{"id":919,"date":"2009-06-16T13:16:05","date_gmt":"2009-06-16T20:16:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.disneyexperience.com\/news\/?p=919"},"modified":"2021-01-20T15:05:54","modified_gmt":"2021-01-20T23:05:54","slug":"out-of-the-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.disneyexperience.com\/news\/out-of-the-box\/","title":{"rendered":"Craft ROBO Unboxing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, the Craft ROBO machine arrived Monday, and I’ve had some time to play with this new toy. First, let’s take it out of the box. Inside is the machine, a power cord, a power adapter, a USB cable, a pen plotter tip, a blade cutting tip, three cutter caps, a CD-ROM, a user’s manual, an installation sheet, and a media pack. The media pack contains the carrier sheet, a sheet of thin cardstock, a sheet of blue vinyl, and a sheet of clear transfer film.<\/p>\n

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I tested the machine by cutting part of the Holiday Carousel Card<\/a> using the Illustrator plugin, which was simple and straight-forward. The images show some cut pieces of vellum. The cuts are clean and beautiful. Corners are sharp, and it can cut intricate work. There was a problem with one of Goofy’s ears, though. It seems that it was just too narrow to cut.<\/p>\n

I tried cutting on parchment, too. Big mistake. The loose weave of the paper’s fibers just ripped apart under the pressure of the cutting blade. During the process, I also dropped the carrier sheet, a big piece of plastic with a sticky side. Guess which way it landed on the carpet. It was a mess, but I quickly grabbed my handy-dandy lint roller and gently rolled it across the sheet. It picked up the carpet lint without any problems.<\/p>\n

Removing the paper from the low-tack carrier sheet was fairly easy, though intricate work will obviously require more time and patience to pry off. Tiny cuttings are even harder to get off without a sharp blade and a pair of tweezers, but that’s to be expected.<\/p>\n

The Craft ROBO cuts deep into the carrier sheet. The manufacturer recommends that the sheets be used no more than ten times. Too bad they cost $20 for a two-pack. But, reading through the various crafting forums (there are plenty out there dedicated to this machine and others), it seems that the carrier sheets for the Cricut (they call them “cutting mats”) work just the same. Buying the largest mat (12 x 24) two-pack and cutting them down to size can give you fout to six carrier sheets that Cricut says last for about twetty-five uses. So, theoretically, four to six carrier sheets can be obtained from Cricut for about $17, while only two can be bought from Graphtec (maker of the Craft ROBO). Of course, Graphtec says that using any non-Craft ROBO products could void the machine’s warranty.<\/p>\n

Did I mention that the machine is loud? It is. But, it’s not enough to send the thing back, no sir! I love this machine, and I can’t wait to use it on my new paper model. Oddly enough, I didn’t try the one type of paper that I’ll be cutting the model from. I’ll have to test that out. I also have to test out the media pack that came with the machine. In one of the booklets, there are a couple of test projects (with step-by-step instructions) that are ready to be used for testing the supplied media. Neat, although I think I can find more creative uses for the pack.<\/p>\n\r\n