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ANTONIUS

ADVICE ON PURCHASING DESKTOP CUTTER/PLOTTER

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Hello, I'm Jim Antonius from Prescott, Az. I am a full time glassblower/educator and in the market for a desktop cutter that has the capability to cut sandblast resist. I will then apply the resists to my product, typically curved surfaces,then sandblast and either glue chip,paint,  gild,or  copper electroform the etched surfaces. Price range $200-$600.00 or so. In the past I have been hand cutting all of my resists but would like to take advantage of the cutters, since it is so time consuming and difficult to hand cut very small detail.

I have briefly looked at the 15" Craft ROBO and the STIKA SV 12 but am unsure which direction to go.!

I will be using a Mac Pro Intel Xeon computer, OS X, 5 GB, with Photoshop CS2, CS3. so I need to buy a plotter that has compatible software for the MAC. I hope the info I've provided isn't too vague, if so, feel free to ask me additional questions. Thank You for any info or guidance you may provide,

Jim Antonius

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I had a Craft Robo. Don't buy one! Reasons,unless things have changed:

Software that comes with it is very limited. In a word,it sucks.

The blade holder/blade is one assembly. You can't just buy a blade for $5-10 you have to buy the entire assembly.$35

Pinch rollers NOT adjustable...the vinyl you cut has to be between 8.5-10.5 inches wide or you have to use a carrier sheet ( very expensive too and they do wear out fast) The craft Robo was designed for scrap-booking.

Stika---I have no idae but probably the same.

For your price range you can get a very nice desktop cutter or even 24 inch cutter without teh stand..with excellent software,directly from the US Cutter store. Or from US Cutter on ebay. They have 2 (I think) different small desktop cutters.

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I'm with BannerJohn on this one.  I had a CraftRobo for a short time also.  Blades are expensive, they wear out quickly, the plug-in for Mac is written by a third party, which worked well with CS2 but not so good with CS3.  They are also very limited in the size media they can handle. . It got me started doing some small business, but I quickly outgrew it.

I'm running a Laserpoint 24, using Illustrator CS3 and SignCut on a MacPro Quad 2.6, 8 GB Ram, OS X 10.5.2.  A keyspan Serial to USB converter is a must.

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"I'm running a Laserpoint 24, using Illustrator CS3 and SignCut on a MacPro Quad 2.6, 8 GB Ram, OS X 10.5.2.  A keyspan Serial to USB converter is a must."

I have an iMac 2.0 intel with CS3. I want to do the same set up with you and the Laserpoint 24. How do you like the SignCut for tracing graphics?

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Guest garysigndesign

ANTONIUS,

If I understand you correctly you do relief glass etching. My name is Gary Karm and I have been doing cameo art glass for 20 + years with Chuck Boux , Duncan Mc Clulin and other hot glass artist out of St. Petersburg , Florida. My work has been displayed in the corning glass review twice 2001 and 2006 please contact me regarding what your goals are in glass and how you plan to obtain your goals or if you have any questions regarding masking etc... Sincerely, Gary Karm    garysigndesign@yahoo.com email me Gary Karm out....

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