Brother ScanNCut SDX85C Electronic DIY Cutting Machine with Scanner, Make Vinyl Wall Art, Appliques, Homemade Cards and More with 251 Included Patterns,Charcoal

I have not owned a Brother machine of any kind in decades! My last was a typewriter that I really liked. Lol. I spent a vast amount of time searching for my first cutting machine. I didn't want anything that required a paid subscription, which eliminated the more well-known brand and I was fine with that. So when I first saw a YouTuber demonstrating this Brother ScanNCut SDX85C, I felt like this was the way to go. The scanning ability was the first thing to grab me because I like having versatility. So even though most of my projects will be uploaded to my cutter by way of a USB flash drive, I know that scanning will offer a great alternative for templated projects and patterned materials to be stored onto my flash drive, then uploaded to my Mac for use. I have not used my SDX85C heavily yet, as I am still selecting proper materials for my projects, but I did create the enclosed gift/treat box and it came out perfectly. The instructions were easy to follow, placing and removing the cardstock from the included mat went well too. Each cut was clean and precise. However, I did experiment a little bit by making a tree that I found in the Brother library. I only had a lighter-weight cardstock on-hand and the mat ended up being too sticky for it. So it was a chore removing every bit of the design and excess paper from it, but that was the chance I took. Now I know for that particular cardstock, I'll need to use a light tack mat or find another solution. But I don't blame the machine or the provided mat. My inexperience caused that inconvenience. Plus, the cardstock wasn't coated or textured like the enclosed sample, so surely, that had a lot to do with it. Using the display panel has been easy to understand. There are many shapes and project guides accessible through the touch screen and the Brother CanvasWorkspace. One YouTuber who does how-to videos for Brother cutting machines demonstrated that there are more design options when working through the offline version of the CanvasWorkspace as opposed to the online version. My intention from the very start was to only use the offline version, so I was happy to hear that. I have plans to use my machine for creating projects out of many different types of materials so having the auto-blade included is such a convenience. With a cutting depth of 3 mm, that will be sufficient for every type of material that I can think of, that I would want to cut with this machine. Anything else that is thicker that I care to work with, is generally much harder, so I'd use a laser cutter for such projects. I love that there are two compartments inside of the door where I can store the tools that I will use most often. I can even fit my 8" bookbinding bone folders in the left compartment, along with my rotary cutter and other smaller tools. The cutting surface is an ample and appropriate size for everything that I currently have in mind to cut. Be aware that at times, the cutting mat will shoot part way out the back of the machine to readjust the alignment for certain sections of your material. So be sure to have space to fully extend the rear tray about 3" and another 4-6" for the protrusion of the cutting mat beyond that. Overall the unit does have a large footprint so plan for that. As far as noise, I find it to be at a level that is not bothersome at all. I actually enjoy the sounds of my various machines working hard on my behalf so I may be partial. But the sound definitely isn't overbearing or likely to drown out conversations, TVs, etc. To date, the only complaint that I have is that the mats are quite pricey, especially when compared to other brands selling as multi-packs for the same price or less. I wish that Brother would have also included a light, heavy-duty, and fabric mat. Perhaps the higher priced models do or you'd have to catch a bundling deal, which I didn't. Other than that, I'm not a fan of hard-tipped styluses. I prefer the soft, rubbery tips. So I bought a set to replace the included stylus and purchased some additional hand tools as well. I know that once I really dive in, I'm going to be using my cutter on a daily basis. I'm already planning to get the adapters for foiling and freehand drawing/writing, and who knows what else is out there to expand its already great level of functionality! I'm looking forward to all that I will learn about my machine's capabilities after all this time of dreaming up ways that I'd like to use it, and the multitude of beautiful items that will be created. So far, I am very happy with choosing the Brother SDX85C, and knowing the expansive lengths that my designing mind will go, I'm really hoping that this machine can take me there every step of the way.

i was on the fence about which machine to purchase when it came to the cricut maker and the brother sdx. after so much research, going through pro’s and cons of both machines i really leaned towards the brother machine. both being costly i really wanted to make sure i was making a good investment for my business. I love that the brother scans your image and sends it right to your computer where you can see what you’re working with on your mat. I print messages in specific fonts for card fronts, place the printed image onto the card mat, scan it in to my computer, and that’s where i place cut files over top of the printed image to create the perfect greeting embellishments. this machine can do way more than just that as well. this machine works amazing for what i purchased it for and i do not regret it one bit.

I literally had this set up and ready for use in less than 10min. Turned it on, stuck a template on the sticky pad and was scanning and cutting in seconds. No computer, no instructions needed. Its simple! The sticky pad was wayy too sticky for my liking. After cutting I would rip the paper trying to get it off of the pad. So I sprayed it with rubbing alcohol and wiped it down with a cotton pad and it took away some of the stickiness. Its perfect for what I need it for. I have a business and I use to hand cut my box templates for my soaps and labels etc...This scans and cuts it in literal seconds. I also wholesale my soaps and boxes. If you can imagine hand cutting and scoring 100+ boxes with a pair of scissors. This does it in seconds! Well worth the investment! I researched the silhouette and cricut high and low because they are cheaper. Was told by so many people to get the cricut but the deal breaker for me was needing to operate through a computer. Make your digital file in photoshop, load it onto cricut (also theres a monthly subscription for their software). I needed something that could just scan my design and cut immediately. Not draw a million lines on a computer and shade the parts you dont want cut etc... just seemed very time consuming and I do not have time. So happy I went with brother.

