MikeC

I've had another thought while I'm waiting for Silhouette's tech support to get back to me.  I'm quite certain it's not my cut file at fault, but it occurred to me that maybe someone could see if it would cut on their machine.  It's a set of type C1 RAF roundels and wing walkway lines sized for the HKM Meteor.  (This became my first cut simply because I had one of those practically at the decalling stage, so I could use the masks instead.)  If I upload them to the appropriate section of this site, perhaps someone who's reading this and has the kit in their stash would like to try them.

OK, off to do that now ...

9 hours ago, denders said:

Do holders for other blades come with the Portrait 3?

Only the blue pen adaptor, it should take the same ones the Cameo does, but one would need to purchase them.

58 minutes ago, Mozart said:

Are you actually taking the blade out of its holder and setting its depth manually Mike? I don’t understand how it can be reverting to zero, that’s not physically possible on mine. 

Not every time, but it seemed a worhwhile test to pre-set it to the same depth as the software and try it. And no, I don't understand it either.

Well I've raised a help query on the Silhouette America site, and webchat being unavailable, I've gone for email response; they say 4-6 days turnround, office hours local time (Utah), so we'll see what happens.

Thanks Max.  Double-checked that the blade is latched properly, and tried again, with the same result.  But this time I checked the setting indicator on the autoblade before, during and after operation.  It seems to stay at zero, and even if I set it manually it reverts to zero as soon as I hit Test or Send.  There seems to be nothing in the online tech support info, but I'll carry on digging.

Thanks, and not a silly question at all; the blade (an autoblade btw) is properly latched as far as I can tell, but I'll make doubly sure.

Apart from playing with the depth in various settings, I've left it on the defaults of Force = 10, Speed = 5 and Passes = 1.

There's something puzzling me which may be connected: in the top left of the send panel are three graphics labelled "No Cut", "Cut" and "Cut Edge" respectively.  The first is greyed out, the graphics on the other two are red, and that particular trio of selections does not respond to a mouse click.  Any ideas?

So I prepared my designs for the first cut, set up the Portrait 3, and followed all the loading steps.  However, the machine just will not cut.  It feeds the mat in and it's clearly tracing the design, but no cuts result.

I've tried increasing blade depth with no result.  I'm using Artool Ultramask (not dissimilar to Oracal 810) on the supplied cutting mat.  I've selected "Vinyl, Silhouette Oracal 651", and apart from adjusting the blade depth in increments up to 5 with no result, have left all the other defaults as is.  Has anyone got any ideas how I can actually achieve a cut please?

TIA

Great collection of excellent models. 

1 hour ago, Kevin Futter said:

 

Let me think about this one. Topics such as what you guys are suggesting tend to be time-sensitive, and posts can go stale pretty quickly. I think perhaps broadening the idea to a general Reviews section might work better; that way, members can post reviews of whatever they feel is relevant: hardware, software, consumables, suppliers, etc.

 

Kev

That seems eminently reasonable.

In fact, this was prompted by the fact that I ordered a Portrait 3 from Graphtec in the UK, and less than 24 hours after hitting the "confirm order" button it's just been delivered.  That's great service!

I did wonder whether it would be worth having a "suppliers reviews" thread or area somewhere, where people who have bought a cutter and had good service/value (or otherwise) from their supplier could share their experiences. 

I think I may have mentioned that I was considering a purchase.  After reading this and other threads here and on LSP, and after vacillating between the Cameo 4 and the Portrait 3, I've gone for the latter.  It looks like it will do what I need it to, it's smaller, and I wasn't sure the extra features and facilities on the Cameo were worth the price difference.  Looking forward to trying a few masks.

Thanks for all the helpful advice. 👍

Thanks for the help everyone.  👍

I think I've got enough generally to make a decision (between Cameo and Portrait), but if you think of anything else I may not have considered, please chime in.

