So About Those Craftrobo "printers"

[Chewbs]

www.craftrobostore.com



I started looking into these a bit the other day when I saw them mentioned in a thread here. Now they seem like they would save a good bit of time on the larger more complicated builds. But when you look at the initial cost of one and the various "consumables" that they use I have to wonder if they are really worth it. Also the additional setup that you have to do seems like it can get a bit harrowing at times. So does anyone here have one? If there is someone with one could you give your thoughts here?

 

[LeytonInTheNet]

Well, I had the privilege of using my school one for Pepakura once

Firstly, you need a program called 'Pepakura Viewer 3 for CraftROBO', and need to register it to be able to print out more than half a page. Then, you just follow the onscreen instructions! Simple!

However, you may have to run it through a few times, as it isn't meant for use with card; I ran mine through twice, and my card is about 200GSM. It cuts and scores perfectly!

If I had the money, I would DEFINITELY buy one!



Overall, it's definitely a time saver (under 20 mins per page), but fairly expensive and you need to buy special software.







Hope that helps!

 

[Chewbs]

Well, I had the privilege of using my school one for Pepakura once

Firstly, you need a program called 'Pepakura Viewer 3 for CraftROBO', and need to register it to be able to print out more than half a page. Then, you just follow the onscreen instructions! Simple!

However, you may have to run it through a few times, as it isn't meant for use with card; I ran mine through twice, and my card is about 200GSM. It cuts and scores perfectly!

If I had the money, I would DEFINITELY buy one!



Overall, it's definitely a time saver (under 20 mins per page), but fairly expensive and you need to buy special software.







Hope that helps!

From what I understand about them as long as you have the right blade, carrier sheet, and settings card stock really should not be a problem. My main concern about it is how often I would be replacing blades and carrier sheets because that seems like it would add up quite quickly.

 

[DMW]

From what I understand about them as long as you have the right blade, carrier sheet, and settings card stock really should not be a problem. My main concern about it is how often I would be replacing blades and carrier sheets because that seems like it would add up quite quickly.

Just adding my $.02 on the Craft Robo... I bought one about a week ago after getting tired of the tedium of cutting all of these pieces out. So far, I've built a set of forearm, bicep, & hand pieces without many issues. The complaints that are floating about the CRs performance on detail parts is spot on though, if there's something with a BUNCH of tiny cuts, i'll just do it by hand to make sure it's done right. On some of the small stuff, it just doens't have the ability to cut & perforate well enough to make it worth while.



I haven't played around with settings on it too much (example: the "perforation" method works fine as far as I'm concerned, as opposed to getting the CR to score the mountain & valley folds). The biggest problem I've had with it is discovering how to get it to pick up the registration marks on a printed sheet so that the cuts would align properly. That took WAY too long --- hours and hours of hair pulling!



Consumables are also a concern of mine, but i'm still on my first blade & first carrier sheet. I've read online that you can wash the sheet & use some repos spray or something similar to get some additional life out of the sheet. I think i'd like to just laminate a few sheets of paper & then see if I can spray those & use them as carrier sheets. I'll update when/if i get to that point.



I think it's a really great machine to have. Getting a page registered & cutting only takes a minute or so after you know what to do, and a letter sized sheet will generally be done in <5min; it's great for freeing up your hands to be bending & glueing!