Well I've come back to it today and taken all your advice onboard, new day, new prospects I thought. I went to change the blade tip to yellow as I thought I should be able to cut paper with that tip and as I did so the end of the black holder where the tip screws to fell apart in my fingers. So may be this was part of my problem tightening the tip too much. Anyway luckily I've got a spare so I put the new one in with the yellow tip with a pressure of about 18 as I thought it should it being as it's only paper. And YEAH!! IT CUT and successfully!!! So on a roll now I put some ot the Papermill card in but a piece that looked a little smoother and thinner than most I've got from there and again cut with yellow tip, 30 pressure but copy and pasted the piece 3 times. This didn't cut it totally so I then changed to pink tip and cut twice with a pressure of about 18 and cut once and it cut successfully. The machine didn't sound as laboured as it did last night and I wonder if the blade housing was part of my problem. Anyway I thought you'd like to see what I've achieved after this fiasco. Only basic but a great feather in cap for me!!!
Well done Donna, you will get back into it again it takes a little bit of time.
You can't tell if card is fibrous by just looking at the surface, a lot of card is made in layers, what some manufactures do is hide the c*p in the middle and put a nice surface on it, so it probably comes down to the old addage "if it looks/sounds too good to be true it probably isn't" so beware of cheap card.
Where is the best place to get card then? Do I need approx 160-180gsm for cutting designs for layering onto a card and then a thicker card say 200+gsm for the actual greetings cards? Or just buy precut greetings cards and decorate?
I haven't been around for such a long time due to looking after my dad and then finding myself having to have an hysterectomy in February this year. I thought that would have been the ideal time to get back into robo but I ended up staying with my sister for the whole of my recovery which was lovely of her to do. Now back to work and juggling that with dad, partner who I only see in the evenings (so no time then even), sisters and friends there is just no time for me but I do intend to try to find time to learn robo as I do enjoy card making so much.
Donna you should set aside some regular time for yourself and be mean and stick to it, you are entitled to it everyone is.
I can't advise re card as I made the mistake of buying a shed load of * before I knew the first thing about crafting. I use pre cut card and I did a tutorial for cutting that in the RM forum.
As for the other stuff, I have to rely on test cuts.
Donna, I'm glad to see you back and that you've got yourself sorted with respect to cutting. I remember having dreadful problems when I first got my Robo Pro after selling my original blue lid Robo, and that was entirely due to the iffy card I was using for testing!
If you have a Staples near your - or possibly one of the other large stationers such as Rymans, look for 160 gsm Mondi IQ selection. I use this most of the time for cutting, and it's also fine for printing and stamping on too.
Rosemary
"The main reason people buy those machines [Craft Robos] is to cut out words and lace doily patterns for their scrapbooks."
Hi Donna, up until a few weeks ago I hated my Robo too! The advice on here is so great I feel a lot more confident now and I'm glad you seem to too. One of the things I have found is that card quality really does count for a lot. Unfortunately this means so far I've not yet found a way to cut the book pages and brown paper that I love crafting with (even several passes low pressure low speed rips it) But on the plus side I am revisiting all the stash I've had knocking around and I think it may also be an excellent excuse to buy some more!
Just had to say thank you to all you wonderful ladies. I have spent a couple of nights reading through all your wonderful hints and tips. Today I took a deep breath and tried again. I did a couple of good cuts. However not yet 100% successful, but working at it. I wonder if anyone can answer this for me. As it is important to keep the carrier sheet up and level, why is the machine not suplied with either a firmer carrier sheet, or a carrier tray!!!!. I have spent ages trying to find things the right depth for the front
and the back of the machine to support the carrier sheet, and this just makes sooooo much differance, Perhaps one of you clever ladies would make me a template to make two boxes of just the right depth for me. Oh I would be so very grateful. Thanks again for all your wonderful advise so far.
Luv
Dian
I use an old skinny cardboard box that some jewellery came in years ago and a small heart shaped tin that came free with a magazine which I keep my blades in. You don't have to support it from end to end or side to side. Can you imagine how much a tray like you are suggesting would bung up the price?
We have a huge selection of boxes in templates I'm sure one of those will be fine. The ones I use aren't very big, the idea is the CS doesn't bend at the points it does, if you can extend it by a few inches back and front you shouldn't have any problems.
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