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Cost Comparison of Laser Cutters Vs Cricut Machinesįirst of all, laser cutting machines are far more expensive than your typical desktop craft cutters like Cricut. Instead of colors/pigments being placed on a piece of paper or other surface with dots or ink jet, A CNC controlled device can carve, cut, engrave, plot or do anything that’s a tool was required to do. It works a lot like your common home desktop printer: you create a design, hit print, and the information is sent to your printing machine. Various data inputs like speed, direction, length, width, and depth are mathematically determined and there’s a correspondence between the physical tool and the information that’s being fed to it.
![vinyl cutter cricut vinyl cutter cricut](https://s6n3j7c2.rocketcdn.me/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Maker-3-vs-Explore-3-18-1.jpg)
The computer program controls a motorized actuator that then guides a specific tool (a blade, bit, router, laser beam, etc.) along the path. What is CNC?Īs I touched on earlier, both laser cutting machines and Cricut utilize an underlying technology called CNC.ĬNC stands for “Computer Numerical Control.” This of course does not mean that laser cutting machines do not have their own issues. This is simply because there is no physical contact between the light beam implement and the material, so these machines should last a much longer time and cut more projects before anything should need to be replaced.
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Laser cutting machines, on the other hand, do not have any of these same issues with wear and tear that vinyl cutting machines like the Cricut have. This also means that periodically the blades used to cut your designs after many passes will need to eventually be replaced as sharpening them is not really an option.Īs an aside, if you’re curious, I did write an article a while back covering this issue of how long one can expect blades to be replaced after multiple projects. That means that this is a physical tool that comes into contact with the material that you’re cutting and has a limited lifespan. They actually utilize CNC (for the uninitiated, I will explain exactly what the letters “CNC” stands for shortly) actuators that are motorized to control a sharp blade in a specialized holder which slices through materials. It is amazing what is currently available at our disposal that could fit on The average desktop! Laser Cutter and Cricut ComparisonĬricut machines utilize the same underlying technology yet totally different method to cut materials than laser cutting machines. My intention is that hopefully this short guide will help you navigate the waters in selecting just the right kind of machine appropriate for your unique project tasks.Īlong the way, perhaps all of this will pique your interest and curiosity. In addition, there are several other differences between these varieties of cutting machines including laser cutters and craft or die cutting machines like Cricut (which I will cover in this article) and it’s very important to know the distinction between these two and their respective capabilities. Generally, since laser cutting machines are using light to cut through materials they will be more power intensive. What are the distinctions and practical uses of both laser cutting machines and Cricut? The biggest difference between laser cutting machines and Cricut is that laser cutting machines use a powered, highly concentrated, narrow beam of light to burn, vaporize, or melt materials (this process is frictionless) while Cricut Machines use blades to slice lines through materials. You’ve probably seen many of these projects yourself even with limited knowledge as to how exactly were they were created. Craft cutting machines are capable of cutting many different kinds of projects.