Cutting the same stuff over and over again by hand is not much fun, not accurate and most of all time consuming. After looking at digital cutting machines on the market we went to our local sewing shop and got a demo of the Brother SDX325 Scan-N-Cut. It is not the cheapest but it had all the features we wanted and was on sale.
Above I am making some business cards using the MeowFire cat head logo. I find that the best feature of the Brother SDX325 Scan-N-Cut is the built in scanner. I can quickly design something in Inkscape and print it out cheaply on our Cannon G5020 tank printer. Then with a few clicks on the Scan-N-Cut it will use the existing lines to cut out the objects on the special adhesive mat.
I also find that designing a pattern on paper and then scanning it into the Scan-N-Cut to store to the internal memory on the machine is very useful as you can then use that pattern later to cut out fabric… but that will have to be another blog post.
Printing the image right
The Scan-N-Cut’s internal image processing works best with solid lines that are connected. Most of the time this is not an issue as I am cutting out a pattern that has a solid contiguous border. You can set the offset to cut more in our outside of the border. For the above cards I do a -0.01in offset so that it will cut slightly inside of the outer black line of the cards.
Preparing the adhesive mat
Brother has a few different types of adhesive mats that can be used with the SDX325 that have varying stickiness ( aka. tack ). The standard tack mat is too sticky for paper and will rip card-stock and normal paper when you try to remove it. To solve this issue I rubbed a tee shirt on the mat to reduce the tack until it was just sticky enough to hold the paper for cutting and not rip when I used the provided spatula to remove the cards. The mats will loose their tack with use and eventually will need to be refreshed and then replaced.
Direct Cut process with the Scan-N-Cut
As mentioned the Direct Cut process is what I like best about the Brother SDX325 Scan-N-Cut. Yes there is so much more that this machine can do, but here are the steps that I use to Direct Cut patterns:
Select Direct Cut
Use the ‘Direct Cut’ feature to scan and then cut objects with ease.
Select Images to cut
Use the touch screen to select the objects to cut. The touch screen is not as sensitive as I would like, but the Scan-N-Cut comes with a stylus to help that helps with getting the red lines where you need them.
It is cutting time
Select ‘cut’ and press ‘start’ to cut out the objects.
Issues with the Scan-N-Cut
There are some minor annoyances with the machine, but no major deal breakers that I have found.
Adhesive pads need refreshed
Nothing will attract cat fur more than a 12in x 12in piece of tape. The mats need to be stored with the dust protectors on them when not in use but even then they will start to loose their tack with use. To help reduce dust I keep the mats hanging vertical ( this also helps save space as the Brother SDX325 can take a 24in mat).
Even tough Brother recommends against doing this I have found that lightly washing the mat with just a little drop of hand soap will remove dust and cat fur nicely. The trick here is to use very little soap and lightly rub the dust and fur off the mat with warm water running over it. Make sure you thoroughly rinse off all the soap from the mat. Once the mat is dry it works fine.
Cut marks on mat get scanned
As the mats get used the cut marks from prior cuttings will show up on scans. My work around for this is to leave about a 1in margin on the paper that I am cutting so that when selecting images the cut prior cut marks are easily avoided.
To help preserve the life span of the mat move what you are cutting around the mat so that the machine is not always cutting in the same place on the mat. For the above example of business cards you do not want place the paper in the exact same spot.
Some times the cuts miss the mark
There are sometimes that the machine will not perfectly cut on the line. This is not often, but it happens every not and again.