Quickutz - what am I doing wrong???

[Minnie&Mickey]

I finally broke down and bought the Quickutz Pink with Olivia font. I was soooo excited, until I actually tried to use it. I stuck all the foam things on, squeezed and pealed off the excess, leaving just the metal plate and foam over the letters. Then when I put it in the Quickutz (plate on the top facing down, and paper under it), and squeeze, it isn't cutting all the way through. You can see the outlines of the letters, and some of them are cut through, but most of them stay attached to the paper, and I can't seem to get them to pop out. I am squeezing until the back handles meet, and I've tried doing it by hand and also in the stand. What am I doing wrong??? I was really planning on doing a lot of scrapping over the next two days and I want to be able to use my new toy. Help!

 

[eyemom]

Some times I find if I stand up when I am Using the cutting tool it works better for me.

 

[bubbasmom99]

You need to shim the dies.... you should have gotten a sheet of clear square stickers with your dies. You peel it off and stick it on the back, flat side of the die. This gives it just enough thickness to push through the cardstock when you squeeze.

 

[Minnie&Mickey]

You need to shim the dies.... you should have gotten a sheet of clear square stickers with your dies. You peel it off and stick it on the back, flat side of the die. This gives it just enough thickness to push through the cardstock when you squeeze.

Oh, okay! I wondered what those clear squares were for! They don't mention them in the instructions. I have one problem though...they only sent me 6 shims for 8 dies! Why didn't they send me enough for all of them?

 

[PIRATEGIRL007]

Holly,
You can buy more, your Quickutz retailer should carry them, but if you PM me your address, I'll send you some of my extras. I have a ton.

 

[kathleena]

You may not need a shim for all of the dies in the set.

 

[Minnie&Mickey]

Holly,
You can buy more, your Quickutz retailer should carry them, but if you PM me your address, I'll send you some of my extras. I have a ton.

Thanks for the offer! Tomorrow, I'm going to call a friend of mine that owns a Quickutz and see if she has any extras. The nearest Quickutz dealer is almost an hour away, so I will try my friend first (she's the person that got me addicted to scrapbooking). If not, I will definitely take you up on your offer. Right now, I am totally frustrated with this thing. I've added the 6 shims that it came with to the first 6 dies, but it still isn't cutting through, even on thin paper.

 

[bubbasmom99]

You can also try peeling away the foam on the outside of the design, leaving only the foam inside the design. I did this with my alphas and it seemed to cut even cleaner (though I wasn't having problems before).

 

[Minnie&Mickey]

You can also try peeling away the foam on the outside of the design, leaving only the foam inside the design. I did this with my alphas and it seemed to cut even cleaner (though I wasn't having problems before).

If I'm understanding you correctly, you are saying that the foam is only on the part that is the actual letter, right? If so, that's what I'm doing right now and it isn't working. I waited so long to finally buy one of these and it is so disappointing that I can't get it to cut right.

Thanks for everyone's help with this...hopefully I'll get it working soon!

 

[bubbasmom99]

Maybe you just have a defective tool -- it may not be calibrated to the right squeezing depth (technical terms, hehe). If all the dies are the same way, it's probably the tool. Do you have to go all the way back to that store to return it?? Maybe if you write to Quickutz, they'll send you a new one... I remember getting some sort of warranty registration card in mine.

 

[Spinning]

Did you pull off the extra foam? I don't I leave it all on there and never had a problem.

 

[Minnie&Mickey]

Maybe you just have a defective tool -- it may not be calibrated to the right squeezing depth (technical terms, hehe). If all the dies are the same way, it's probably the tool. Do you have to go all the way back to that store to return it?? Maybe if you write to Quickutz, they'll send you a new one... I remember getting some sort of warranty registration card in mine.

I'm starting to think that might be the problem. I'll call the store and see what they think. They only had one more left to sell, and it was a demo...but at least I would know that it would work.

I did pull off the extra foam, so right now, the only foam on there is covering the actual letter...that's the way it's supposed to be, right? I keep wondering if I am just doing something wrong.

There is a warranty card in there, so I might give them a call too. I'll let you know what happens.

 

[bubbasmom99]

Mine had foam only inside the outline of the letters, just like you had cut a letter out of foam. But mine also worked even with the entire thing covered with foam... the only other thing I can think of is that you can shim it yourself by putting another piece of cardstock between the die and the handle plate, but you shouldn't have to.... plus I don't think the magnet is strong enough to hold the die there if you put cs inbetween.

 

[Minnie&Mickey]

I took my Quickutz to my friend's house to see if she could figure out what I was doing wrong. She starts fooling around with it, and it does the same thing for her. Finally she holds it up to the light and notices that there is something stuck on the bottom plate...it's a piece of a black letter. The funny thing is that I had only used it to cut pink and light purple, so it had obviously been used before. We were able to get the piece out, and then it cut fine...except a letter sticks inside every time. It's like someone cut out a letter that already had xyron on it or something. We've cleaned it up with some wipes and hopefully it will stop sticking, but we aren't totally sure that it will. I was glad to know that it wasn't something that I was doing wrong though.
Just thought I'd let you know!

 

[bubbasmom99]

Maybe see if you can spread some UnDu in there with a cotton swap or something... really get that goo off... I'm glad it works fine now!

 

[Minnie&Mickey]

Maybe see if you can spread some UnDu in there with a cotton swap or something... really get that goo off... I'm glad it works fine now!

I'll have to try that. She tried Goof Off (or Goop Off...whatever that stuff is called), and it cut fine, but still seemed to stick a little bit. I'll try some of my UnDo when I get home from work today.
Thanks for the idea.