plotter suggestions

[balloonguy]

Good morning,
My wife has a cameo for vinyl shirts like disney vacations and stuff like that. It works but it is slow and inconsistent. I feel like we need a machine that is geared to a business, not an at home hobby. Will you please share what you have? What you like? What you don't like? What you would have done differently?
Anyone using a printer/plotter for printable heat transfer vinyl? Do you feel like that cost can recouped on these orders of 1 - 7 shirts?
Thanks,

[Frog]

In the beginning, I had the folks at Wellington House (at the time, the exclusive West Coast Stahls dealer) cut the occasional needed vinyl job for me.
Then, for many years, I took advantage of a local friend and colleague's willingness to cut vinyl for me, (at the cost of a replacement blade or cutting strip every now and then) and enjoyed the feeling of not having to invest in a machine myself.
That said, I finally bit the bullet, and picked up a Graphtec CE6000-40, and have never looked back! Being able to produce my own, on demand, on my schedule, and not having to drive to pick up was a wonderful feeling.
Viscerally, for me, it paid for itself within a few days! As for financially recouping your cost on jobs of 1-7 shirts, that would obviously depend on just how many of these jobs you did, and how you price them.
How long to recoup $1200? (or a little more if you find that you need bigger than 15")

[mk162]

I would go 24" at a minimum.  Some of the vinyl we get is 17-18"

I don't know if I would look at it as a huge profit center.  It is great for the jobs that have one shirt that is too small to print and needs vinyl, or you need some names for the back of shirts and ordering them from Stahls will take too long.

It can be a life saver

[Sbrem]

Go for a 24" at the smallest, and if longevity is important, our Roland Camm-1 PNC1100 is 24 years old, and still cutting just fine.

Steve

[mimosatexas]

Go with the graphtec over the Roland in my opinion. Both machines are awesome, but the Roland software is horrible. Graphtec you can cut right out of illustrator with a plugin.

[balloonguy]

I like being able to cut from ai. Can I just google the pluggin or do I get it from graphtech?

[Frog]

The program I use with CorelDRAW, Cutting Master,  was downloaded from the Graphtec site.

[Maxie]

I’ve been using a Graphtec with Coreldraw for years.   No complaints.

[Sbrem]

Go with the graphtec over the Roland in my opinion. Both machines are awesome, but the Roland software is horrible. Graphtec you can cut right out of illustrator with a plugin.

I'll keep that in mind when we eventually upgrade. We don't use the Roland software, but a version of Flexi-sign from waaaaaayyyyyy back, running on a Mac Clone from Power Computing on Mac OS9... and we have a second or third generation iMac (the round one) that acts as a go between to the network. We've tried every adapter made to get the plotter to work with a more current OS, but, if it ain't broke...

Steve

[royster13]

A 1,500.00 to 3,000.00 cutter will easily pay for itself in a few months....While 24" is nice a 15" machine can do most of the clothing jobs that come your way...24" is pretty much a minimum if you want to do signs and banners....

[Homer]

more media options if you go bigger. 24" is the smallest I would go.

[balloonguy]

This one cuts almost 20"... http://www.graphtec.co.jp/en/imaging/celite/index.html
Do you guys with experience think this one is pretty decent?
Thanks.
Matt

[cbjamel]

This one cuts almost 20"... http://www.graphtec.co.jp/en/imaging/celite/index.html
Do you guys with experience think this one is pretty decent?
Thanks.
Matt

there is this one also. CE6000-60 PLUS
i have roland but could be better on some things. small letters esp.
shane

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

[Maxie]

I have the 6000, if you look at Stahls catalogue most of the film they sell is 20" so make sure whatever you get can cut at least 20".

[Frog]

I have the 6000, if you look at Stahls catalogue most of the film they sell is 20" so make sure whatever you get can cut at least 20".

Perhaps, but most of the film I get from Siser and Thermoflex is available in 15". Looking at my stash right now, I have 24 15" rolls and 3 Stahls 20"
My decision on getting the 15 was based on the fact that I chose years ago to get out of flat stock. So, besides the occasional car window sticker, all of my shirts do fine with designs limited to one dimension being 13.25"(the for sure safe actual cutting maximum due to the roller clearance)
When I do use a film available only on 20", I either bite the bullet and waste 5", or cut it into more efficient sizes.
That said, of course, in general, because often one doesn't know what they'll want in the future, the bigger the better, and the additional $600 could be well spent.

As for the "Lite" version Balloon linked to, I'd say if you are only jumping slightly up from your wife's Cameo in production numbers, it would be fine, but it is not the heavy duty workhorse the CE6000, in either size, is. For that matter, Royster claims great luck with some cheaper machines from folks like US Cutter. (btw, do you notice how at places like Harbor Freight, they often love to use American geographical-referenced brand names for their Chinese and Indian stuff?)