Thanks chaps.  Basically it can't sit permanently next to the computer; it could sit temporarily near enough to plug a USB cable in, so I think the next solution is to store it and set it up only when actually cutting.  Does that sound viable?

Thanks Dave. The PC does have Bluetooth on board, so that may be better

 The issue is I have no room near the PC to put another peripheral,  so I'll have to work it out.

Thanks everyone for your comments - all helpful.

Dave, roughly how far away was the Cameo 4 from the PC?

Under my current plans, the PCC is downstairs and the cutter will be in the room directly above - but perhaps I need to rethink that.

6 minutes ago, Kevin Futter said:

I only have a Portrait 2, and I don't believe it has Bluetooth. I'm using it via USB, which works well enough. I'm not sure if the Portrait 3 has Bluetooth as standard, but if it does, it's probably your best choice for the combination of convenient footprint and connectivity options. That said, if you'll be siting the device somewhere where there's room for the larger Cameo, then perhaps that device's extended performance and features will be more attractive, especially given that Bluetooth takes away the need for it to be within cable's reach of your computer.

 

The big difference with the Cricut, as I understand it, is that it doesn't come with any software that you run on your computer. Rather, you have to use their cloud-based software and services to run the device. And they recently made some changes to that functionality that limits the way you can use it - I can't remember exactly what they were now, but I've posted about it elsewhere in the forums. In short, I'd stick with the Silhouette product over the Cricut range.

 

Kev

Thanks Kev, this is all useful info.  I do still need to take a more detailed look at footprint, and how siting it elsewhere will work. 

As for the Cricut, I've just seen the thread you refer to; that's Cricut out of the equation as far as I'm concerned.

Thanks @Mozart Max, that's useful.  I thought some of the blurb on some sites must mention it, but I couldn't find a clear statement in a technical spec.  Perhaps I wasn't looking hard enough? 

I'm really looking at just the Cameo 4 and the Portrait 3.  I gather from various posts that you're quite happy with your Cameo, and a friend from my club has a Cameo 1, so I'm leaning towards that; but Kev has said on this forum that he's happy with a Portrait as that meets his needs, so I'm trying to work out what my needs actually are and whether a Portrait will meet them, taking into account things like maybe doing masks for other people (not commercially); or "renting" cutter time out to my granddaughter who's into all sorts of crafts.

Silhouette seems more popular than Cricut, I may well look at them as well.  At the risk of drifting off-topic, anyone have any thoughts on that?

I'm considering a purchase, and what I'm not really finding in the various descriptions of machines on the retailers' or manufacturers' sites is a positive statement about connectivity.  Perhaps I'm missing it, or perhaps it's so basic one shouldn't have to ask, but nevertheless I will.

Quite simply, can anyone who owns one or is otherwise in the know please tell me how the cutters on my shortlist, the Silhouette Cameo 4 and the Portrait 3 (is that the current model?), connect to a Windows PC:

- USB?

- Bluetooth?

- WiFi?

Or any/all of these?

[Edit] I ask because space considerations would make it more convenient to site the cutter somewhere other than next to the PC.

Thanks.

That's different!  Very well imagined.

I'm still here, but I'm afraid I'm one of those who haven't checked in that often.  Perhaps if I do I may be enthused to buy a mask-cutter instead of yet more "stash-fodder".

Hi Kev,  I'm here, and thanks.

Great model, love the presentation.

You may recall that in my intro I said that I was working on a Tamiya Mk VIII, and a friend was cutting the masks for me.  Well here's the result: an aircraft of 54 Sqn RAF (despite the markings and serial), 1945.  The basic kit was enhanced with various Barracuda bits, including wheels, rocker covers with "RR" logo, and some cockpit parts, and I also used a Yahu instrument panel.

The masks (made from Oramask I believe) worked very well, even the rather small serial.  Thanks JD.

I've never liked large decals, and I'm now rather hooked on masks, despite rather enjoying the process of decalling.

To start with, a pic of the subject.

(If this infringes your copyright, please advise and I'll remove it)

Thanks for looking.