The first step is to click the setting button, which is currently in the top left corner of the screen, next to the home button. This placement may change with future updates. It is the three horizontal lines. When you click on this, a drop-down menu appears. From the drop-down menu click calibration.
You will then need to select which tool you would like to calibrate. For this demonstration I was using a Cricut Maker 3. The Maker machines can use the rotary blade, and the knife blade. So, I had these additional options to choose from. For today’s example I will be calibrating the print then cut feature, which the Cricut Explorer Air models can also do.
Cricut will walk you through each step. Just make sure to read each step and follow them carefully. The first step will be to print the calibration page. Make sure the correct printer is selected before printing. Once your calibration page is printed you will want to place it in the upper left corner of your mat. I used a light grip blue mat, since it is thin computer paper.
Once your calibration page is on your mat, hit the load button on your Cricut machine, then hit the go button. A light will come on around your blade. This helps your machine read the registration marks (black square around print then cut). The registration marks tell the machine where to cut and where your item to be cut should be located. So, the machine will locate and read this line first, before it starts to cut.
Once your machine is finished, do NOT hit the unload button. Look at how close it cut the middle square out, but do NOT unload your mat. Then select yes or no on your computer or other device depending if the cut was good or bad. My cut was not correct, so I clicked the no. Then click continue.
It will now make a series of cut lines on the dashes around the edges of the paper. Once it is finished with these cuts do NOT unload the mat. Look at the mat while it is still loaded in your machine and determine which line across the top and which line along the right side is the closes to being cut on the calibration line. Then go to your computer or other device and indicate which lines you thought it did the best job. The top will be numbered 1 through 20. The right side will have letters A through U to indicate which line you liked the best. So, for my test I thought line 7 was the best across the top, and line H was the best along the side. So, I selected these in the corresponding drop-down boxes on my screen, then clicked continue.
Now you can unload your mat and remove the calibration page from your mat. That was all the steps to calibrate your machine for a print then cut. Since my first cut, the small square in the center, was way off, it asks me to do a second calibration to make sure it is correct. I will follow all the same steps again. After I did the calibration a second time it actually asked me to do it a third time, which I decided to just close and not do. I then did a print then cut of a sticker, which was a lot better than the first time I did it, before I calibrated my machine, but it was still off. So, I probably should have done the calibration a third time to help it fine tune everything. I thought it was just in a cycle where it would constantly tell me to calibrate it over and over.
