Silhouette Curio 2 12 inch Wide Format Flatbed Cutter with Electrostatic Bed, 20 mm Material Height, Electric Tool Compatible, and Silhouette Studio

I’m obsessed with this machine 😊

I've had many different laser and blade cutters and a ton of experience using them for manufacturing, not just occasional craft use. I've re-built several laser engravers. A flat bed cutter has advantages over the standard cutters that roll the material and only move the blade left and right. You can work with unusual materials that won't go through the rollers and you can use more of the material since the flat bed allows you to cut right up close to the edge without any borders as long as your material will hold down to the surface without getting dragged around. For these reasons it is a MUST for me. I can't use the typical hobby or even professional cutters. Also the electrostatic bed is amazing as long as your material is compatible. It seems like this machine was made just for me! HOWEVER quality control and customer support has a lot to be desired. I need two of these machines to keep up with production and also allow for one to go down without completely leaving me in a pickle while I get the unit repaired or replaced. To get 2 working machines I had to buy 4, return two and fix the other 2. One wouldn't get past the first test. The first time the blade tried to lower for a cut I heard a snap and that was it.... loose parts rattling inside and the blade would not move up or down. Another seemed to work but after getting deeper into it, it would not cut square. The arm was wobbly (loose) compared to the working machine and there were parts rattling inside when tilted. The two I got working, one was used purchased locally and both new and used were off enough to cause cut issues. On BOTH, the blade height was 61mm when at the left side and 62 when at the right. This doesn't sound like much but when the blade detects the height of the material at one end for a 0.2mm thick material but then the blade is physically 1mm higher at the other side then the blade won't even touch what you're cutting! Also one of them was a touch off on square when cutting... the right side was about 1mm closer to the front than the left side. I'm cutting full 10x11 material and this would lead to it being about 1-2mm off on the right side. I NEEDED this to work for me and with 2 of 4 being DOA I knew replacing units wasn't the answer so I had to fix it myself. Now I WISH they had some built in way to make minor adjustments. You can fairly easily fix the different in blade height because each side can move up or down about 1mm by loosening 3 screws (after removing the plastic side covers). The arm not cutting square however has no such easy adjustment. What I ended up doing was removing the same 3 screws you can loosen to move the arm up and down and then drilled out the holes in the metal so it would also allow me to move it left and right just a tiny bit. Now I have both machines working to my satisfaction. With such poor quality control on a basic necessity for proper function I don't understand why there is no way to make these minor adjustments at least at the factory! So if there is any deviation in assembly or part manufacturing there isn't even a way for the factory to adjust these things. It would have been so easy to make the connector plate between the moving mechanism and the upper arm with an easy way to make slight adjustments.Customer support was bad. If you have basic questions you can expect some help or easily find answers on-line but if you have any physical problems with the machine (and chances are high that you will) then good luck getting help from support. For this reason I highly recommend buying this on Amazon vs direct from MFG. If you KNOW your machine is broken (for example, loose parts rattling along with malfunction) it's going to take weeks to deal with their support and get a replacement. On Amazon you can return it without all the hoops to jump through. I understand that a lot of inexperienced people may return the product because of user error or just not knowing how to use it which is why they are so reluctant... however when 2 out of 4 (for me) have major problems and I've also read other reviews about problems with machines, then they should know that they are going to get a lot of returns. Also, if you are cutting very thin material like paper over the full sheet, then measure the height of the blade at both sides of the machine to see if it's off. Even 0.5mm can be a problem. I am including a photo of the 3 screws that can loosen to allow you to move it up or down 1mm however in one of mine I had to remove the other side to make adjustments. Same technique just harder to take a good photo of. I also used E6000 glue after adjusting them so that they wouldn't easily move over time.

Me encanta Silhouette, utilizaba la primera curio, pero al lanzar la Curio2 no dude en adquirirla por su versatilidad y su innovación con foil, es impresionante.

I purchased this machine twice thinking the first machine was broken. I was severely disappointed to discover the second machine had the same issue. After some research I found others had the same problem. The cutting jumps around and will cut unevenly at times. I have gotten no help from silhouette regarding the issue and have only found answers on Reddit which is very discouraging. I would wait a while before purchasing and read all the reviews. I hate that I’ve had issues because I only use silhouette machines. Such a disappointment

I’ve been using silhouette machines since the first one, not the cameo 1, the one before that! This was an adjustment but once I figured it out this is amazing. I no longer worry about cutting glitter paper letters and having them lift off the mat and then get stuck under the rollers and ruin a whole cut. Also this might be “slower” but it’s also not, I need to do 3-4 passes on glitter for my cameo 4 but only 2 passes for the same cut on this machine.Deducting a star because I can’t find protection sheets in stock anywhere and I’m going to need replacements. I tried to order from Michael’s but my order was canceled even though they are still listed in stock.

