Reddit reviews Brother CM350 Electronic Cutting Machine, Scanncut2, 4.85” LCD Touch Screen, Wireless Network Ready, 300 DPI Scanner, 631 Built-in Designs

MUAHAHAHAHA jk <3

I have a little brother who I absolutely ADORE and but my new brother is giving him a run for his money because he didn't leave me to move across the country for grad school. My new brother always hangs out at home and let's me pick the music plus he never leaves his wet towel on the floor or sneaks table scraps to the dogs. Now he isn't perfect (more on that in a minute) and we're still learning to get along with each other but I'm confident as we spend more time together we'll only become more inseparable. I feel like he has made me much more productive and I can spend more time enjoying making cards than being annoyed by cutting things out by hand.

I got the CM350

I'd recommend watching some videos on youtube (Julie Fei Fan Balzer is one of their spokeswomen and she does lots of good videos for them).

First let me say that I've never used a cricut or silhouette before so I can't really compare it to those. There are videos online comparing them but my understanding is they don't scan so I didn't even consider them. I also didn't want to have a computer connected to the machine since I don't have a desktop PC at home. Just an ipad and a very very old macbook. I am still using my big kick and dies and don't expect it to replace them other than fussy cutting stamped images.

My chief complaint is the cutting mats loose their stickiness very quickly and need regular maintenance and cleaning. They're expensive to replace but there are lots of videos online of how to restore their stickiness. I anticipated this problem and purchased an extra one plus after getting a lighter weight paper stuck to the standard mat I realized I needed a less tacky one since I use so many different kinds of paper. I have all 3 types of mats now. I cut through one of time slightly since I forgot to change the blade setting between projects but i was easily repaired with washi tape. After every cutting session (and sometimes between batches) I wipe down the mat with a baby wipe and scrub off whatever gunk has become stuck to it. Always store it with the plastic sheet protector on. Larger pieces of paper seem to work better since really small stamped scraps can get unstuck from the cutting blade. This could be user error though (not using the right mat, mat not clean enough, etc).

Also, sometimes you need to re-scan images, re-position them on the mat, mess with the settings, or cut things one at a time. I was cutting out some stamped jars yesterday and it routinely was picking up 6 of the jars but not the other two. For those it was just outlining them partially so I cropped them out of the cut area and just did them separately. I've had to recalibrate it twice because the margins were uneven but that's pretty easy and no big deal to me.

I just got a Brother ScanNCut CM 350 for Mother's Day. It almost eliminates the need to buy die-cuts. You can accomplish the same thing with a Cricut, but it involves scanning on a scanner, uploading the image, etc. It seemed like quite a few steps to me. (I don't own a Cricut, so this is my first cutting machine.)

I chose the ScanNCut over the Cricut because the machine has a built-in scanner. You scan your stamped image and with a couple of easy steps, the machine cuts out your stamped image. It's pretty slick. Watch a few videos to see what you think.

Here's an example video She shows how the machine cuts images she has already stamped and colored.

Edit: to link to video.