I decided I wanted to try the altered Cricut blade holder and Cricut blades in my Cameo. Quite a few people have filed the purple embossing blade holder down and, from what I've read, the measurements are the same size as the Cameo blade holder. Here's my filed down blade holder:
Now I filed the bottom rim off before I realized I was filing off the wrong one (duh!!) You only need to file down the rim in the middle of the holder. I didn't sand it to make make it all pretty as I just wanted to to hurry and finish so I could see if it worked before the sale goes off on the Silhouette America website. You know , just in case I wanted to order more blades. (
BTW use JESSICA or IHEARTIC for 40% off of everything except subscriptions, download cards and machines)
Next I picked a very intricate image and cut it at 2 inches. The butterfly on the left was cut with the standard 30 degree Roland blade,
which is equivalent to the Cricut regular blade. I used the setting in the Silhouette software for heavy cardstock as this is Bazzil's white cardstock. I set the Cricut blade on 4. As you can see it did pretty good. Not great, but pretty good. The one on the right was cut with the Cameo blade with the same settings in the software and the blade on 4. To me, the Cameo blade did a better job cutting. I basically just took it off the mat and it was ready to use. On the one cut with the Roland blade, I had to do some fine tuning with my X-acto knife. The were a few frays and incomplete cuts.
Please note, I did not try this with the
Cricut Deep Cut Blade and that very well may have made a huge difference in the quality of the cut. The musical note; however, did exceptionally well with the Roland blade. It was just a simple image cut at 1 inch.
My final opinion is.....I will stick with my Cameo blades for the more intricate cuts, but if I get in a pinch, it's nice to know that I now have an alternative with the Cricut blades and the Roland blades. I may change my mind once I can do more experiments with the blades and cut settings.
thanks danita. i think i'll stick with my cameo blades too. i have lots of cricut blades, but i still have 3 machines to use them on. so....i'm good. thanks for all your hard work.
ReplyDeleteI have tried the Roland blades and I didn't think they cut as well as the Cricut blades. I got a magnifying glass out and looked at the two side by side and the angles were just slightly different.
ReplyDeletethanks for the info, I will stick with what I have too
ReplyDeleteI've been satisfied with the Cricut blades, MTC software and my Cameo. BUT, I'm comparing the cuts with what I used to get with my Expression so anything looks good! lol!
ReplyDeleteMy modified Cricut blade holder and blades will be used for general cuts and I'll save the high dollar Cameo blades for finer cuts. I have a drawer full of Cricut blades that I need to use up!
Thanks for the post and the comparison. It's good information.
I use either the 45 or 60 degree blade in my alternate blade holder and have no problem. I keep a Cameo blade just for vinyl because no matter how low I put the blade in my alternate blade holder, the blade sticks out too far and cuts thru the vinyl.
ReplyDeleteThe 30 degree blade is used for cutting vinyl, it's the 45 degree blade thats the equivalent of the normal cricut blade. The difference is tiny but the results are very different :)
ReplyDelete