*Precise* Origin Point

[1ring2_rule]

Hello all!
I posted this here, as I have a 24" Cougar, but I'm sure the question can apply to all cutters!

I'm looking for tips on setting up your mat and origin point *precisely* in as little time as possible.

I'm cutting my wedding invitations from pre-cut and scored A5 card stock. The design leaves an approximately 1/4" margin around the front panel of the card.
I'm having the darndest time lining this all up!! It is quickly getting tedious, and I am making many mistakes. Just a couple mm's off, and the card design is noticeably off-center and I need to start over. There doesn't seem to be a quick, intuitive place to set the origin point on the mat, there doesn't seem to be a clear alignment other than several mm's off the corner.

Any clever tricks in this situation? I think I have a laser, as, I can get a little laser light to turn on - has anyone made fake registration marks and used PnC for something like this? I'm a dunce with this machine's full capabilities, as you can tell!

Any tips or suggestions will be appreciated, before I lose my mind spending more time aligning than cutting!!

My only current solution is getting a longer mat to cut multiple cards at once, and, not taking the mat out each time I cut, but carefully placing new cards on the mat which is still secured in the rollers.

[Gigi]

First of all, since you own a 24" Cougar and purchased it on Ebay, we have no way of knowing if it is actually one of our machines. At the time we were selling the Cougar, it was sold by another who did not have the trademark for it and as such, was not using quality parts on many instances. We don't really know how these machines were made, so if you have one of those machines, it may not perform well - we don't know.

But let's assume for a moment that you do have one of ours. You don't say how you are cutting the pattern - if you are using origin or WYSIWYG which would explain the difference in cutting. You do not need the laser as you are not doing a print and cut - you just need the pattern to cut where you want it. Right? Part of the problem is that you are using precut and scored card stock. It would have been easier to do all of that with the cutting file, but this is where you are so.....look at the pattern and where you want it to cut. If you want it close to the edge, look at the part of the pattern that is furthest to the right. That is the line your machine will use when you set the origin. it takes the furthest point to the right so everything can cut to the left of the origin. So theoretically, if you are just a few mm off, set it to the right a few mm and it should be right. Practice on some inexpensive card stock first so you get a feel for where it is going to cut, or use your pen tool to draw it until it is where you want it. Once you know where to set the origin, you can leave it and mark the cardstock corner so you are always putting it in the correct place. I just looked at the design and since it is straight on the right side, you should have no issue, since your first cut is about 1/4" in from the edge of your card, so as long as you cut origin and NOT WYSIWYG, if you sent the origin on the corner of the card, it should be just fine. Hope that makes sense. LMK>

[1ring2_rule]

First - that's NUTS you know I got it from eBay, whoa!! And, yikes, I had no idea - things seem to be working smoothly so far, when there's not user error. I'll have to check the paperwork when I get it out of storage. It came to me in its original box, and the return address is KY Cutters - is that any indication? I couldn't find anything in search. Perhaps that is why I'm having "alignment" that doesn't make sense, to me. I've seen some talk of unauthorized machines - I regret the way I went about buying a machine 6 years ago!

On to the cutting - I have tried both origin and WYSWYG, and the machine seems to be cutting accurately, it's simply my inability to know where to set it accurately. I expect the origin to be where the blade is, visually - so if I adjust the origin to be over the bottom right corner of the mat, I'd expect the cuts to reflect that. When I try setting it, I just can't find that right point - where I *think* I have the blade over the corner, the cuts prove it is not. So I've been using a trial and error method of hovering the blade over an unmarked area of the mat, that's where the "corner" is, it seems. I'll just sharpie it, once I figure out where that point is. But I'll try origin again to the corner of the card, thank you

Thank you so much for your response!!

[Gigi]

I know you got it from Ebay because you put that in your profile when you signed up for the forum!

And KYCutters did NOT sell any of our machines and was an unauthorized dealer (it was all over the internet and our website at the time) so that could be exactly why you are having trouble and there is nothing I can do to help you with that. Even if you had a part go bad, our parts did not fit that machine and we no longer carry any parts for the Cougar because it is an old machine and we started manufacturing the Silver Bullet in 2012.

I am sorry I cannot be of any help but we have no way to support a machine that does not work like ours (from all we have heard and been told) and was not made to our specifications. I do wish you the best.