New cutter

[Molan_Labe 38]

Hi Y'all,

 

           I'm in the process of getting the Mimaki  CG-SR III 54" in the next couple weeks. Looking for some feed back from anyone that has one.

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                           Thanks, John

[slice&dice 2,450]

Having a 54" cutter will certainly allow you to deal with 48" wide vinyl.

 

Most folks here get by with the 24" (or 30") width machines.

Main reason?  Handling 48" vinyl is a challenge and requires some wrangling and plenty of work space.

 

 

You have said you know what you're doing, so perhaps that's the right choice for your new operation.

[Molan_Labe 38]

Yes sir, I used to do full tractor trailer wraps and buses. I've done a lot of handling of big graps. I'm trying to get back into that again but with my own company this time. I want to start out with just solid cut graphics and work my way into the Mimaki CJV 150/130 printer cutter later on down the road.i used to wrap vehicles, signage, wall murals, tractor tailers, tour and city buses, airplanes, a few nascars, etc.

 

 

 

I was checking out the Mimaki products and was just looking for in site on the equipment.

[Wildgoose 4,200]

I don't know much about the Mimaki. You might look at the spec sheets. Here are those for the Mimaki, Graphtec FC and SummaCut. The Mimaki has pretty good downforce at 500g. The FC has 600g which would be nice for sandblast resist but if your just cutting vinyl then probably not a factor. The SummaCut only has 400g (you have to step up to the tangential machines to get high pressure). The FC out tracks the Mimaki  at 0.1mm in 2M repeatability vs the Mimaki at 0.2 in 2M. Summa wins here with 0.1mm in 8M. Both of the others appear to cut faster (although I cut way way slower than the machine will so I never put a lot of stock in top speed)

 

I don't know what they cost as compared to the others but the specs aren't that great so unless there is a definitive compatibility advantage later on when adding a printer it might be worth thinking it over. I was originally aiming at a 30" FC machine but heard about Summa and did some investigating and found them to be the top of the heap and for regular vinyl work actually a better value (in my opinion) than the FC was for the 30" machine. They are actually the ones that pioneered the optic eye option to boot. Life time LIVE free tech support for whomever owns the machine is also unique although I only called once when first setting up.  Wow I sound like a salesman. (I'm Not!)

[Molan_Labe 38]

Hi Wildgoose, thanks for the reply and all the info. sorry I didn't get back till today. I did check out the other vinyl cutters and thanks for the info. but at this time I think the MiMaki is in my price range for now and will upgrade to the summacut later on. I also like the summa printers they have to offer also.