The Cricut heavy chipboard (2mm) is rather expensive. If you don't catch it on sale, it's $12 for 5 sheets. I got it from Amazon for $11, and on 24 May 2022 I was trying to cut a puzzle from a piece for the first time on Sunday, and the knife blade kept getting stuck in the same spot.
Because of the price of the media, I didn't want to try cutting another board, so I just stopped the project, mainly because Design Space and even the Cricut website said I should be able to clear the debris and press the red/white flashing power button and continue the cut without unloading the mat.
Doing so didn't work the first time, so I unloaded the mat, said a prayer and reloaded the mat hoping the cut wouldn't be off. Thank goodness it actually cut in the exact same place after I reloaded the mat and started over. However, it got stuck in the same place again and the power button started flashing from white to red over and over again.
When the same thing happened the second time, that's when I stopped the project and contacted Cricut. The bot said they'd pass my message along.
I wasn't expecting to get a reply quickly, but I actually got the following reply the next day!
It's always nice when a company stands behind their product. ?
My takeaway…
If you're using all Cricut products, and you continuously have a fail, contact them and let them know. They may not be so generous every time you contact them, but give them an opportunity to stand behind their products.
Plus, they need to know about the fails, so they can ascertain if there are patterns. If 100 of us are having fails on the same media and/or blade but only one or three of us reaches out to them to let them know, then those few people will get that annoying reply: “Well, no one else has contacted us to tell us there's a problem, so it must be on your end.” Ugh. I abhor hearing that so much.
I didn't want to invest in more chipboard and another knife blade, so I'm grateful that Cricut took care of me on both fronts. ?
I'm sharing all this because I actually wasn't going to contact Cricut about my issue. I was going to just chalk it up to my inexperience and eat the costs, but something within me just said “Do it.” Based on their response, I now wonder if this is a known issue that they're not sharing but trying to rectify once they are contacted about it. I don't know, but I'm glad I listened to that little voice.
I was just looking on their site and learned they have 1.5mm chipboard and not just the 2mm chipboard. I'm not sure why I thought it was all 2.0mm, but now I want to try the 1.5mm!
UPDATE [03 June 2022]: I finally got my package from Cricut. It included a brand-new knife blade, and one 5-pack of 2.0mm chipboard and one 5-pack of 1.5mm chipboard. I really wanted to try the 1.5mm chipboard so YAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!
