All About The Cricut Scoring Wheel & How To Use It

Learn all about the brand new Cricut scoring wheel and how you can use it to make perfectly crisp creases without cracks with your Cricut machine!

Cricut has just launched their newest exchangeable tool for the Cricut Maker, and it is awesome!!! The Cricut scoring wheel uses the Cricut Maker’s Adaptive Tool System to create crisp creases in materials, using up to 10X the pressure of the standard scoring stylus so you can make perfect, effortless folds with your Cricut! The Cricut scoring wheel has two different tips: a single wheel tip that allows you to score thin material like paper, and a double wheel tip that can score thicker materials like cardboard or coated paper.

All about the cricut scoring wheel 1

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All About The Cricut Scoring Wheel

The Cricut scoring wheel is an interchangeable tool that works with the Cricut Maker. (Sorry folks who have a Cricut Explore! The Maker has the Adaptive Tool System which allows you to not only switch out accessories in Clamp A, but also switch out the blades in Clamp B, and the scoring wheel requires the drive mechanism in the Adaptive Tool System to work.)

And if you’re still on the fence or still have questions about the Maker, check out my post answering all the common questions about the Maker!

But wait, there’s already a scoring stylus…why a second scoring tool?

Good question! The scoring wheels are a HUGE improvement upon the original scoring stylus. Instead of dragging a stylus over the material to score it, the scoring wheel actually rotates, like the rotary blade, to make a smoother, deeper score. The scoring wheel also utilizes the Cricut Maker’s Adaptive Tool System, which allows it to push into the material with 10x the pressure of the scoring stylus!

No more cracks in your materials, no soft bends…just crisp, clean fold lines every single time!

What materials can I score with the scoring wheel?

Anything from lightweight paper all the way to poster board and cardboard! Cricut has a full list of materials you can score with the scoring wheels here, but some of my favorites are:

  • foil paper
  • wrapping paper
  • cardstock
  • vellum
  • cereal boxes (use the double wheel)
  • craft foam (use the double wheel)

Wait, did you say “double wheel”?

Yep! The scoring wheel is actually two tools in one! There are three parts to the scoring wheel: the Scoring Wheel QuickSwap™ Drive Housing, a single wheel tip, and a double wheel tip. The drive housing is the piece that is actually clamped into your Cricut Maker, and, as the name suggests, it’s super easy to switch between the single wheel tip and double wheel tip. Just press down on the plunger at the top of the drive housing to release the tip that is currently attached. Line up the new tip and press it into the housing firmly, then release the plunger to “grab” the new tip and attach it firmly to the drive housing.

The single scoring wheel has a “01” engraved on it, and the double scoring wheel has “02” engraved on it, making it super easy to tell which one is currently attached.

There’s more information on each scoring wheel tip below, but your Cricut Maker is a pretty smart machine, and it will let you know which tip to use depending on what material you want to score!

Cricut scoring wheel single and double

Cricut Scoring Wheel – Single Wheel Tip

The single scoring wheel will be your basic go-to scoring wheel for most things, from regular paper all the way up to cardstock! I used it to make this awesome geometric paper vase cover out of medium-weight cardstock (80 lb) and it worked great!

In fact, if you’re looking for a good “first project” to help you get familiar with the Cricut scoring wheel, I strongly suggest these awesome vases. It’s a very simple project but it has TONS of score lines so you can really see how cool this new tool is!

All you have to do is load your scoring wheel into your Cricut Maker, load your paper, and let it work!

How to install the cricut scoring wheel

When the paper is scored and cut, fold your paper along all of your score lines. Make sure that you fold the paper so that the crease line you made is on the inside. You’ll see just how easy it is with the new scoring wheel!

Smooth folds in cardstock made with the cricut scoring wheel

Then glue the three pieces of paper together to form a cute vase.

Single cricut scoring wheel and geometric paper vase

The single scoring wheel makes a single, extra-deep score line on your material so that you can create a crisp, clean fold. The Cricut Maker will tell you which wheel to use, but in general you want to use the single scoring wheel on thinner materials up to 80 lb cardstock. For anything thicker, you want to use the double scoring wheel.

Cricut Scoring Wheel – Double Wheel Tip

Just like it sounds, the double scoring wheel creates two parallel creases in your material instead of just one. The double creases allow you to easily fold thicker materials without cracking the outside of the material.

The double scoring wheel is especially awesome for “coated” materials like sparkle paper or foil paper where there is a coating on one side of the paper. If you try to fold these materials, the coating usually cracks, revealing the white paper underneath. But with the double scoring wheel you can prevent those cracks!

I made these cute 3D paper stars out of foil paper and used the double scoring wheel to score the creases…no cracks! I’ll share the full tutorial and design file for making these stars in a few weeks, stay tuned. 🙂

How to make 3D paper stars with the Cricut scoring wheel

IMPORTANT NOTE: When using the double scoring wheel, you always want to put your material “pretty side” down on the mat before cutting. You want to fold into your score lines, and this allows you to score the back of your material so that the smooth, un-cracked folds show up on the pretty side of your finished project. If your project isn’t symmetrical, make sure you mirror your design before you send it to the Cricut, just like when working with heat transfer vinyl.

Still have questions?

Cricut has tons of info in their Help Center! They have a full list of FAQs here, and a quick tutorial on how to swap between the single scoring tip and double scoring tip here.

And don’t forget to check out my other Cricut tutorials and project ideas!

I hope this list helps inspire you to make some new projects with your Cricut! If you’re brand new to Cricut, check out some of my beginner tutorials:

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Disclosure: I received compensation from Cricut in exchange for my participation in this campaign, and my honest discussion of their new products. But the Cricut scoring wheel is seriously amazing and all opinions in this post are 100% my own. I would never write a post about something I didn’t think was useful or interesting for you guys, and Practically Functional will only publish sponsored posts for companies or products I love and believe in! 🙂

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.

Jessi Wohlwend

I believe that anyone can do crafts and DIY projects, regardless of skill or experience. I love sharing simple craft ideas, step by step DIY project tutorials, cleaning hacks, and other tips and tricks all with one goal in mind: giving you the tools you need to “do it yourself”, complete fun projects, and make awesome things!

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Reader Interactions

  1. Melody Haring says

    4 years ago

    Your post on scoring wheels was VERY helpful! Thanks

  2. Konstantin says

    4 years ago

    Thanks for the guidelines! How do you fold “outwards” if all scoring lines are on one side?

    • Jessi Wohlwend says

      4 years ago

      The scoring lines are all on one side, but you still can fold “into” the score or “away from” the score. Basically if the scored piece of paper is laying flat on a table with the scored surface facing up, folding “inwards” or “into” the score would mean folding the paper so it stands up. Folding “outwards” or “away from” the score would mean lifting the paper up and folding it down so that the folded part is pointing down towards the table.

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