting point for research.)

Roland: Roland Has a desktop vinyl cutter from the $600 USD STIKA to the $2000 USD DG CAMM-1 GS-24, but also has large size printer/cutters, and other tools like laser engravers! As some of these involve asking for a quote, I’ll safely guess they are $10,000 USD or more. 

Graphtec: Again, many of these machines are asking for information for a quote, so I’m going to assume these are $10,000 USD or more. Their F-MARK2 is a cutter for labels/stickers/cards, but can’t find a price. The CE-Lite-50 is a 20 inch wide desktop cutter that has plugin support for vector editing software and Silhouette Studio in their proprietary software. With a $600 price tag, it’s good for an industrial cutter but frankly I’d still veer people towards the craft cutter like the Maker.

USCutter: Hosts several brands like Titan, Mimaki, and PrismCut. These can start at $600 USD desktop machines to $6000 USD industrial cutters or plotters. There are many models to browse through!

In Short: I am out of my element here, so I can’t give any advice. I’ve only had the opportunity to design for a large scale plotter, never operated one. So no “My Pick” here, sorry!

Further Research:

Unlike 3D Printers or Laser Cutters, you don’t nearly have as much of a wide net of choice with a vinyl cutter, which might be for the best. Again, I will say research, research, research! Things to keep in mind when looking for the right vinyl cutter for you:

And with that, I wish you the best!

Useful Links: