First off, I just received this cutter 3 days ago, so I haven't had too much time to really dig into it yet, but I'll give my first impressions and update later as I get more acquainted with it.Overall, the machine seems quite robust with a mix of metal and plastic housing. The stand seems sturdy enough to keep it from tipping over.Powered on right away and connected to my old laptop running Windows 8, yeah I know :-I. The Signmaster software that's included works really well. I didn't realize it was only the Cut + Arms program. For some reason I thought the disc included each program shown on the cover...that's not the case. That said, the Cut + Arms works great for what I need right now. I'm new to the whole vinyl cutting world and I was looking for something that could be used to cut out stencils for various wood working projects and being able to do the contour cutting and having that 24" wide option is golden. Making decals, stickers and heat transfer images is something I would like to do with it also and so far, it's working great. The Signmaster software is super easy to use and after a couple of hours messing around with it, I was able to create stickers and a couple decals with ease. Using the laser sight with the ARMS alignment marks is amazing when you're contour cutting the stickers...super accurate, just make sure you leave enough space at the bottom of your sticker sheet for the rollers to grab, or tape the sheet to another piece of vinyl or whatever, to make it longer, otherwise, the page might come out of the rollers trying to align with the marks. I'm sure anyone who's been doing this for a while already knew that, but I didn't.It took me some time to figure out that my blade force setting was way to low and the blade wouldn't come down to contact the vinyl when I started. I'm not sure if this is a defect with the machine or what, but it's working better with higher force. I had reduced the force to around 80g and have since bumped it back up to around 200g and it's cutting perfectly for stickers and single layer vinyl.I haven't tried any big cuts yet, so I can't say how well the roller keep things in alignment over big areas. I'd like to try to make a stencil for some cornhole boards to see how it does over a 24"w x 48"l cut. Once I do, I'll report back.So far, so good. I am really happy I went with this machine and having the laser alignment and contour cutting is awesome.
misbit 
