Read the Whole Post Before Changing Anything
Are you using a new brand of vinyl and your Cricut just won’t cut it? Is your Cricut cutting into your mat? Do you want to cut a material not on the list of materials? You can adjust the cut pressure your Cricut cuts with from about 120 to over 300. You can also change the blade used to cut a material or the number of times it will cut.
Warning
This is not something for a beginner to try and it is not the first thing you should try when you have a problem cutting a material. Do not just change settings without thinking about it first and trying other ways of correcting any cutting problem you may be having. And Cricut does not guarantee that it will cut a material that isn’t on their list.
Cricut has a list of materials and their pressure on their website here. I have made a table that can be kept at your Cricut. Download the word file. (No password needed)
This list should give you an idea of what other similar materials cut like if you have something new that isn’t on the list.
Adjusting Pressure of Known Materials
An example of the need to do this would be that my cricut wasn’t cutting through the printer paper I use when I tried print/cut. Copy paper is usually 20 lb weight. The copy paper I buy is a little heavier than that. So I SLOWLY adjusted the pressure up from 163 to 165, 167, 169 and so on. After each adjustment I tested the cut and it was getting better. I ended up at 173.
Do Not Change the Setting More Than 1 or 2 at a time
I know some of you out there want to just grab that number and crank it up. DON”T DO IT!!!! You could seriously damage your mat or worse. This is time consuming I know, but you spent a lot of money on your Cricut and your supplies. You want to be cautious! Test each new setting on a small piece of the material after each adjustment. All you need is a simple star or circle.
Cutting a Material Not on the List
I was looking for cheaper materials I could use as covers for the shakers I was making. I found some report covers so I set the cricut for the closest material I thought there was, transparencies. They cut at 307. That setting cut through my report cover all right but put a serious cut in my mat. I looked at the list and thought mat covers at 177 was a better idea so I tried it. That was still a little much but it didn’t cut into my mat. I backed it off slowly 2 or 3 at a time and finally reached 169 which didn’t quite cut the cover so I turned it back up to 171 which did.
Changing the number of cuts and the Blade Type
I was cutting some cork that I found trying to make a frame so I tried the cork setting, which call for repeating the cut 4 times but after the third cut my material was cut through and the additional cut was making the material coming off the mat. So I looked at the settings and the pressure setting was pretty low already at 135. Instead of adjusting the cut pressure, I cut back on the number of times it cut. Setting it to 3 did the trick.
I was trying to cut felt on my Air for flower week. The air doesn’t have a fabric wheel so I used the setting with the fine point blade and the blade kept catching on the top of the material, switching to the deep point blade fixed that. You can just put the other blade in and just use it but I knew I would forget. I changed the setting to the deep point blade so that the Cricut would remind me that I needed the other blade.
How to change the Settings
Now that I have given you warning about when to adjust the cut pressure and when not to adjust the cut pressure, I will tell you how and where to do it. But I am going to give you one more warning. This is not the first thing to try when something doesn’t cut. Cricut has done research on the materials in their list and they are more of an expert at it than you or me. This is a last resort if nothing else works.
New Material
Under the menu on the home screen when you first open Design Space (the three bars next to the word Home) select manage custom materials. This will give you the list of custom materials. At the very bottom you can select the Add New Material button and Name your new material. Adjust the settings to what you want to try and press save. It will be added to the list and only to your list.
Edit an Existing Material
Under the menu on the home screen again, find the material you want to change. Click the Edit button. Adjust the cut pressure using the slider or press the plus or minus. You can choose another blade or the number of times it cuts here also. Click save. Only change it in small increments and test your new setting each time.
Final Warning
I know this whole post is full of warnings but I can not emphasize enough not to go changing settings on a whim. Try other things first and use this only as a last resort.
