New Silver bullet user, but disappointed at the SCAL4 ....

[Rosa Crafts]

Hello everyone,
My name is Rosa, I am from Saudi Arabia.
I have been an eclipse 1 then 2 user for four years, and few months ago, I decided to enhance my business with new ideas and materials.
So, I started digging and searching for the best and by far almost everyone and sites said that the silver bullet is the best, and though its price is higher than my budget, but my eclips 2 is dying and I had to buy a new one fast.
I was so happy to buy the silver bullet professional 13" and excited to use the engraving and embossing features.
I didn't tell you about my small home business, I make favours for weddings and babyshowers and graduations, mostly any occasion, and here in Saudi Arabia, most orders means at least 30 to 200 pieces per occasion.
so I need to produce high quantities in short time.
When I unboxed the silver bullet, I knew it will last longer than the eclips2, though I just looooove my eclips 2 but it started to make mistakes in the cuts and not reading well the cut places and give me uncompleted squares!!! I tried to contact the customer service and provided them with pictures but nothing, so I upgraded to the silver bullet.
However, I was shocked yesterday when I downloaded the program SCAL4 which is almost like ecal 2 for eclips 2, but an important feature was missing.
a button to load and unload the mat!!
do I have to do it manually each time?
does that mean that I have to load and unload it manually for about 100 times a day !!!!
It was a real shock.
Not to mention that I must set the origin point each time I fully unload the mat !!
come on, You can't be serious!!!!
I DON'T KNOW WHY YOU DON'T SET THE PROGRAM LIKE eCAL2.
I really think that I can't handle such effort and wasting time , that I returned the device to its box
I tried to read and search for a better solution, but didn't find.
Can anyone help me? or enlighten me with a better technique?
Does SCAL 4 pro, has such feature??
Help plz

[scrapaloo]

That is how those machines work and is not really relevant to the software. Only the smaller craft cutters usually have a load mat option. Also those have an origin point at the top of the mat.

The larger more professional grade machines (like the SilverBullet) have the origin in the bottom, right corner and usually have levers in the back to raise the rollers and you would slide the mat/material under the rollers to wherever you want and then lower them to lock the mat in place.

[SandyMcC]

Scrapaloo is correct. This is not a software related issue. Many of the higher-functioning cutters, like the Silver Bullet and Klic-N-Kut cutters, do not have auto-feed because of the fact they allow the user to move the pinch wheels to other locations and the set origin anywhere they want. This is a VERY important capability and I, for one, would never buy a cutter that did use auto-load.

Since I've been supporting owners of these kinds of cutters for over a decade, maybe I can provide you a few tips to make the production aspect of cutting a little easier for you. When you have a particular project that is requiring sheet after sheet of the same cut:

(1) Place your material in the same location on the mat so that you can slide the mat into the SB and move it over to align with the inside of the right end cap. That way, it's quick to make sure the mat is straight.

(2) After setting the origin and making the firct cut, the head returns to the origin you set. When you slide in the second mat, with the material in the same location, slide the mat towards the back until the blade is again in the same spot as for the first cut. That way you don't have to reset the same origin.

(3) Go Offline and press the Repeat button. The same cut you just executed will be repeated. Just make sure you don't turn off the SB itself.

I own the KNK Maxx Air which is the basically the same cutter as the Silver Bullet and this is how I do my production cutting for the card swaps I join. I find it works very efficiently for me and for my customers who have businesses similar to yours.