Do any teams use a cricut? If so, what do you use the cricut for, and what kind of cricut did you purchase?
3 Likes
We have a similar Silhouette Cameo 3 and use it a ton for vinyl sponsor boards and heat transfer vinyl bumper numbers. It also worked great for our adhesive backed sailcloth numbers last year.
3 Likes
We just used a Cricut to cut out our bumper numbers with the sport vinyl. It has worked out well so far.
1 Like
Yes - heat transfer bumper numbers, sponsor logos, & buttons primarily.
2 Likes
We have a Cricut Explore Air. It can cut up to 12"x24".
We mostly use it to cut the vinyl stickers for our robot sponsor panel, outreach displays, and other labeling in the pit. We’ve made car stickers, labeled carts, branded portfolio materials, and bunch of other things. It can be used to cut the heat transfer bumper numbers if we need it, but we’ve gone the route of embroidered numbers for now.
It gets a good amount of use each season.
2 Likes
What’s the benefit of heat transfer vinyl over regular adhesive vinyl?
1 Like
Regular pressure sensitive vinyl is more rigid and less stretchy than heat transfer vinyl so it simply doesn’t stick to fabrics like ballistic or Cordura nylon. HTV almost grabs into the fibers of the fabric preventing it from peeling off.
2 Likes
253 has the maker and used to use my air.
We used it for bumper numbers, sponsor logos, and toolbox labeling. We’ve also talked about using it to make magnets and vinyl logos for car windows.
Cricut has been trying to do some subscription shenanigans so I’m hesitant to recommend them and would suggest a silhouette or something instead.
Having a vinyl cutter is really nice if you actually use it. You can personalize shirts and make really professional looking sponsor logos for your robot. It’s not uncommon for battlebots teams to use cut vinyl as part of their robots’ final aesthetics.
Personally, I’ve used mine for labeling stuff around the house and custom window decals. Could we have labeled the garage tool chest with a label maker? Yes. Did we instead go over kill and use the cricut? Of course.
We’ve had mixed results with bumper numbers - we use a household iron and have had to supplement with glue to get proper adhesion. I’m guessing getting a proper press iron would solve the problem but it feels like a large investment (mostly in storage, tbh) for the frequency we would use it.
2 Likes
Not in a team context, but I am in charge of the IT Department at a school. We purchased a Cricut this year for the teachers to use.
Here’s my two cents:
It’s a great tool for hobbyists. It’s not built for heavy or industrial use. I know some Etsy sellers and others that are heavy users and do okay, but the machines are not built to withstand very heavy use. Customer service is horrible.
They’re cheap enough and easy enough to use when they work that it’s not a huge risk to buy one, but I’m moderately disappointed with ours.
1 Like
We just picked up a Sillouette Cameo 4, it’s roughly comparable to the Cricut Maker 3. It made cutting the bumper numbers trivial, ironing on though was a different story, we will probably consider a proper press instead of an iron. We have already cut a bunch of regular vinyl decals and lettering for our toolboxes, it’s been pretty easy to get up to speed with and the matless cutting and roll feeder works well too. We’ll be using it to put sponsor stickers on the bot too and adding names to our shirts. People talke about a learning curve, but it’s really not bad, not like using a cnc for the first time, lol.
i would get a heat press we use the one at my work and the bumpers holds up great
To be honest, I think it’s more the fact that you have many different people using it rather than the amount is being used. Very few machines hold up to a bunch of different teachers using it. LOL
I agree with this too. I have an older cricut, so I don’t have very much issue with this, but subscription sucks. Especially when all you want to do is cut custom stuff.
I will say the cricut softwate was way easier to learn than the professional one we have at work, and unless I have something big to do, I’d rather do it quick on the cricut.
Piggybacking on this:
Our first machine arrived with a defective USB port on the side of the machine. It required a replacement. The machine was working with Bluetooth and we were hoping to continue to use that while waiting the 10 days for the replacement unit to arrive.
Cricut support disabled our machine as soon as we filed a warranty claim so we could not use it while we waited for the replacement unit. The fact that they have the ability, with software, to remotely disable the unit sucks. I totally understand charging a subscription for increased development or new features. I’m even okay with it if it’s made clear up front. But if I pay for a machine that is supposed to work out of the box, I expect it to continue working in that fashion indefinitely.
3 Likes
I have Cricut EasyPress Mini. I use to for designing T-shirt
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed 180 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.