Craft Edge

Hi everyone,

I am an artist wanting to buy SCAL and Cricut Expression. After reading many posts I have several questions. First, do I have to buy a Cricut cartridge to place in the cutter if I use SCAL? And second, I've seen a lot of posts regarding Cricut programming their firmware so you can't use SCAL. Is this currently true?

Thanks to anyone who can help me with this information.

Denise

The cricuts ship with cart included,My E came with 2 as far as the other about the programming I don't know but i have also heard whispers of it

You have to have a cartridge plugged into your Cricut to make it work with SCAL. If you are doing precise work, the Cricut is often off a smidge. There is a recent post about that here on the forum

Thanks for the information. If the Cricut cuts off a bit, can someone recommend a compatibly priced cutter that is more precise and works directly with SCAL?

Denise

SCAL only works with Cricuts.

If I had it to do over again, and I was the only one using the machine, I'd probably get a Xyron Wishblade.
Here's why:
It has Mac compatible software (this is recent, it didn't used to).
The software - from what I can tell - is very much like SCAL but more powerful.
It supports print & cut better than the Cricut. It has a way to print registration marks & an optical sensor to align the cuts with the print.

Now, my wife (who is the primary user of our Cricut) really likes the cartridges & ease of use they bring. The cartridges have high quality artwork nicely coordinated and organized. We're up to over half a dozen cartridges now and for having a catalog of ready to cut artwork, they are great. Myself, I like drawing & designing things to cut. While I enjoy the inspiration the cartridges bring, I'm happy using the computer & some software, so the ease of use is not as big a concern to me.

- Jasen.