Hi.. I think I read somewhere that you could use a exacto knife to cut out your pieces,does anyone have advice on this, would like to try it... A big thank you girls. :roll:

you can cut with xacto, but I think there would be a couple of inconveniences...an xacto requires that you pull the blade thru the material being cut while a rotary pushes down from the top to cut...I'd be afraid of pulling the fabric out of alighment with an exacto because of the pulling motion. The rulers would need to be completely slip-resistant to prevent fabric from moving with the exacto..while currently a ruler can slip when we use the rotary blade, the fabric usually doesn't. Safety...I'd be much more concerned with safety with the exacto...if it slips while cutting, the movement would have the blade coming towards you and with the rotary the movement is/should be away from you. I also prefer the protection on the rotary covers over the blade covers for the xacto.

All that being said, I prefer the rotary blades.

Thank you for your advice on using an exacto knife,I can see what you mean, but the rotary doesn't seem to cut through only one layer, what am I doing wrong? :?:

A rotary blade rolls over/through the fabric.
A exacto knife would be pulling through the fabric.
I don't think you would get a good clean cut.
As well as the safety issues as mentioned.
A rotary blade will cut through atleast 4 layers of
fabric with no problem. The blades do get dull after use and needs to be changed periodically, depending on how much it ts used. I think the most used size would be the 45 mm.

Rotary cutter can cut as many as 8 layers of fabric. When cutting for stack & whack I used larger cutter with no problem. Exacto knife would give a clean cut on fabric. Rotary cutter would be safer.

Well thank you girls.. am going to give the rotary cutter another try...Thanks again....

Also, I am not going to ruin my mat with an xacto knife. It is so sharp, I think it would slice right through the mat.

If your cutter is not cutting even on layer of fabric I'm guessing that it's because you're not putting enough pressure on it...you do have to push down hard enough for the razor edge to get thru...when you are used to doing it, you'll be able to hear the difference between the razor cutting the fabric and when it's not cutting. also, try a brand new blade, and make sure the blade is extended as far as it can, you may be preventing the blade from cutting by not having it fully extended.

make sure you have a new blade and only one, not two. they tend to stick together easily. you should be able to cut through at least 4 layers of faric with a 45mm blade.

I was going to say check to make sure you only have one blade in the cutter too. Having two in it cuts worse than one dull blade LOL.

Make sure that your rotary cutter (blade) is held up straight. If you tilt it to the side it wants to "cut into the ruler" and makes it more difficult to cut and wears out the blade quickly. It should be up butted up against the ruler, gliding against it :D:D:D