I have been looking at these for ages. I read blogs and reviews on Cricut vs Brother Scan and Cut and got Cricut Maker 3 for my first machine. It was AFTER that mistake that I realized that most of those are comparing OLD Scan and Cuts to the new Maker 3, which is beyond preposterous. It would be like comparing one of those old Expressions models to the newest Scan and Cut! In fact, the DX line came out in 2020 and Maker 3 came out in 2021, so there really isn't a legitimate reason for such a biased oversight, misleading people in a horrendous way. Anyway, I finally got one and it is amazing! I went ahead and got the Illustrator link so I can send my designs directly (seriously, directly) to the machine. Not only that, it cuts up to 3mm. Part of what you'll hear is that it's not as user friendly, people can't figure it out, but that's because it doesn't have the marketing some of the competitors do. There are plenty of very affordable and also plenty of FREE classes to teach you the machine. I haven't really taken mine yet as I use Illustrator mostly, with a little bit of Canvas Workspace. You CAN use this without a desktop, laptop, ipad or whatever but I would buy the cards with designs in them if you want to do that. All in all, this is a truly outstanding machine, don't let clever marketing fool you. Also, bad reviews are sometimes people truly not liking the machine and sometimes people expecting the crafting version of a dishwasher that magically finds, loads, and washes your dishes, then dries them and puts them away in the cabinet without you ever having to do much at all. Take a bit of effort, it's completely worth it!!!

I've had my machine for about 2 weeks now. I did a lot of research and watched a ton of YT videos BEFORE purchasing. I thought I'd be ready by the time I got it. Have read many many reviews and blogs too. Just so you know, until your hands on with the machine it's really hard to get it into your brain how it works and what it really can do. (At least my brain). I'm pretty tech savvy but even for me this is a very steep learning curve. There's things you need to understand 1. the machine interface - the options are willy nilly all over the place and so just memorize where things are because it's not intuitive at all and you'll poke endless times trying to find the option you need and go crazy. 2. You need to understand the mechanics, ie blade depth, cut pressure, speed and how to scan correctly, this takes trial and error and getting very familiar with the idiosyncracies of your particular machine. Because it's mechanical as well as electronic the settings for these things are going to be particular to your machine, the guidelines are your starting point and helpful but not the whole story. 4. You need to understand what exactly each option does and what it does not do. The manual isn't particularly helpful until you learn the lingo and exactly what you are looking for when you reference the manual, and it misses some details so you'll be searching for answers for sure. The error messages are opaque, just like on your computer but the manual addresses these. The machine does a fantastic job guiding you through some steps if it relates to actual cutting, say if you are foiling or embossing. Otherwise, your on your own. It won't let you cut it draw until you insert the right tool so that's nice for when you forget. (Brother has graciously unlocked those 2 features but you'll still need to purchase the supplies to use them, kind of spendy and embossing is a huge process to get through, I haven't even bothered to try this feature) 5. Sign up for, download and learn about Canvas Workspace. It also isn't very intuitive. The best YT videos on this are from Alanda Craft, Julie Fei Fan Balzer is good but she misses some essential details on the technical side of things related to this machine and it's software. Julie is great at demonstrating a project and you'll learn a lot from her. She goes fast though but her videos are short and so a rewind isn't a pain. There are lots of other scan and cut creators and all are helpful. 6. The Canvas Workspace has a ton of free projects and very nice ones too, also the brother USA site has lots and lots of free projects and even a very nice editing feature for many of them, these are all drawing files but you can import them to CWS as images and transform them into cutting files from there so if your looking for a nice card to tweak and personalize this is a great place. 7. Learn the difference between a draw file and a cut file. Your machine WILL NOT CUT a draw file and vice versa. So remember to save your file as either draw or cut if you don't want to be totally mystified as to why your final project isn't showing up on the cut/draw screen after you've imported it from CWS. 8. Use the Canvas Workspace as much as possible to create your file, the machine interface is really too small and limited for creating, it's great for on the fly though. It's REALLY EASY to send your file from CWS to your machine, I love this feature. 9. The mats are giving me no problem, I do a test cut first on new material and this saves the mat and my sanity. If a section loses it's stickiness totally I use the Zig glue to restick it and it works fantastic, see YT, I think Papered chef and Jen Blausey have really good videos. If I need more stick I just tape down the material, no big deal, just don't interfere with the rollers, you don't want to get your tape tangled up in the machine and mat registration marks have to be clear on order for the machine to read correctly. It's okay to tape over the rulers. I clean my mat with an alcohol free baby wipe. I really like my machine, I think it's very versatile and does a great job of cutting and drawing and I'm very excited about all of the possibilities a cutting machine offers and think I made the right choice to buy a Brother. I'm not a stamper and don't want to mess with dies or the expense of them. I called customer service yesterday with a question, got through in a reasonable amount of time and found CS to be friendly and responsive and very helpful. The scanning feature is wonderful so learn how to use it correctly, again a ton of videos on how to get the best results. I docked 1 star overall because this is a very intensive learning curve and I think Brother could do a better job with more detail in the manual. I printed out the manual and you need a printed manual for quick reference but this manual needs to be updated with the new updated features they've added since. Also I think a printed manual should be included because it's essential to have one, I didn't like at all having to print my own. I have 3 stars for ease of use but that's because of needing to learn so very much, 4 stars for the mat adhesion and 5 stars for versatility. As for my purchase experience, it was pretty rocky. The 1st machine I received had been used and the packaging was all messed up in the box and things were missing and the mat very used. So check your packaging very carefully and expect nothing less than brand new pristine. People return these things and the boxes are not always checked for damage or use. I was pretty mad because the delay put me way behind schedule and I was mortified at the condition of what I received, I'm not used to receiving things this way from Amazon, I use Amazon A LOT. The 2nd one I received is absolutely perfect and I'm very happy with Amazon's quick response in fixing it. I hope this review helps others, this is a great machine and they've even dropped the price 20.00 since I purchased it. The only drawback I can see is that we may not get all the updates going forward as they have newer (more expensive) models now and updates on older models are always eventually phased out so that's not a surprise. But it does all I need it to do but updates should factor into your decision on whether or not to purchase this model (CM350). If you go with a newer model my points still apply, I don't see any really difference in the newer models except higher scanning resolution, auto blade and increase of cut depth from 2mm to 3mm and quieter. All great new features but not a deal breaker for me. The new machines got the paper piercing and offset lines features added recently too, sad I didn't get those but I oh well. As for quietness, I don't find this machine to be noisy at all. Happy cutting! (You'll be walking around with tape on your feet a lot) 🤪

