Silhouette Electrostatic Cutting Mat for use with Cameo 5 and Cameo 5 Plus models - 12 x 12 (White)

After tearing a piece of cardstock off of the cutting mat that came with my Cameo, I decided to make the investment in this accessory. It is great for cutting paper and light cardstock.I have since acquired a set of cutting mats with different adhesion strengths, but I still prefer the ES feeder over these. I am confident that my piece will come away cleanly. And a bonus is that it is self weeding. Just lift the piece off and the pieces you would weed stay on the clear mat and are easily thrown away.

First off, I own a sticker business and have been using Cameo cutters since the original. The Cameo 4 was my workhorse - always turning out great cuts. I recently grabbed the Cameo 5 which, by the way is fantastic. I was intrigued with the ES Mat after seeing some youtube vids, figuring, if I get this bad boy, it will save some time instead of using the standard mats. WRONG.I had the everything set up perfectly. Nice flat static cling on the clear protective sheet, and the sticker sheet perfectly aligned and dead flat. My stickers are pre-laminated, so they're thicker than the standard sticker settings in Sil Studio. Now, usually, when cutting with the normal mat, I have 33 force and a depth of 8 for the blade, and the die cuts come out gorgeous. Using the SAME settings with my new ES Mat resulted in misaligned cuts, and the cuts that were aligned didn't even go fully through. How is that possible? Same freaking settings! I raised the depth to 10 and it still did the same thing. So, I wound up going through 5 sticker sheets and each one turned out just as bad as the first.I went back to the standard mat, and of course, everything cut perfectly again. The ES Mat is a train wreck. Between the huge size which need tons of space, and not one sticker sheet coming out perfect, I immediately returned it. The irony is, I realized I can knock out stickers faster with the good old mats than I did with this finicky joke of an accessory.

Best tool I buy , easy to use and save time , no need to use the adhesive mat any more

I purchased this to ideally cut without the curling and stickiness of a traditional mat. While the instructions are a bit lacking, it’s actually pretty easy to use and there are plenty of YouTubers showing how to set it up. It cut everything from cardstock to vynil to laminated stickers beautifully for over a week… and then it TURNED ITSELF OFF DURING A CUT.That ruined the materials, which is something I’m sure all Cameo users are used to—the occasional screw up; however, normally when the cameo screws up, it’s only the materials that get ruined. The machine makes horrible noises but there usually no actual damage to the hardware. The cameo is fairly robust… the electrostatic mat IS NOT.When the ES may turns off, it can cut thru the protective layer and damage the actual ES machine itself resulting in partial or complete loss of static to hold down anything. The ES will still turn on and shock when touched (if no protective mat is in place) but it may no longer be strong enough to hold something in place during cutting.I’m used to not babysitting the cameo when it cuts and when it screws up, it screws up (I usually account for a potential 5% to 10% loss of materials due to error). But if you get the ES mat, YOU SHOULD MONITOR IT WHEN CUTTING else risk it becoming damaged or broken.Because of this, I retuned the ES may and do not plan to buy it again until Silhouette addresses this issue (which honestly seems like a software issue). Buy and use at your own risk.

I had mixed expectations for this add on from Silhouette but I’ve used it on all types of paper, vinyl and it’s really a game changer!

Can't figure out why using the electrostatic mat causes inconsistent print and cut. When I use the regular mat, it cuts great on the same place everytime! Using this I can't predict where the cut line is actually going to be. No matter if I calibrate to fix it, it changes on me. Using different setting in the software like different mats don't work. I don't know if I just have a bad electrostatic mat accessory. Wasted a ton of material to figure out it was the electrostatic mat was the problem.

I wanted to give this a 5 but it's not quite there....yet. I don't typically post reviews but figured I would to share what I've done to mitigate some issues. I commonly see posted related to the ES mat turning off mid cut or not turning on anymore.Initially I thought it was a timed limitation; however, it's actually because of the connection port between the ES mat and the Came 5 being weak. While it cuts, the small vibrations seem to disconnect the mat electrically so it turns off mid cut. To mitigate this issue I just push the mat's base (from the edge by the power button) to make sure the connection doesn't break. Of course this isn't ideal and with being the first model, I hope Silhouette can improve this in their next model or provide a fix because this can (and has) deterred many people.Another thing I noticed was that the ES mat sometimes doesn't turn on when I push the mat's power button, even after power cycling the Cameo 5. To mitigate this, I disconnect the ES mat (using the top two release buttons) and reconnect it to the Cameo 5. I'm not quite sure why this happens but I hope Silhouette can fix this.Overall it's a great concept and convenient, especially for newbies like myself. I hope Silhouette works on permanent fixes to remedy these inconveniences.Hope this helps!

Do not turn away from your cut. The ES mat turns off every 30 seconds or so during a cut. My print and cut with registration marks was slightly off. It has potential to be a fantastic product, but it needs work. I love my Silhouette, but they need to work out the bugs.