Help! I bought a Cuttlebug Magnetic Cutting Mat!

[donnermom]

Hi all. I just bought a magnetic cutting mat for my CB, and after seeing the glowing reviews on YouTube, I'm surprised to find that I'm not having a good time with it. I'm trying to cut out fairly small Lawn Fawn dies with it.

I don't know if I'm doing something wrong or if it's a combination of things. I'm following the directions and making a sandwich with the following order: A plate, magnetic mat (face up), B plate, die, paper, and B plate.

First off, I'm finding that having the B plate between the magnetic mat and and the dies really cuts down on the magnetism and my dies are sliding around a little bit when I try to insert the plates in to the bug. They cling like crazy to the mat itself, but I'm concerned about possibly damaging the mat if I change the stacking order.

Secondly, this combination of plates is a VERY tight squeeze, and my plates are bowing even more than they were before I started.


I'm wondering if the fact that my CB is roughly ten years old (I've heard that newer ones are a little different in some way?) and also that my plates are a little curved might be causing some of my problems?


Does anyone have any advice? I was thinking of using some chipboard in place of one of my B plates to alleviate the tight squeeze, but I'm just very frustrated. A friend has a Sizzix cutting platform for her Big Shot, and so far, I'm much more impressed with it than I am with this Cuttlebug mat, but maybe it's just me? :confused:


I would consider buying a different system, but I really don't use my bug very much for cutting as I have a Cricut too. It's more for embossing, and it suits me just fine for that.


Thanks for any suggestions!

[Boss]

As an long time Cuttlebug user, recently converted to BS, I will weigh in with an opinion. Definitely DO NOT cut directly on the magnetic platform - I know that the BS one has instructions right on the plate stating this, so am suspecting that the Bug is the same.

If it is feeling too tight to go through, it is! Every Bug has a different tension, and obviously yours is tighter that the norm. I would not crank it through if it has to be "horsed" - takes a lot of muscle. You take the chance of popping the gears and ruining your machine.

You can try chipboard shims, though I would probably go big and use matboard because it's thicker...then fine tune the thickness with chipboard to make a custom "plate"

As for the dies wiggling on the bottom plate when it is on the magnetic platform, this also happens with my BS when the bottom plate isn't perfectly flat (dies also move around on their own because they are attracted to the magnets within the plate that are at designated intervals.)

It might be easiest if you start with a fresh, unbent B Plate on the magnet board and then work on the custom DIY shim plate.

Sorry I don't have a perfect solution to offer for your problem. Good luck finding the right thickness for your faux-plate!

[jesmoyer]

I'm sorry to be discouraging but I bought a magnetic plate for my big shot after hearing rave reviews as well but found it only works with a perfectly flat base plate and so after a few uses with a new plate they start sliding. I went back to using bits of painters tape or washi tape to hold them down instead. That said I'd recommend a flat new plate and maybe trying a shim like you mentioned. Too much pressure is not good for the machine and can even be dangerous. I've had the handle on my BS spin back with force.

[donnermom]

Thank you both for your suggestions. I think you're right. I'll try new B plates and see if I can "rig" something with mat board to make this work. If all else fails, thank goodness for painter's tape!