Tami,
I have also wondered about those fabric cutters. I have seen on ebay where people offer a number of say 4" squares for sale. They must be using one of these and that is how they make money. (I was thinking of someone hand cutting the squares and thinking how can they be so accurate, duh LOL)

I have ordered some of those squares from e-bay and not all 4" squares are created equally!!!!!
I see them advertised in quilting mags and of course as a 'quilting junkie' I want one too.
Rosa

So far in my looking, I have heard from no one that has one...so you have to wonder. Maybe I will be brave and ask someone on Ebay. But they might worry I will cut into their business...but that is not the direction I was thinking :)

I will let you know if I hear anything good or bad.

I started looking into these at some point and became obsessed with the notion finding a die cutter or SOME "cutting" devise for accurrate fabric cutting.

Unfortunately, the main thing I found were drawbacks... But this is what I learned:

The Accucut looked very accurate and was spoken of highly. BUT you have to buy dies for every shape you need and the DIES are expensive (on top of the machine). So if you use the same size triangles/squares/etc. again and again it might be worthwhile, but if you are always looking for new patterns and want to be able to pick any size you want and maybe want a shape other than the usualy square/triangle -- you may not be able to get the die or you may pay a pretty penny for it.

There are some personal die cut systems that are designed for scrappbookers and seem cheaper but it seems they would waste fabric because the shape is cut OUT of the surrounding fabric. Also, it SEEMS they only do one or two layers of fabric at a time, and again, you need the dies.

I don't totally comprehend what a die is or how it works but I don't think you can make your own.

SO I started looking for laser cutting systems and other systems tied to a computer -- seemed to me if I could put hte shape in a computer and have the cutter plugged into that where it could then cut it out, that would be perfect as I could design any shape I wanted. WELL, the things I found like that said they did not cut fabric.

Lastly, there are laser cutters out there that would do this if you have 20K and a shop to store the huge thing -- they're really designed for commercial use.

SO SAD. I want to understand more about the die cutting process and I have a friend who works at a print shop so I keep meaning to contact him to see if he can enlighten me...

I looked into Accucut way back, I went to a scrapebook store and they showed me how they work on theirs, the dies are very expensive and for fabric you really have to buy the biggest cutter accucut sell,so I gave up bothering about one.
Gillian

American Quilter March 2008 has a full page ad for AccuCut GrandeMARK Fabric Cutting Machine. It says $575, Dies not included.
www.accucut.com has online demos.

Here is a link that might be useful: www.accucut.com

Well I have now talked with 3 owners of the Accucut. Each one loves it. There of course is a large lay out of funds. One has a business making tye die fabric and she said it paid for its self. Plus not a lot of items needed to keep it going. Of course there are lots of designs out there for the die. They even make custom ones.

One of those 3 had a friend make it. Then she purchased the dies from Accucut.

Honestly basic shapes and the machine will run about $620. They have started kits. Then dies can go from $30 to $150. So it could get into a lot of money.

I am going to try and get one...saving my pennys....haha Hopefully I can come back and tell you what I think soon. Did try to win one on Ebay...but didn't bid high enough.

I keep thinking that this is the type of thing a quilt store could invest in and then let people "rent" it -- go in with their fabric and pay by the hour to use it to cut pieces for their project.

But I've never heard of any doing that...

I bought a GrandMARK die cutting machine in August 2007. I am a beginning quilter...started about two years ago. I was becoming frustrated with my inaccurate cutting resulting in wasting fabric and pieces that didn't fit together well. I was ready to give up quilting as I just wasn't happy as to how my projects were turning out. I began looking for a die cutting machine as I had seen some die cut fabric on some websites.

I found accucut's website and found the customer representative to be very pleasant and helpful.

I bought the grandmark machine along with the 8" quilt block starter set. You can also buy a 10" or 12" quilt block set. With any of the three quilt block starter kits you can make 36 different blocks with the dies you get with the machine. This is a link to a two page pdf on accucut's website which shows the dies included in the set and the blocks that can be made with the dies.
http://www.accucut.com/images/documents/2006/MMQD.pdf

I am very pleased as it is a real joy to use. i find that I waste very little fabric. The pieces fit together so beautifully.

Some of the current quilting magazines have coupons which I believe can be used for up to 20% off on your order.

I agree it may seem a little pricey but for me it is an investment which has made my quilting hobby far more enjoyable.

I hope this is helpful,

Kind regards

Thank you for the information. I took a peek at your website and love the info on the cutter on there also.

I am going to get one. I hope my tax returns come back soon. I am very excited to be able to do more quilting and less time cutting..I always end up in so much pain for standing and cutting...

FFM

I just looked at the website and the GrandMark is around $600. For some reason I had it in my head that it was a couple thousand.

Considering I just recently experienced temporary insanity and spent over $200 on fabric in one sitting, I guess the $600 is really NOT that much. If I can control myself and stop buying fabric for awhile, ha ha.

Cutting is where it all starts to fall apart for me. Now you've got me thinking I want one of these again...

Wow! This thread has been very thought provoking. At first I thought a die cutter would be an extravagant expense.

Now, like Laurainsdca, I'm starting to think "Hmmm, this could make a lot of sense."

Especially since I have problems with tendonitis in my wrists. Even doing a lot of pressing where I'm turning the iron over (and over and over) again makes my wrists hurt.

Hmmmm, indeed.

CMC

Strange this item came again, I have a friend that does pretty much nothing but strip quilting and has made some lovely quilts, but like all of us her hands hurt so bad after cutting the strips she started buying Jelly Rolls but found them to expensive (she is on a very low fixed income) this morning she called me saying she had found some fabric sale online and was I still interested in buying the Accucut that she would pay me to cut her some strips if I brought one, of course I could never charge her. Will give the company a call today and see what total cost would be for the cutter and just the die to cut strips.
Gillian.

Keep us posted Gillian -- I'm curious to hear what kind of deal you get -- I've been thinking about this more and more since seeing this thread...

ok!! here,s is what I did sent SIL down to Wal-Mart and got him to buy one of these for my quilt friend she just loves it said she cut alot and no trouble with her hands.
{{!gwi}}

although our fabric dept left a year ago they still carry these things price around $20.00.

GrandeMARK Multi-Craft Cutting Machine from Accucut is on sale for $395.00.....

Here is a link that might be useful: Accucutcraft