Local Cougar?

[lryncarz]

Ok I posted a little bit ago about Corporate usage. I was just wondering at this point if there is anyone in the Strongsville, Ohio area that would be willing to bring theirs to us to look at see a demo, ask questions? We would greatly appreciate the help! Thanks!
Lauren

[rachellann]

We have a few members in the Ohio area I am sure they will pop in shortly.

[Deb Za]

I'm in NW Ohio, but I'm really just a newbie at this. I have a Lynx. Wish I were more experienced at it that I could help.

Deb

[rachellann]

The Lynx is the smallest of the Blackcat family it is the 12" machine.

[Dana]

Im in Vermilion and have a Lynx. It is the smaller of the cougar machines. I have some child's craft foam, about 2mm thick from Pat Catans and was able to cut it. If my machine can cut it, then all the other cougars will be able to do it and maybe thicker. I also didn't have the 60 degree plus blade, I just used a normal 45 and did 10 passes. It took about 30 sec to cut 2" decagon shape. I have had my machine for a year now.

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[janrichards]

I am in Akron and have been cutting for quite q while but have only had my machine for about 9 mos. What software do you intend to use? In my opinion, the software is the most important thing. I have SCAL and MTC but am more comfortable with SCAL. What exactly is it that you want to see?
Jan
jrichards25neo.rr.com

[lryncarz]

Wow thanks for all the imput. Jan my boss would like to see the machine at work. How well it cuts that sort of thing. We have a laser and use Adobe Illustrator so not sure what other software we would need? Anyone with any recommendations?

[Suzan]

I use illustrator all the time to design, and it works with signcut, which I think would be the best cutting software for your type of work. It works really well. For example I want to cut out a Winnie the Pooh. I would create it in illustrator, then seperate my bear by colors into different layers. Then I can go into Sign Cut and cut the color I want seperately. Actually even if you didn't seperate it by layers Sign cut would sort it by colors. Which is awesome, I tend to group all my colors together to conserve materials. Also if I make a box, I make the box one color and the score lines another color so I can change my force and actually score the fold lines, then cut the box. It really is worth the money. And actually you can get a trial versions of sign cut from their web site so you can see what it does.

Also if no one close by can cut for you in person, if you want you can send me samples and I can video how it cuts or even skype with you for cutting. I do fairly simple things but will help anyway I can. Also if you go up to the learning center Tyler and Rob have made a lot of videos on what this machine can do. And Dana one of our members has been making charms using Acrylic (plexi glass type) sheets.

[lryncarz]

Hi Jan, we used CS5.5 for our designing. My boss would like to know if this cougar would cut 2mm-6mm EVA foam and 1mm-4mm felt, mostly. Then how well does it transition to cardstock and paper items. Do the blades need changed per material? That sort of thing!
Thanks for all your help!
Lauren

[pigtailpat]

Lauren -

A word about CS 5 and the signcut combination - I am not sure if the situation had been changed, but I found that for whatever reason, CS 5 broke with all prior CS versions, and you cannot send the image out to signcut directly. You would actually need a backwards version of CS to do this. However, it has been quite some time since I last tried this, and I have not checked whether or not corel ever updated CS5 at all. I have since, actually, switched to inkscape as I like it more and understand more with inkscape than I do with corel. I will try looking at CS5 again in the near future, I had been away from lots of cutting due to an obsession with quilting. This is a problem on the CS side, not signcut. Corel completely broke things in 5.

Insofar as cutting, this machine is really great. Your boss has to be prepared though, that everything new has a learning curve. If he has a type A personality that everything has to be done yesterday, that kind of pressure doesn't help with a new machine in hand. If he is prepared that there will be a necessary adaptation period so that the operator can understand how the machine works, the machine will probably be a good fit.

As to the foam question, I have no idea as I have not cut foam.

Pat

UPDATE: I just found out that Corel has come out with version 6. So you might want to explore whether or not this version fixes what 5 broke in terms of playing nice with signcut.

[Thyme]

The Cougar will cut funfoam of 2mm thickness, but i do not know EVA foam. It certainly won't cut any media that is 6mm thick as this is too thick for the blades

[Suzan]

Pat, Tyler has the directions to make the sign cut work with CS 5. I have been using it for about 2 years now Also CS5 is for Adobe Illustrator, I don't know what Corel Draw calls it.

[Suzan]

Pat, Tyler has the directions to make the sign cut work with CS 5. I have been using it for about 2 years now Also CS5 is for Adobe Illustrator, I don't know what Corel Draw calls it.

I think it is a plug in that needs to be installed.

[pigtailpat]

Whoops - gotta get my glasses checked (or my brain re-wired). Yes CS is a reference to illustrator, and I should know this as I also have illustrator cs4. In illustrator, I have no problems with the signcut output works fine there. The only problem I had was with corel X5. Corel refers to it as X5, not cs, cs is illustrator.

Wow - can you guys see how long I have been away??

Now, I am going to go put my head someplace safe, like in a bag!!

Pat

[Tyler]

Take a look at this - see if it will help.

[Suzan]

Thanks Tyler, It works perfectly, I have had it in my Illustrator since you gave it to me a long time ago.

[lryncarz]

Hey Everyone! We are now settled into our new space and are already needing to expand! lol the quesiton is still out there if anyone is willing to come in and demo their cougar for us?! If so please send me your information and I'll pass along to my boss.
lauren_ryncarz@darice.com

Thank you in advance!!!

[janrichards]

I am in Akron but because I am not familiar with the software you are using I am not sure that I can help. If you just want to see what it will cut that is different. I only use SCAL, Sure Cuts A Lot software. So I guess the question is, what do you really need to know, what it is capable of cutting or how it connects to the software of choice.
Jan

[Gigi]

Lauren -

There are a lot of blogs you can visit, Penny especially http://pennyduncancreations.blogspot.com/

There are quite a few members here who have videos on their blogs - perhaps some of these could be helpful??

[kmmhug]

I live in the Mansfield area but I am still a newbie with my machine so not the best demonstrator. In addition I could not transport it in a way that I would feel comfortable with. These machines are large and heavy (which is good since they are meant to last!) I wonder if your best bet at seeing if it will cut the things you are interested in cutting would be to send samples of the different mediums to someone like Sherri and she could make a video of the machine cutting them and the results to show you? She would be the one who would know the machines the best and know what they can do and how to do it.