When cutting thicker cardstock, we first suggest making sure the cap you are using is the pink cap. Blade cover selection and blade placement are usually the most common issues with customers not being able to cut well through thicker cardstock. Please ensure that the fin on the blade is pointing toward the blue power light in the 3 o'clock position (as shown on page 11 of the Basic Instruction Guide). When the notch is faced in this direction and locked into place, the blade will be lowered slightly and thus able to cut thicker papers more easily. This is usually the most common problem when experiencing issues with being able to cut through cardstock.

If your blade is in the 3 o' clock position, you may wish to unlock and remove your blade anyway to ensure the cap is screwed on tightly and when placing the blade back into the blade holder, that the blade is seated all the way in the holder while it is locked into place.

When cutting thicker cardstock, we suggest adjusting one of the existing media types for thicker material, such as the “Index 90 lb” media type. The optimal settings are:

Cap – Pink
Speed – 3
Thickness – 33

If cutting on thicker textured cardstock, you may also opt to flip the paper over and cut on the non-textured side. Doing this may not require as much thickness force and give you a better cut when using textured papers. However, if you are cutting on the non-textured side with this method, you may wish to select your image prior to cutting and right-click to select the Mirror option. Doing a “Horizontal Mirror” will flip your image and make sure that it is usable from the textured side.

If you find for any reason there are areas not giving a clean cut, you may also wish to select your image, go to the “Edit” menu and select “Copy”. You will then immediately go back to your “Edit” menu and select “Paste.” Doing this will have the Silhouette cut your image twice, thus ensuring any problem areas are given an extra pass during the cut job.

Please note that the thickest material the Silhouette will cut well would be 80 - 90 lb weight cardstock, such as Bazzill cardstock.