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TIPS AND TRICKS: HOW TO CLEAN CRICUT MACHINE AND ACCESSORIES

TIPS  AND TRICKS: HOW TO CLEAN CRICUT MACHINE AND ACCESSORIES


Cricut is a super - power - tool that you can create hundreds of DIY projects such as: T shirt, tote, cards, etc,. Furthermore, you can make handmade products with many materials including paper, fabrics, vinyls, even wood and foil.  Due to the high amount of projects and products you make, they can leave a lot of dust and tiny particles  in your mats, Cricut machines and its cutting blades. Therefore, cleaning plays an important role in crafting with a Cricut machine. The big question is how to clean machines and accessories? 

In this post , we point out how to clean your machine and accessories effectively and the cleaning supporting products that you can use.



  1. Let’s get started with how to keep your mats clean. The most effective way is replacing it regularly. However, this idea can cost much more money, so I’d like to give you another way to protect mats. As you know, Mats are tacky, hence, they are easy to stick with dust and tiny unused materials that will stick on the surface of the mat. Cleaning the mat is a super careful skill which is needed for the crafters to avoid wasting money and resources. However, not all the crafters know the way to save their money on Cricut materials and they need to apply the wise ideas to protect their DIY materials from dirt. The most important thing is determining mats type.


  • Determine mats type: there are four types of mats. 
  • The blue mat: this kind of mat has a light grip. It can be used in cutting paper, thin cardstock, and vinyl. 


  • The green mat: it is a standard mat and available for medium - weight materials such as glitter cardstock and glitter iron - on, cardboard. 

  • The Pink mat: it’s specific for fabrics. For this mat, you have a unique care compared to other mats.

  • The purple mat: it can handle heavy materials like wood, thick cardstock, chipboard and leather. 

=> For the green, blue and purple mats, you can use baby wipes and tweezers to remove materials’ dust and scarp. Soap water can keep your mats clean. However, water and wet wipes are the enemies with the pink mat. The cleaning supplies for the special fabrics is transfer tape to remove fibers from sticky surfaces.


1, Transfer tape


As I recommended, with this tape you can be used for cleaning the Pink grip (mat). A fabric grid is a special mat that can stick materials though fabrics fibers stuck on. However, it can be dirtier than other mats when it works with felt. So using Transfer tape is a bright way to save your mat. 

How to use Transfer tape? It’s so easy to use. Let check some small step below:

  • Cut pieces of tape that fits to the mat’s size and place it on top.
  • Press tape into mat and smooth as long as the tape sticks well. 
  • Pull the Transfer tape up and then you can see the scarps come up with tape. 

This cleaning idea is appreciated by lots of crafters because it’s so easy to take and safe for mats and people as well. Even though each mat has scarper, it can make debris stickier and further into the adhesive. [ photo tape stick dust]


  1. Baby wipes

This can be consumed for mats except Pink mats.  After picking the bigger debris, baby wipes can push small dust. Remember to not use alcohol  wipes and try to wipe lightly. 


  1. Soap and water:


The trick of using water can remove almost the dirt on your mat. You just need to run your mats under warm water and use an old brush to release all the dust and dirt. If water is not enough for cleaning, you can get soap to soak. After five to ten minutes, you wash away the soap and leave the mat dry. 

Cleaning mats is so significant for a perfect project. You can use any tips you want to protect your mats from dust. I firmly believe that all the tips and tricks I gave are effective immediately. 




  1. How to clean up the Cricut machine

( Cricut machine)

Cricut machines are not the simple composition like mats are. They have many parts so the cleaning will be more complicated than that in mats. How many parts the Cricut machine has, as many parts as  we have to clean. Cricut machines can keep as much dirt and debris as mats do. The process of cleaning machines is more difficult so we have to use more supporting things to clean up. Besiding  baby wipes, tape, we need a Cleaning Kit, Canned Air, etc,. 

 

( Cleaning kit ) 

 

( Canned Air)

Before you start cleaning a Cricut machine, remember to turn off the machine, then open all closed parts of the machine. 


The next step is putting down the blades and tools. 

 

(Tools and blades)

 

 Open the storage tray if you decide to clean inside the machine. Now it’s time to use Canned Air. Because of Canned Air’s straw, we can easily clean and blow the dirt and dust inside the Cricut machine. When you open the storage tray, try to clean all the surfaces that you see. There are some corners where you can’t use baby wipes to wipe away the dust, you should use a cleaning kid to push all of the dust away. When finished cleaning inside of the machine, you need to reset all the things you open.

( Inside Cricut machine's overlook )

 

Now, you move to wipe under the machine. Let’s go back to the baby wipes. You just take some light wipes, then clean your Cricut blade. It requires carefulness because the blade’s  quite sharp and it can hurt you any time you ignore it. You use the baby wipes to remove dust on the blade’s surface and if it’s sticky dust and debris, you can mix the cleaning kit with your wipes. After cleaning, return the blade to the tool that you removed before.

(Cricut blades)

 

The next step is cleaning the clamps. Use the round bristle brush for cleaning out each of the clamps. 

(Clamps)

Next up, you clean out the Cricut pen. You still have the same brush like you do for the clamps. 

The following step is cleaning the Reat rod . It still contains dust or dirt, so you use a brush to gently brush away. 

( Brush)

Now, Clean the whole Cricut machine once again. Baby wipes are the best choice for this step. The pre final step is cleaning the outside of the machine. 


To finish cleaning, remember to clean the back of the Cricut machine.   

(The back of Cricut machine)

 

Thank you so much for spending time reading this post. I hope my tips and tricks can help you in cleaning Cricut machines so that you can easily save your crafting materials and create more valuable products.