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I'm testing out the Silhouette cutting machine Cameo 4 on Windows 11 from a friend by designing and trying to cut out a bunch of 1.5 inch circular logos, but after running a few tests, it seems the machine is slowly getting more and more inaccurate in the cutting outlines as it progresses to the bottom of the sheet. Here are some of the settings:

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I set Feed Type to Manual and Cutting Mat to None and Media Size to A4. My Glossy Sticker Paper size is A4 and I'm certain that I printed it on A4 setting as well with my Epson L4260.

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Here are more settings.

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Although not perfect, it does do a good job cutting the first row. By the way is this quality expected? I would have expected it to be a bit more accurate since it has the Registration markers as guide.

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But as the cutting progresses toward the bottom, I noticed that the cut outlines slowly start shifting upward until in the last row it is totally off.

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Are these machines always this inaccurate or am I missing something?

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    Not the same issue, but it's possible some of the steps in the answer to this question might be of help: crafts.stackexchange.com/questions/8813/…
    – Allison C
    Commented Jun 19, 2023 at 14:13
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    I couldn't add more to the answer linked in the comment above. There are 2 digital files involved: one for the printer and one for the cutter. The cutter cannot see the L-shaped registration mark (because that's part of the printer file), and you cannot see where the cutter will place the cuts (because that's not printed). But from the looks of it, the cutter assumes that your page is smaller, so it shrinks the file to fit the page. Go through the settings listed in the linked answer and test with cheap printer paper until you manage to find the correct settings.
    – Elmy ♦
    Commented Jun 20, 2023 at 5:03
  • Thank you guys for your input. I already made sure I had the latest firmware version which is 1.20 for studio 4.5.196ss. And I also noticed that it seems that it assumed the page was a bit smaller, but I've checked under File > Print Page Setup and in the Toolbar's Page Setup that all is A4. And I've made sure I printed using A4 with the preferences for paper set to A4. As far as I know there is no other place to check. I see this gray border around my paper in studio (Show Print Border) w/ a small uniform margin same each edge but don't think the gray box can be maxed to match paper size.
    – Harry McKenzie
    Commented Jun 20, 2023 at 9:31
  • Never having used a cutting machine like this, this may be a naive question, but: (how) can you be absolutely sure that the paper isn't moving or stretching? I don't mean how do you secure it, I mean how do you check after or even during cutting that it hasn't moved?
    – Chris H
    Commented Jun 20, 2023 at 10:36
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    @HarryMcKenzie Your updated screenshot looks indeed extremely crooked. The size of the cutting blade and how well the tip is centered can influence the precision like in this question. You could repeat your test with a very small blade and see if it works better.
    – Elmy ♦
    Commented Jun 20, 2023 at 14:43

1 Answer 1

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(This was originally posted by the author.)

I ran another test and this time I checked that the cut was perfectly parallel to the left of the page but it was not parallel to the short edges, as you can see below.

I therefore concluded that the Silhouette machine is definitely the problem and would not recommend it to anyone. Case closed.

enter image description here

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