I’m currently working on a HUGE vinyl project for my church. We’re creating a forest scene with animals on a wall 45 feet long and 10 feet high. This is the perfect time to use a roll feeder, since the pieces are really large.

Note: This post contains affiliate links. That means if you click the link and purchase something, I may receive a small commission. You pay the same price. This helps me to be able to keep my business going and provide more tutorials. 

What is a roll feeder?

The Silhouette roll feeder is a device you connect to your machine. It can help a great deal when you’re cutting without the mat, particularly on really long pieces. You put a roll of material such as vinyl or HTV on it to…

• …make it easier to keep the material feeding straight on long cuts.
• …keep the material from rolling off the table during the cut.
• …save material. If you can keep the vinyl on the roll instead of cutting off the amount you need, then you end up saving the 1″ margin at the bottom. That’s because your material has to be 1″ longer than the bottom of your design when you cut without the mat (see more about that in this post).

The same device works for Cameo 1-3, Portrait and SD machines. You can purchase one from Silhouette America or another reseller such as Amazon. Cameo 4s have a built-in roll feeder.

Some folks aren’t a fan of the roll feeder, but I think that’s mainly due to operator error. You can run into issues if you don’t set it up correctly, don’t have a good leading edge on your material or don’t load your material well. It works great for me.

I will say that the longer the cut, the more difficult it is to keep the material under the rollers during a cut. But that’s the same whether you use the roll feeder or not. That’s why the official word from Silhouette America is that you can cut materials up to 10 feet long on a Cameo or Portrait. It’s not that the software can’t create designs that large (you can go up to 196.850″) or that the machine has any limit on how long of a design it can cut. It’s that it’s hard to keep the material feeding through really straight past that length.

Unboxing the roll feeder

Here’s what the roll feeder looks like when you take it out of the box and remove the packaging:

The part on the top of my photo is what attaches to the machine. The roll of material goes on the lower part.

It comes with a cross cutter tool (the same one that comes with Cameo 2 and 3 machines). I’m not a real fan of this tool though.

Getting set up

The adapter

The first thing to check is the adapter piece. The feet of the machine sit into the roll feeder. Since different machines are different sizes and designs, the feet are in different places. Therefore, Silhouette provides an adapter. You only need to check the adapter if you have a Cameo or SD machine

The adapter should already be attached on the front of the platform but it does come out.

If you look closely at the photo, you can see the word Cameo above the rectangular hole and SD below the round hole. The hole that goes to the outer edge of the roll feeder platform is the one that corresponds to your machine.

This one is set for a Cameo…

…and this one is set for the SD.

I find it pops out pretty darn easily, so you may need to tape it in if it’s not staying put during the cut.

Notice the rectangular hole below where the adapter fits. That’s for the Portrait.

The foot on the left side of your machine fits into that hole. The foot on the right side of your machine goes into the remaining hole — round for the SD, the rectangular just above that for the Portrait, the rectangular at the far right for the Cameo.

So here’s the underside of my Cameo.

See the little black rubber rectangle? That’s the foot I’m talking about. The feet on the front of your machine are the ones that sit into the roll feeder. Be sure to get them both into the correct holes and really sitting in there. If they aren’t, then the roll feeder isn’t much help. They should click in. You can check by pulling on the roll feeder and seeing if it moves.

The outer guides

On the sides of the roll feeder are some guides (Silhouette calls them the “walls of the sliding material tray”).

Those need to both be up. Notice in this photo that my left one is down and my right one is up.

This part is really important! The right one moves in and out to adjust for the width of material you’re using. If you don’t do that, it’s not going to work right. This mark shows you where to move it for 9″ wide material…

…and this is for 12″.

(Ya, it’s not easy to see those numbers — white on white and really small).

The trick is that it also slides farther right than the 12″ mark. That’s actually going to be helpful in loading your roll into the roll feeder, but after you load it it needs to be in the correct spot. Practice moving it in and out a few times to get used to feeling it click in. It’s a pretty light click. When you’ve it aligned correctly, the inner edge of the guide is right on the line under the number.

Loading your material

The leading edge

Before you even load your material, you need to check the leading edge — the one that’s going into the machine. Not only does it need to be straight across, but it needs to be a good 90° angle to the side of the material. Don’t assume that a new roll is. I’ve purchased good quality material that hasn’t been cut accurately so I’ve learned to ALWAYS check. Here’s an example of a brand new roll of gray vinyl I purchased. At the top it’s almost even with where the blade on my trimmer will cut, but it’s much farther past it at the bottom.

Loading

Once you’ve got a good perpendicular edge, move your right guide out. Lay your roll of material into the roll feeder and push it all the way left.

There’s a knob that sticks out from each guide that goes into the center of the roll. It doesn’t click in or anything — just make sure your roll isn’t sitting on top of it.

Slide that right guide in, making sure it clicks into place. There will be a bit of play in the roll. In other words, the roll feeder isn’t gripping the material so tightly that it can’t spin.

Now you’re going to push the leading edge of your material under the top guide. It will go between that guide and the platform that has the ridges on it.

Push it through until it’s out the other side.

There is a channel in the front of the roll feeder that’s just like the one on the back of a Cameo. You can choose to slide the crosscutter tool in that channel to trim your vinyl.

However, I find that it’s hard to get a really nice perpendicular cut, which I why I recommended trimming before loading.

Now load your vinyl just as you would without a roll feeder. You can find more tips on loading and cutting without the mat in my series “Cutting Without the Mat Without Losing Your Mind” and in the Cutting Without the Mat Checklist.

During the cut

As the machine is cutting, it will roll your vinyl in and out as it normally would. The material unwinds from the roll as it’s pulled into the machine. But as it goes in the opposite direction, it does not always rewind on the roll. For example, here’s a roll of vinyl that’s 100 feet long.

Notice that it doesn’t rewind as my machine is cutting.

That’s because the tube is larger and the roll is heavy.

I always recommend staying in the room as your machine is cutting just to be on the safe side. It’s especially important when you’re cutting without the mat. You need to keep an eye on your material to make sure it stays under the rollers and doesn’t bunch up oddly in front of the machine. The longer the cut, the more critical this is.

After the cut

When you’ve finished your cut job, you can leave the roll in the machine to start your next job, as long as it’s still sitting evenly under the rollers. When you’re ready to take the roll out of the roll feeder, make sure to move that right guide out first.