Drive Housing:This type of housing is designed explicitly for Maker machines, and they differ from standard housing blades because they have a golden top gear that the Cricut Adaptive Tool System drives. Drive Housing blades have a plastic cover that should always be left to keep the gears clean. In our guide above we've selected our favourite Cricut blades, but there are 11 Cricut blades in total for the main Cricut Maker series. These enable you to cut, emboss, engrave and more across all materials from wood to metal, fabric and paper. Blades: They look similar to a small nail and are inserted inside the housings. Blades can be replaced when cuts are not as sharp as they used to be. Compare the angle differences between Deep Point and Fine Point Blade Fine Point Blade 45° Deep Point Blade 60° Bonded Fabric Blade

Cricut blades are very easy to change. Just be careful because they are very sharp, and I don’t want you to get cut.Blades are manufactured for precision and durability but will dull with use and will eventually need to be replaced. The remaining tools (Deep Point, Rotary, Knife, Foil Kit) can only be used with their respective housing. You can clean the Cricut cutting mat easily with our directions below and miss out Step 2, but we'd recommend doing the whole process as the Awesome Spray is incredible. Use this tool with a mat that will support your base material. For instance, if foiling on vellum, use a LightGrip mat; if foiling on poster board, use a StandardGrip or StrongGrip mat. Scoring Stylus Why you can trust Creative Bloq Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test. What is the best Cricut blade?

Inside the box you'll find one tip for trimming and cutting the foil sheets, as well as 12 sheets to experiment with. There's tape too, for keeping the foil sheets in place. Usually we find you don't need the tape, but in this case it helps as the metallic sheet can slip and slide. Make sure to keep the plastic cover for Drive Housing. This cover protects and keeps the gears of the housing clean. When you remove the cover, you are exposing the blade & housing to small particles like hair and dust.For blades and a tools with a little plunge at the top; just press it, remove the blade or tip with your hands, and insert the new blade with the housing upside down. For a full list of compatible materials, visit this article: Which materials can I cut with Cricut Joy machines? We love the Foil Transfer Kit and the extra gloss it brings to a project but it can take some getting used to, and with teething problems in your early projects you'll be glad of the 12 sheets in the box. In our Cricut Joy review with often needed to test things out with Cricut's small cutter. Although Cricut materials are expensive, pricing for replacing blades is not that bad considering all the lifespan they have. You can go almost a year with the same blade if you use your machine a couple of times a week! Let’s now move to each machine and blade you can use. Cricut Joy Blades Cricut Joy Blade Housing Transfer Foil Kit

The Fine Point Blade is the most familiar, and it’s included with all machines. It’s made out of German carbide, which is a highly durable and high-quality material most commonly used for cutting tools materials. However you decide to store them, make sure to put them way far away from your children’s – or anyone else that doesn’t know that’s a blade – reach. Frequent Cricut Blades Problems Breeze through DIY projects with this all-purpose blade. Compatible with Cricut Joy and Cricut Joy Xtra machines only.Housing: it’s what holds the blade in place. You don’t need to change the housing when your blade is due for a change. If your primary business involves working with Smart Vinyl, then the blade I’m referring to is quite useful in separating your cuts from the roll. However, if you mainly work with paper, then there may not be much need for this blade. Discontinued Blades The Foil Transfer Kit is compatible with the Maker and Explore machines and creates crisp and beautiful foil effects on your projects.