Computer Controlled Cutters

Electronic cutting machines have become a very affordable crafting tool and I get a lot of questions about which machine will be the best buy. Unfortunately there isn’t a single word answer.
Like so many other devices you need to decide what you want to achieve as a deciding factor. In this small article we look at the Craft ROBO machines from Graphtec.

The lowest cost starting point would be the Craft ROBO Lite. The maximum size you can cut it up to A4 and cuts standard thickness card of about 220 GSM without any problems. Software is provided with all models for you to create your designs ready to cut on your machine. The card/paper you want to cut is simply mounted on a sticky cutting mat (supplied) and placed in the machine. Click on the cut button with your mouse and your design is cut out in a few seconds. That is the quick and easy description if how it works but with time and practice you can cut almost anything.

One very big plus point to buying this kind of machine is that apart from new blades and cutting mats you don’t have to buy anything else. The Craft ROBO uses the normal PC Truetype fonts which means you can cut any font on your cutting machine that you can use on your computer. With thousands of free fonts available on the Internet the sky is the limit. Some other machines require you to buy extra cartidges to expand the range of fonts and designs making them more expensive to run. The included software can auto trace the outline of any clipart shape you have which allows you to cut and resize anything you like.




If that all sounds good but you would like to do a little more with a machine, you should then look at the Craft ROBO 3. This machine does everything that the Lite model does with one extra feature known as “Print & Cut” When you are designing something to cut you can include a back ground design to print. As an example, imagine you want to print out the name “Glasgow” but you want the words to be cut out of a tartan backed paper. You import an image of the tartan you want to use then, insert your word in the font you want over the tartan image. When it looks the way you want it to be you print your design to your printer. You print the tartan design and at the same time it prints small crop marks on the corners of the page. When you are ready you place your printed sheet on the sticky cutting mat and place in your cutting machine. The machine then looks for the crop marks so it knows exactly where your design is on the page. Now you cut your design and you end up with correctly aligned letters and cut from the right spot on the page.

The small video below shows you with a little more details just how the Craft ROBO range works.


The machine in the video an older Craft ROBO 2 machine. The difference between this and the new Craft ROBO 3 model has an SD cad reader. The same card reader is also on the Lite model. The benefit of the reader is you can store anything that you would regularly cut on a memory card and you can use the designs saved on that to cut without the Craft ROBO being connected to a PC.

For more details and the latest prices please follow these links:
Craft ROBO Lite
Craft ROBO 3