So let me start out by saying that I did not buy my Curio 2 via Amazon; I bought it directly from Silhouette. But I do feel like this machine gets a lot of flak, because it is not really a beginner's machine. It could be, but this is one area where Silhouette falls flat on its face -- support and user-friendliness are lacking. If you're gonna buy this thing as a newbie, join a community of people who know how to squeeze every last drop out of a Silhouette machine (and the software).I'm a long time, experienced Silhouette user (Cameo 3 & 4; Curio 1 & now Curio 2). I also own a couple of 3D printers, including Silhouette's Alta. I'm a former Etsy shop owner who specializes mostly in jewelry (metalwork), but I also have gotten into leatherworking. I love my 3D printers. I know Silhouette Studio pretty well at this point, and I'm a computer geek, too.I'd been eyeing laser engravers forever when the Curio 2 was announced -- with the new power tools, once the announcement was made, I quit looking at the lasers and waited for the Curio 2 to come out and for the dust to settle before I finally took the plunge and bought one. I worried that it couldn't replace my Curio 1 (probably my most used machine after closing my Etsy shop). As of now, I can safely say that I no longer worry about whether or not I need my Curio 1. A month later, and the Curio 2 has absolutely blown me away at every turn.So, the big deal(s) with the Curio are a few things:1) Paper thin materials. I mean THIN. Delicate. This is cool, but not what I bought this machine for. One day I'll try cutting vellum, etc.2) THICK materials. This is my jam. I'm currently using the Curio 2 to cut, emboss, and otherwise manipulate natural leather (mostly veg tan in the 5-6 ounce range -- so 2 to 3mm thick). I plan to engrave, etc. on thicker materials eventually.3) Unique power tools like the power engraver, leather punch, and heat pens. I have still not tried them all, but I'm working on it. I feel like this is one area where Silhouette actually did listen to its users -- people like me WANTED this kind of stuff. They delivered the capability.I work with metal a lot, and leather. I also do work with paper and cardstock, but I mostly use materials that other machines struggle with. I do NOT want to attempt to feed 18 gauge metal into my Cameo 4. The Curio 1 could handle these materials, and that's why it became one of my most used machines. And now, there's the Curio 2.Thus far, I have not encountered any issues that I couldn't resolve on my own. I did once think I discovered a bug while embossing, but I came to the conclusion that it was my material(s) and settings that were the issue. I have succeeded in everything I have attempted with the Curio 2, including:Cutting stickers; cutting cardstock; cutting 2mm thick leather with the 2mm premium blade (NOT the kraft blade); cutting thin leather with the rotary blade; embossing 5-6 ounce veg tan cowhide leather with the embossing tools; foiling on veg tan leather with the heat pen tools.Tools I have yet to test: power engraver, leather punches, kraft blades.Important things to know about this machine:1) The electrostatic bed is a game changer -- and the fact that it is FIXED in place and the tools are what moves. This is huge for me, and instantly makes this machine amazing because... you can finish a job, not unload the material, swap tools and continue with additional actions without ever mis-aligning anything! No more trying to remove tape from a sticky mat while it's under rollers, still partially loaded into the machine. There are no rollers!!2) The things you can do with the ES bed. It can hold thin materials like paper, cardstock, vinyl, etc in place with no sticky mat and no tape. It's crazy the first time you do it, but you end up feeling like 'where has this been all my life?!?' after that. I'm currently doing some experimenting with unique ways to utilize the static system to hold materials that shouldn't work with it.3) The range of materials you can work with -- from the thinnest of thin to the thickest. Custom heat foil all kinds of stuff... what a huge deal! I wish I had this machine when I was still running my Etsy shop!4) It's big -- as in, the machine is physically huge (it's footprint is like 2 feet wide by 19 inches deep). I had to buy a whole extra table just to dedicate to it.5) Plan to waste a lot of time and materials learning to do anything. Seriously, this is the biggest drawback. Silhouette Studio is a decent piece of software, but the new tools have virtually no pre-sets ready, so it's kind of the wild wild west. You have to try stuff and see what works and what doesn't, and adjust from there. Go into any new project with this in mind!6) A proper emergency stop feature! A quick press of the power button and the machine INSTANTLY stops whatever it is doing. This has saved some of my materials as I've experimented.With all of that said, I've not found anything inherently wrong with the Curio 2. It is a very capable machine (I feel like I've only scratched the surface). Just realize that if your only experience is with cutting cardstock or paper on a regular die-cutter like a Cricut or an earlier Cameo model, this is gonna feel like a whole new world, and you might struggle a lot. I'm not sure this machine is really right for only paper cutting. This is more like a general purpose craft machine.Final thoughts: Whatever you do, don't buy this with the idea that Silhouette will help you if you have issues. This is one of their biggest weaknesses. In the past, they were great responding to questions/issues, but every time I have contacted them lately, I get form letter responses that don't actually address my issues, and I get a lot of push back from snarky reps who think I'm just stupid. If you're willing to engage with other Silhouette owners/users, and trial-and-error your way through stuff, this machine is unbelievable. Words can't express how blown away I am with what it can do. But, it is not for the faint of heart. You'll need time, money, and patience to get there.