Machine is not cutting through my material (Older Machines)

Applies to Cricut Personal, Cricut Create, Cricut Cake, Cricut Cake Mini, Cricut Expression, Cricut Expression 2, Cricut Imagine. 

If your Cricut machine is not cutting all the way through your material or is only scoring the material, this issue can usually be resolved with some basic troubleshooting.

Cricut Personal, Cricut Create, Cricut Cake, Cricut Cake Mini, Cricut Expression

1. Ensure that you are using the correct cut settings.
2. Remove the blade housing. Ensure that you are using a Cricut brand blade. Then inspect the blade and blade housing and remove any debris that may be stuck to the blade or lodged in the blade housing. Make sure to replace the blade housing back into your machine correctly. Once clean, perform a test cut. If the blade and housing were already free from debris or cleaning did not help, proceed to step 3. 
3. Try an arm buoyancy test: gently press down on the black arms that surround the blade housing and then release them. Do they bounce right back up, or do they stick or rub in any way? If they stick or rub, please contact Member Care through one of the options below for further assistance. If they bounce right back up when released, proceed to step 4. 
4. Increase the machine pressure setting and try a test cut. If this does not change the cut result, proceed to step 5.
5. Increase blade depth by turning the dial at the top of your blade housing. If this does not change the cut result, proceed to step 6. 
6. Perform a hard reset on the machine. 
7. Retry your cuts with a new blade housing.  
8. If the machine is still not cutting through materials or is only scoring the paper, please contact Member Care through one of the options below for further assistance.  

Cricut Expression 2, Imagine

1. Remove the blade housing. Ensure you are using a Cricut brand blade. Then inspect the blade and blade housing and remove any debris that may be stuck to the blade or lodged in the blade housing. 
2. Make sure to replace the blade housing back into your machine correctly. If the blade and housing were already free from debris, proceed to step 3.  
3. Increase machine pressure settings, which are located in the Project Preview screen, and try a test cut. If this does not change the result, proceed to step 4. 
4. Increase blade depth by turning the dial on the blade housing and try a test cut. If this does not change the cut result, proceed to step 5. 
5. Try an arm buoyancy test: gently press down on the black arms that surround the blade housing and then release them. Do they bounce right back up or do they stick or rub in any way? If they stick or rub, please contact Member Care through one of the options below for further assistance. If they bounce right back up when released, proceed to step 6. 
6. Try a test cut with a new blade housing.  
7. If this does not resolve the issue, please contact Member Care through one of the options below for assistance.