Wilson

LOL... if I did Uber I'd pick up an ex police cruiser for $1500 that already had the vinyl back seat and was washdown ready. Certainly wouldn't do that with a newer car. My wife does Shipt (grocery delivery) and if she works it right she can net $10 - $15/hour. Lot more hassle than a J.O.B. but it works with our schedules since she's a stay-at-home mom & we have 4 kids.

Longtime lurker, first time poster... I'm looking to get my first cutter and trying to make the right decision. My plan is to get this to start using as a not too serious side hustle and see where it leads to as well as fun for the family. Due to budget constraints and using the "buy the best cutter you can afford" advice, I've narrowed it down to the SC2 for a cutter. When I look at the specifications for the SC2, Titan & Laser Point 3 they are all stepper based with the same resolution. The main difference seems to be the cutting force & max cutting length. Are there any great advantages to the Titan or the Laser Point 3 that I'm not picking up on? I've also been looking at the cutter / heat press combos as well since the heat press would open up a lot more options for me. Is it worth getting the cutter & basically what is the cheapest heat press as a combo to start with or is the cheap heat press not worth it? I've seen in other posts it suggested that what is considered an entry level press is $300 - $400. Adding one of these right out of the gate isn't really an option so will the heat press in the combo do quality work or is this something that I should save up the funds to buy a better one? Thanks for your input! Chad

Thanks for the reminder on mirroring when cutting HTV. Hopefully my memory will work when I'm actually doing it. I just got a new IR temp gun to check motor temps on our RC cars so I'll be able to use that with the heat press as well. That's the plan... to move up to a Titan 2/3 or Graphtec and a nice heat press... but I'm gonna force the SC2 to pay for it! Now if I could just figure out how to do that in RC

Well, I did it! I ordered a cutter yesterday. I went with the SC2 T-Shirt bundle that included a 15x15 heat press and a bunch of Siser HTV. Also added on a bunch of closeout sign vinyl for my "education". Looking forward to getting everything and getting started. Thanks for all the input and advice... I'm sure I'll be asking for more.

Scratchthejeepguy - Thanks for the input and glad to hear you've had a good experience with the SC2. I'm not too concerned about the noise as I'll have it down in the basement in our storage/spare bedroom/RC car room. Slice&Dice - "Hey Chad, glad to see ya stick around for this thread -- lots of newbs just post a few times ("What's the best cutter?", etc, etc.) and then vanish." If you knew how long I've been stalking this forum it might be kind of creepy... LOL Thanks for the input and all great things to consider!

Thanks for all the great info! With the SC2 is there any reason, other than price, to stay with the 28" instead of upgrading to the 34"? Now to just watch for a sale... is there any normal sales other than Black Friday (Christmas, New Years, Presidents Day, etc.)? I'm kinda kicking myself because the SC2/heat press combo that is $599 now was only $479 around Thanksgiving.

It might be my ignorance of what I would use contour cutting for but I don't think that would make a difference. My understanding of contour cutting is that you would use the cutter to cut around something that was printed on the vinyl. Can't really think of what I would use this for.