Sign in to follow this  
tomlar1977

Stika or GX-24 / CE-5000 for a new (hobby) business

Recommended Posts

Hi there!

I'm starting up a shop, based 95% on internet ordering, and I will be offering various ordinary things like letters for mailboxes, funny stickers for cars etc. After googling a lot, I've come down to the three machines mentioned in the subject. If money was not an issue, there would be no doubt that one of the 2 24" machines would be my first pick! I will be starting on a hobby basis, so when I compare these machines, I have a few questions / infos, just to know if the Stika will fullfil my needs:

Speed will not be an issue - since I will be selling via the internet, most of the jobs will be 1 to 1, so that the machine is able to produce 200 equal stickers i no time, that is not something that's going to sell it alone for me.

The price of materials in 15" compared to 24" is way too high here in Denmark, actually I found several shops selling 24" rolls cheaper than 15" (I know this has to do with the cutting of the large rolls) - but as I see it, if the materials are so damn expensive compared, I assume it wouldn't take long to earn the extra money spent on the larger machine?

Is the cutting quality of the Stika good enough, compared to the other two? I can see that there are no real options for setting the blade on the Stika?

I run Mac with Illustrator (being in the graphic business as my dayjob), so Illustrator compatibility is a must!

I know that on the 24" machines, I can run jobs that are +10 meters, but again, I wouldn't need it normally, since I'm not interested in people showing up for doing a complete car / truck job in one piece!

As you can see, I'm only in love with the price of the Stika, but would really like one of the other machines, except if one of you tell me that I would be better with the extra money on my bank account :)

If the Stika is not good enough, which one of the GX-24 or CE-5000 should I get? I must admit that I'm quite picky about quality of the jobs done, would rather pay a few hundred bucks to be able to deliver the real quality, than saving it here and now (I'm working in a digital print business as my dayjob, using NexPress and HP Indigo). I would like answers to be influenced by knowledge and experience, and not religion - I've been googling GX-24 vs CE-5000, and most goes like "I've never used anything that xxx, and I'll be doing it till the day I die"!

Please feel free to ask about anything I've unintentionally forgotten to tell / ask for!

/Tommy :)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Throw a dart and pick one. Both great machines. My dart and most users here had their darts land on graphtec.

Mark

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this