Difference cheap and expensive cutters

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Hi there,

we are in the process to buy a new cutter for vinyl.

What's exactly the difference between a cutter for $399.00 and one for $3.000 and more??

Thank's for help

Michael

[Stlouistech 2]

Hi there,

we are in the process to buy a new cutter for vinyl.

What's exactly the difference between a cutter for $399.00 and one for $3.000 and more??

Thank's for help

Michael

Hello,

I am new to the cutter side of things as well, but as I have read several posts on this forum about the quality of cutters. It really boils down to what you are going to be doing with the cutter.

On the top right hand side of the forum you can search. If you search you will find several posts about individuals comparing the cutters. I am sure an expert will chime in here as I am just a newbie when it comes to all of this. I can tell you I have learned a lot from the old famous Search button on the forum.

I don't want to get off as being an @$$, but the search button is nice to use!

[BannerJohn 1,324]

The main difference is reliable tracking and ability to cut small details. But you can get a top quality cutter for around $1500 in a 24" size. For average cutting, the cheaper ones will do the job.My first cutter was $400 and it's still going strong after 4 and a half years of every day use in a full time sign shop. And I have successfully cut text as small as 1/4 inch.

If money is not an issue, I suggest the graphtec:

http://www.uscutter.com/Graphtec-CE5000-Series-Vinyl-Cutter_p_125.html

If money is tight, the lower end cutters with a Clean Cut Blade (search on here) would be a good substitute. I hear that the Clean Cut Blades make all the difference.

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Thank You StLouistech for your advice................

Special thanks to BannerJohn, this was very helpful for me.

We will go with a "cheap" solution from USCutter.

Michael

[BannerJohn 1,324]

On a side note..I have a refine and a Creation Pcut. I like the pCut better. IT's a bit more but worth it in my opinion.

[Dakotagrafx 7,297]

On a side note..I have a refine and a Creation Pcut. I like the pCut better. IT's a bit more but worth it in my opinion.

+1

[rrc1962 0]

Probably the biggest difference is that the high end cutters are servo driven where the cheaper ones are stepper driven.  Servos are capable of maintaining accuracy at higher speed.  In a stepper system, when the drive tells the motor to move 1000 steps, the drive doesn't know if it actually did.  The drive just puts out 1000 pulses and expects the motor to respond.  If the stepper motor stalls for some reason, the cut will be short because of the missed steps.

In a servo system, the motors have encoders that feed back to the drive.  The drive tells the motor to move 12" and as the motor is moving, the drive is reading the encoder to see how far it actually did move.  You can stall a servo motor and it won't cause a problem in the cut.  Servos are also smoother than steppers because they are just DC motors and do not move in steps. 

In the real world, stalling motors only happens when the motors are undersized or there is some other mechanical problem.  I've had stepper driven CNC mills, lathes, routers and plasma tables and I've only seen motor stall when there was a mechanical problem or operator error.  I used to mill parts for an aerospace contractor on an old Bridgeport that I converted to CNC using steppers.  Those parts had to pass QA and had a tolerance of +0.0005, -0.0001.

I guess my point is that steppers aren't a bad way to go as long as the system is designed properly.  I think for $299 the Refine cutter is a fine machine and has cut everything I've asked it to cut with no problems.  For $1500 I'd expect a lot more.  I guess it's no different than anything else.  Buy the best machine you can afford.  A $299 Refine will work and make you the money you need to buy a better one.  Actually, the cutter in the only piece of equipment I've ever purchased that paid for itself in the FIRST job.

[firemalt 10]

Precision...