[WANTED] Vinyl Cutter

[mimosatexas]

I am starting to get a lot more orders that would benefit from a vinyl cutter.  In the past I have either made transfers or outsourced the cutting, but I am ready to just grab one for doing it in house.  I was wondering if anyone was selling a high quality used one, or had insights into what's being offered new.

I honestly don't want to spend a ton, so if there is a lower quality but capable new unit out there, say in the $500 range, I am open to it.  I also know everyone always says to buy the widest you can, but I really don't see needing to do very large cuts in house so even a 15" model is likely completely fine for the time being.  This will almost entirely be names/numbers/one offs on shirts.

[Socalfmf]

i have a 48 inch cutter for sale...it is a roland signmaker 2.  $400.00 and you pay shipping

sam

email sam at palomarprinting dot com

[mimosatexas]

48" seems like overkill.  I assume I can use a shorter roll on it though of course.  How old is it?  Does it have any issues with small detail or any software related quirks etc.?  I know roland makes great machines, just curious.

[royster13]

You will regret getting a 15" cutter......

For 1,000.00 i like this one....http://www.heatpressnation.com/gcc-expert-pro-vinyl-cutter-plotter-24.html  I do not own this model but my other GCC cutters have served me well....

But for sure look at what Sam has....

[Sbrem]

My Roland is 21 years old, and still works great, it's a 24. When we bought it, it was for cutting positives out of Rubylith for all the election sign work we did back then. Now it's mostly names, and some custom numbers, and one customer that uses a reflective vinyl of a few thousand shirts and jackets a year. I will definitely recommend Roland any day, and it's true that if you get the 15", something will come in the door that will require larger...

Steve

[Gilligan]

I have a graphtec 15" cutter for sale... Has the optical eye for print and cut.  We just wanted to get a bigger one.  We tried the Roland versacamm and my wife HATED it! We went back to graphtec!

[mimosatexas]

PM me the price if you don't mind Gill, and the year etc.  I can pick this http://www.rivercitygraphicsupply.com/products/details/graphtec-ce6000-40-15-plotter up locally new, so would be looking for a deal, but just let me know.  Thanks!

[Rockers]

Get a Mimaki 75 cm wide cutter. That will allow you as well to dye cut stickers at high speed, if needed at one point. Summa would be nice too though. But yes the Mimaki cutters are top notch. As mentioned earlier I would not go for anything that can`t  use a roll of vinyl. 15" width is a no no

[Shanarchy]

PM me the price if you don't mind Gill, and the year etc.  I can pick this http://www.rivercitygraphicsupply.com/products/details/graphtec-ce6000-40-15-plotter up locally new, so would be looking for a deal, but just let me know.  Thanks!

For the extra $100 this is a no-brainer. http://www.signwarehouse.com/p-M-PLT-VE-QE6000.html It's made by Graphtec. You can find these used a lot as this model is a very common starting point and people upgrade. This doesn't have ARMS, but I really doubt you would be using that on a 15" cutter.

Do not go under 24". There are some heat press vinyl that we use (glitter, and subli-block) that is sold in 20 and 24".

[Ripcord]

If the cutter has pressure feed rather than tractor feed, it won't matter what size vinyl you buy because you can cut pieces just large enough for the image you are cutting. If you are just getting the cutter to do T-shirts, there is no reason to buy anything larger than 15"

I'm going to buy a 24" cutter next, but I've used my 15" cutter to make some pretty large signs, including this one.

(edit) If you plan to do very large images on your T-shirts you might need the 24". My cutter can do an image 10 3/4" wide by as long as I want (for all intents and purposes...I'm sure there's a limit but it's several feet.) Most customers that want to order one or two shirts just want text and maybe some simple graphics on them. If the order is for more than five shirts I'd rather screen print it.

[Denis Kolar]

I started looking into cutters at the end of 2012. Started looking at GCC.
After a bit of time researching, ended up with a brand new Graphtec CE5000 (Now CE6000). 24" wide
Paid it off in 1.5 months.
After 9 months sold it for $300 less than what I paid for it and bought bigger one. Now I have Graphtec FC8600-130 (54" wide)

After dealing with them for a while, my order of quality cutters would be:
Summa
Graphtec
.
.
Roland
.
.
.
.
.
Mimaki and Mutoh
.
.
.
.
Everything else.

Good luck

[mimosatexas]

Where have you made the most money with your cutter Dennis? Just curious...

Right off the bat I will be doing lots of names and numbers for school stuff, which I am more than happy to do.  I also have some interest in rhinestones or faux stone material.  I really want to avoid signs since they take up a lot of space that I just don't have right now, but if it is worth the money...

[Denis Kolar]

Then you will be disappointed. Signs
I was pretty lucky that I knew a guy that has a trucking company. They asked me to do some signs and i used Homer few times before I bought the cutter.
In the meantime, my buddy bought 5 trucks and 11 trailers that he needed the signs for. That job paid off the cutter and all material.
If you have a 24" cutter and a regular sized table for weeding and masking, that is all you need.
Store all the 24" rolls under the table and off you go.
Now, I have 60" HP L 25500 printer, 54" Graphtec cutter and 55" laminator. built myself 5'x10' work table with a cutting mat on top.
So far this year, I sold more signs that garments.
It helps when you get one job to do 28 trucks

[ZooCity]

Dennis and others, which do you think is the creme' de la creme' of small format (24-30") cutters? 

We'd like to bring this in house someday but aside from figuring out where the hell to put the cutter and all those rolls of material, I would need a really high quality cutter as a lot of the materials like Premium Plus, etc. seem like they would be a bear to cut without a really good machine. 

[Denis Kolar]

If you are going to just cut vinyl, without the need of contour cutting, Graphtec will cut anything. CE model has 400g max pressure, FC has 600g which is max on the cutter and it is enough for reflective stuff (hard).
If you need a contour cut, Summa is better. I went with Graphtec because I did not have enough money at the time. If I buy again, will go for Summa.