I went into this determined to make it work for me. I spent a week and half cutting on it. I must say that it chewed up a whole lot of paper. I was able to get some acceptable cuts from it, that is if you don't mind things cutting a bit skewed and having tab chads. This was my first die cutting machine so I didn't know if it was the machine or the paper or me. I kept at it, but even when I got a complete cut without chewed up paper, either there were chips in the design or it was skewed. I cut a small piece of lattice and on the left side it came out good but as I looked over to the right, the holes in the lattice got bigger and bigger and the actual lattice got smaller and smaller. I tried everything, tabs, no tabs, inserting dashed lines in MTC to simulate tabs at various sizes. I did find that my results were better if I used a piece of card stock for a mat (so much for a matless cutter), but in the end, unless I was cutting something from the sd card that came with it, nothing cut well. That was a big problem for me because one main thing I wanted was to design my own patterns. I'm not going to give any review on the software that comes with the ecraft. I downloaded and installed it but found it lacking so never really gave it a chance. I already had MTC and was happy with the way it works.
Despite all the trouble. I was determined to make it work for me, but then I found myself already planning for my next die cutter and one morning I realized I was already researching other die cutting machines and still within my 30 day return policy. At that moment I decided it was going back. I immediately got out the boxes and packed it up (a challenge in and of it's self). I did some more research, read more reviews and ordered my KNK Zing that day. Yes, the Zing cost twice as much ($399) and uses mats, but I realized that I was not going to be happy with the ecraft and was going to end up spending all the savings in chewed up paper anyway.
My recommendation, to be kind I will say that the ecraft is an inadequate die cutting machine. From now on I will be referring to it as the ecrap. If you simply must try it, get it from somewhere that you can use it for a bit and still return it. Make sure you keep all the packing and take note of how it's packed so that you can send it back. I think the only way they are selling any of these is because people simply can't get them packed up for return.
I am very, very, very happy that I sent it back and over the top happy with my zing. I will write a review on my KNK Zing next, but for now I will tell you that, I LOVE MY ZING that was purchased at KNKUSA.
