Cutting Fabric with a Seklema Mat

I purchased the 12x24 inch Seklema mat. I trimmed it to 20 inches (surprise, its not a true 24!) It fits nicely in the crumb tray. I used a 100% quilting cotton and the fusible is Soft Fuse, very light weight and thin. I used the set focus tool and my settings were as follows.

Speed 500
Precision Power 80

It cut quickly with no flare ups.
The mat is cut as well but just slightly almost hard to tell unless you look closely.
VERY pleased with the results :slight_smile:

I also cut fusible backed flannel without issue. No scorched edges no flare ups it worked great :slight_smile:





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I can’t wait to see your quilting creations!

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Awesome! Thanks for updating us with your results. I was hoping it would work out for you.

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Nice! Thanks for sharing this experiment and your results. Looks like it turned out great!

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Thank you for sharing your results and the settings you used. I’m excited to give it a try.

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Make sure you share! Would love to see what you do! :slight_smile: You can always send me pics at deb@thequiltfatory.com :slight_smile:

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I couldn’t be happier. I spent HOURS using tiny map magnets to hold the fabric down to keep it from scorching, burning or flying away. This…MINUTES!

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www.thequiltfactory.com ! Lots of fun appliqué projects :slight_smile:

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After spending $180 with shipping? Me too!!! lol I had a feeling it would once I opened the box, I placed the fabric on it and turned it upside down and it stuck :slight_smile:

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I too love my Seklema mat. I got the smaller one to save some money, but wish I had went for the bigger size. I use it for cardstock and weeding, just pull off the piece I want and let the mat hold on to all the unwanted pieces. Saves hours of painstaking work and all you have to do is hold the mat under running water to wash away the debris.

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NO!!!

Cricut mats are PVC. The chlorine fumes will destroy your machine, and are also extremely hazardous.

(edit - this was in response to a post saying they were going to test using Cricut cutting mats, which has since been deleted)

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Was actually just doing some reading first to check it and stopped to come back and delete this post! Thank you!

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DO NOT TRY THIS, as another poster pointed out and I found out doing some reading, Cricut mats are made of PVC and cannot be safely used with a laser :frowning:

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I have 9 of the 24" mats. Years ago I bought a “pack of three” and Amazon sent three packs of three each. I contacted them as there was no way I needed that many, but they said the cost of shipping them back wasn’t worth it, so just keep them. :grinning:

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The Cricut mats are made of PVC, DO NOT USE THEM IN YOUR LASER!

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You’re posting this to the person who told you not to do it, so the information is being repeated and going 'round and 'round.

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And I have deleted the post saying I was going to try it AND posted warnings to those who replied to it…not sure what else you want me to do. I have tried to delete my ENTIRE post and cannot figure how to…so please back off.

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We try to keep this a friendly place—no need to get snippy when experienced users are just trying to help you understand how things work. Nobody can tell a comment has been deleted once you delete it, so getting upset because they didn’t know doesn’t make sense.

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And you have no idea what my tone was, it was an asking tone not a nasty tone, I already felt bad enough that I had posted what I did BEFORE I did the research myself…I had ALREADY been trying to remedy it and being scolded was not needed.

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It’s no big deal. I left my response because the person who posted above me also referenced Cricut in response to the post that was deleted, so I wanted there to be no confusion.

I’m glad you researched, and hopefully saw the pics of what cutting PVC and vinyl can do to laser cutters. There was pne person who used it to cut a vinyl record, they are popular on ebay and such. One cut killed their machine.

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