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Originally Posted by hcmbanjo
Hi Lee,
Which Cricut model do you use?
I've seen a new, smaller size unit I've been curious about.
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Chris, I bought the Maker. It supports cutting balsa and basswood. It has a heavy duty geared tool holder for cutting tough materials. Depending on material and thickness, the Cricut will make multiple passes to completely cut the part. I have only cut vinyl and cardstock. (Not centering rings, but butterfly puppet parts for my four grand daughters.)
The knife tool with housing costs about $30, it is not included. For someone not needing the heavy material cutting, the Explore Air 2 does the same cutting for cardstock and vinyl, for about $100 less.
I paid $369 last Fall, list was $399. I have seen them for $309, so the list price may have come down. I don’t know much about the little model called Joy, but I would guess it has same cutting capabilities, just on a smaller scale. The cutting mats are 12” x 12”. I have used the full 12” width on the Maker a lot. If you need more, a 12” x 24” mat is available. You can rotate the layout to fit, but the software will automatically do it, I believe. It is also easy to break up long text over multiple cuts. I helped my daughter make an indoor “sign” with a phrase almost 3 feet wide.
There are tons of YouTube Cricut videos out there to show how to use the machine and do design work. The Cricut can import JPG and SVG files. I made Enerjet and Goblin decals by importing JPGs, and scaling up or down as needed. For the Enerjet, I had to do some cleanup. I am also trying to learn Inkscape. I am about to just spend the big bucks for CorelDraw, which I have used in the past to do design work for laser cutting. I can not justify the expense of buying a laser, but the Cricut is very affordable.