HolyMoley

New Cutter Advice Needed

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Hello everyone. I've spent countless hours over the last couple of weeks researching cutters in an effort to find the best unit for our needs that fits within our modest budget of $1000.

I will be doing some detail oriented cutting. So from what I've garnered so far it seems I would want a unit with servos both for the accuracy in cutting and in tracking material for longer cuts.
I will also be doing some contour cutting.

Considering our budget and these needs I have more or less settled on either:

The 50" Titan II with LaserPoint, or
The 28" Titan III with ARMS, or
The 54" Titan III with ARMS

All of these are presently sub $1000 cutters.

The Titan II has LaserPoint which is a manual way to register for contour cutting. I have watched videos and from what I've seen it appears to be pretty accurate, but I was wondering how it stacks up to the accuracy of a cutter using ARMS, especially in longer (4-5 ft) cuts. It has a one year warranty and is the least expensive of the three by several hundred dollars.

The Titan III 28" is the smallest I would feel comfortable with, and I would be hesitant at that. I'm afraid the narrow width would potentially limit what we could cut down the road. But it does have a two year warranty.

The Titan III 54" is being offered through a sister company of US Cutter who specializes in offloading closeout equipment at a very good price, in fact the same exact price as the Titan III 28" (but with $150 shipping charge).

However there are a couple of huge caveats that go along with this special price: 1, NO warranty or support 2, potential problems with the unit itself.

I have read that the 54" Titan III cannot accurately track and/or cut certain common widths of material, such as 12" or 24" due to the roller placements. I'm assuming this issue is why these units are being closed out.

To overcome this limitation I would simply not buy rolls cut to the widths the machine has problems with.

Does anyone have experience with any of these machines? How important is a warranty? Do these machines commonly break within the first year or two where the warranty would come into play?

I really would like to place my order today or tomorrow, but I am having a hard time deciding which is the best option, so any help/advice would be most greatly appreciated.

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first ask yourself will you be contour cutting much - if so the 28" titan3 - if not I had a titan2 for a bit and it did well - I don't contour cut for anything but my solvent prints and my solvent printer is a print/cut machine so with that in mind I have a 24" servo cutter for all my cut graphics.   On the 54" I would love to say jump on the deal but with the limitation of the rollers you will be disappointed in the long run as the biggest selection of vinyl is in 24 and 48" - and once you try to weed, apply application tape and apply the 48" decal I am betting you won't do a lot of that.

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To be honest when I posted this I really didn't expect to receive any replies before I made my decision since my post was so 'last minute'. Wow, two fast - and helpful - replies in just a few minutes. I'm blown away.

" once you try to weed, apply application tape and apply the 48" decal I am betting you won't do a lot of that. " - you know, I had thought how awesome it would be to have the ability to cut large vinyl, but I never once considered what it would be like to install it. Thanks for that!

" For detail work & a quiet machine, treat yourself to the servos and you'll never regret it. " - sounds like very good advice.

With your help I've decided on the 28" Titan 3.  Thank you both so much!

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