Best Cutting Machine For Fabric (2021): Top Fabric Cutters From AccuQuilt, Cricut And Hercules

Quilting becomes much easier and more enjoyable when you can make the arduous process of cutting pieces of fabric simpler and faster. Thankfully, there are numerous fabric cutting machines available today with some truly standout features. To help you find the best cutting machine for fabric materials, we’ve compared three highly rated and popular products: the AccuQuilt GO!, the Cricut Maker, and the Hercules HRK-100.

Best Cutting Machine For Fabric Comparison

AccuQuilt GO!

Portable fabric cutter specially designed for quilting

Our pick for manual fabric cutting machine is the AccuQuilt GO!, a die cutting system that’s truly focused on helping quilters quilt. It’s designed to be portable and easy to use, letting you cut multiple layers of fabric accurately and safely. With a Starter Set containing everything you need to cut textile materials for a variety of projects, the AccuQuilt GO! fabric cutter is perfect for newbies and long-time hobbyists alike.

Top Features of the AccuQuilt GO!

If you’ve been cutting fabric using scissors or cutters, you’ll be amazed at how quick and painless this task becomes with the AccuQuilt GO! It comes out of the box folded for easy carrying, and you simply open it up on a table so you can begin cutting. A GO! Value Die is included in the package, providing you different cuts to choose from. You’ll discover even more patterns and quilt blocks in the included 20-page Pattern Book.

The precision cuts of the AccuQuilt GO! is impressive even when cutting up to six layers with one stroke. As such, you can prepare more than 60 squares in less than 30 minutes, which would otherwise take you hours of careful snipping by hand. There’s no arm strain or wrist pain when cutting either, since you simply roll materials smoothly through it.

Perhaps the only nitpicking we can point out on the AccuQuilt GO! Starter Set is that pretty soon you’ll want to get more dies other than the included GO! Value Die. Still, when you’re enjoying cutting instead of dreading it, you’ll love getting new tools to play with to enhance your creative outputs.

Should You Get The AccuQuilt GO!?

While it’s still considered manual cutting, the convenience and accuracy of cutting fabrics with the AccuQuilt GO! is well worth its price. You can focus a lot more on quilting and creating fantastic designs with this precision tool. Moreover, it’s highly recommended if you’re prone to wrist strains, shoulder aches, back pain, etc. Carrying it around won’t prove difficult either thanks to its portable and lightweight build.

Cricut Maker

Versatile and powerful cutting machine for fabric and other materials

Why cut manually when you can do it electronically? That’s what the Cricut Maker and its siblings want you to ask yourself, since these advanced cutting machines are capable of slicing through a wide variety of materials and presenting you with intricate pieces. With the included Rotary Blade, the Cricut Maker can cut virtually any type of fabric even without a backing material, simplifying the process immensely.

Top Features of the Cricut Maker

Easily the best feature of the Cricut Maker is its professional-level cutting capabilities. Once you’ve selected the design and placed the material properly in the tray, the Cricut Maker does everything else. The result is a perfectly cut piece ready for your final touches. Compared with manual cutting using scissors or die cutters, complicated designs become a lot faster and easier to do with the Cricut Maker.

There are hundreds of quilt blocks and sewing patterns available digitally from popular brands that are compatible with the Cricut Maker. It comes with a FabricGrip Machine Mat to keep your textile material in place while cutting. As it’s an electronic cutting machine, you’ll need to learn the interface and navigate the Design Space software in order to use it. This can be challenging if it’s all brand new to you, but with tutorials and a lot of practice, it should be smooth sailing then onwards.

Of course, as you well know, the other amazing thing about the Cricut Maker is its versatility. Aside from fabric, you’ll be able to cut plenty more materials ranging from paper, vinyl, and cardstock to matboard, leather, and balsa wood. You can also expand it further with additional tools to create engraving, scoring, debossing, and other decorative effects. With the included Pen, you can write on stuff, too.

Should You Get The Cricut Maker?

The Cricut Maker can greatly simplify the actual cutting of fabric itself, but it does have a learning curve if you’re not used to computer interfaces. However, it’s pretty easy to get into, and once mastered, you can create some pretty astonishing designs with it. Best of all, you won’t be limited to just textile materials. You’ll have a whole crafting world to discover with the Cricut Maker.

Hercules HRK-100

Smooth rotary cloth cutter for large volumes

Now, if you need to cut through large volumes of fabric at a time and aren’t too concerned about precision, an electric rotary cutting machine is the way to go. One of the best such tools you can get is the Hercules HRK-100, a multi-speed fabric cutter designed to slice cleanly and smoothly through multiple layers of textiles.

Top Features of the Hercules HRK-100

Hercules designed the HRK-100 with speed and safety in mind. It sports a 4-inch octagonal blade that allows it to move through materials without pulling them into and jamming the machine. The cutting edge is fully shielded by the die-cast body and safety guard to ensure your fingers are safe. It also has a built-in sharpening stone to maximize the blade’s lifespan.

Using the Hercules HRK-100 is easy. You simply prepare your fabric, layering them as needed, and run the rotary cutter through them. Its brushless motor has adjustable speeds to match the type of fabric you’re cutting, whether its cotton, silk, leather, or denim. You can even cut synthetic fibers, plastics, and carpets with it.

As you can imagine, the Hercules HRK-100 is well-suited for broad slices and large volumes, not precise and intricate cuts. You can use a metal edge if you need to cut in a straight line, but for the most part, it’s much better if you simply need to cut swathes of cloth. It definitely saves a lot of time compared to other methods, especially if you only have scissors on hand.

Should You Get The Hercules HRK-100?

Unlike the previous cutting machines recommended here, the Hercules HRK-100 offers a quick way to cut piles of fabric all at once. It’s definitely intended for different sewing projects than die cutting machines, but it’s the best tool to use when you need to prepare lots of fabric materials in one sitting.

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