I Bought A Cricut Die-Cutter!

In the past, I have had project ideas that always seem to involve some kind of stencil, or silk screening. Things like glass etching, metal electro-etching, chemical etching,  labels on a panel for a bench top power supply.  I would try to print the image out, and cut it out with an xacto knife. And it kind of worked. But my skill with an xacto knife isn't exactly up to par when it comes to detailed work. Or really any thing presentable. So for a long time I've wanted some kind of die cut machine.

My girlfriend and I were at Joann's the other day, while she picked up craft materials. We saw a die cutter on sale. I googled around, and did a little research, and decided it was the one I wanted, and for the price I wanted it. Turns out it's pretty great! I functions very well, and cuts designs as well as I could have hoped. 

My one complaint however, is with the whole user experience. I'll get into that a little. First of all, there are only three platforms for the product: Online, iOS, and Android. There is no desktop/offline software. And as of yet haven't found a way to interface with the device while offline. Maybe that's a project for later.

The online software is written in Adobe Flash (Gross!). And as such is very slow, and buggy, and doesn't always work. The design of the software seems fine. Just the general buggyness bugs me. The iOS and Android apps are actually pretty nice. They seem solid, and stable. And the UX is very well done. I don't know how well it would work to design something on a screen smaller than 10", but I imagine it would be "Just ok". The kicker though, is that you can't upload custom images!! Which is 98% of my intended use case! What is wrong with them?? I wish they could combine the stability and UX of the app, with the screen size, and ability to upload images. Then I would be so happy. But until then, I can deal with the online software. It works well enough.

All in all I'm excited for the potentials. Oh, and here's the Ruger logo I cut out, stuck to the craft box, just for fun.