In May of last year I started a sticker business to pass the time during the stay at home order and it unexpectedly took off. I would spend hours cutting stickers by hand, and after much research between the Cricket and Silhouette Cameo 4 decided to get the Cameo on Black Friday (let me note that despite multiple searches for a scanner/cutter like this, this never showed up). Well, after a week of it failing to register & multiple phone calls to it support, it still wouldn’t work so I exchanged it for another one thinking that would help. Cut to three months later and hundreds of frustrated hours later and it still hadn’t cut a single sticker, even after buying a pixscan mat. This just happened to pop on my tik tok page of all places, and after some quick research the next day I took the Cameo back and ordered this. Within five minutes of getting it I had already cut the test pattern it came with, and was cutting stickers. My stickers are image based, and this reads it perfectly, and the .08 border seems to look best. There’s a few that have white spots towards the edge, so if upping the color reader to the max 20 doesn’t work (it rarely doesn’t) I just had to throw a quick 1 pixel border around them in photoshop, then set it cut -.05 inside said border and that also works great for keeping the white border look. Ive had this six days and basically cut my work time down by 80% and have cut thousands of stickers already. I did see some complaints about the standard adhesive mat it comes with being too sticky, but mine actually lost stickiness after a day, so now I use a tiny roll of masking tape on each corner then roll it down flat and its worked perfectly. The scanner glass is also very easy to clean if a stray piece of vinyl ends ip sticking to it after a complicated cut. There no wifi or software setup needed, which is also a great bonus as theres having to deal with registration marks. I can’t talk this up enough, and I wish I’d known about it months ago.

This item is a plastic paperweight. Despite the advertising, this item is incapable of cutting cotton fabric for applique. The only thing it could cut was the cardstock included in the box as a test run. Brother customer support is virtually nonexistent. There response was that the mat must be used to the point of needing to purchase a new one. It was a NEW one - straight out of the box! And don't expect to scan anything of your own unless you purchase a "scanning" mat that does not have adhesive on it which is not included. Brother is making hoards of money on people buying this because the amount of extra purchases to get it to do the simplest tasks is outrageous. Brother's end suggestion was to not only purchase a new mat, but also a new rotary cutting blade, and a mat for scanning. All this to cut simple items for applique. Total false advertising. If all you want is to cut their preloaded patterns on paper, then this machine might be the right one for you. Otherwise, look elsewhere.

After years of using a paper punch to cut round labels, i battled with adhesive gumming up the punch and the hassle of hunting down odd sizes so I ponied up the dough and splurged on this. I considered a cricut but the idea of paying for their software when i don't need it was nuts. Afterall, i have my designs printed and i just need a machine to find the edges & cut them out. Simple, right? I chose this base model since i don't need all the extra designs and features. Turns out this model has a ton of features...many of which i don't need but some that I didn't realize i needed but makes my life easier, like the "half cut" mode so it only cuts the label and not the backing. Anyway, once i got the cut pressure perfect, labeling became a fun job instead of an oppressive task. For those of us out there that run a small business and do it all ourselves, this machine is a lifesaver UPDATE: It's been almost a year since acquiring this cutting machine and I am still overjoyed. I am still on the blade that came with it as well as the tack mat.