bossman696

I may be in the market for a Graphtec CE-6000 24" Cutter. Since I am just a sole proprietor business type, I have always purchased equipment in the past. I have since starting thinking I need to start building credit under the business name, but most companies seems to lean toward leasing verses traditional finance. Filling out paper work, I have found that leases are much higher cost wise than traditional financing, but they are much easier to get. What do you guys think? Are the higher costs, worth the tax right off. Either way I would have no down payment, but I have to jump through so many more hoops for financing. Is anyone leasing their equipment? (I'm only looking at lease to own situations.)

Yes, offset is set to 0. It may just be the material itself. I noticed on some colors, the material is not as stretchy as the black for instance and it cuts perfect every time! Black is a nightmare unless I have a super sharp blade.

I just ran a small sheet of black so the pinch rollers were pretty close together so it wasn't a great test, but it worked well. I did notice the same thing I normally see when cutting the thinner heat transfer sheets and that is incomplete cuts on some of the letters. I need to look into the settings a bit more. Seems like I read somewhere you could set it to "over cut" the start and end point of letters? Anybody have any idea what I'm talking about, I'm not sure I do anymore?

I may keep mine for t-shirt vinyl. I'm not convinced that two pinch rollers are enough to keep that stuff from moving and stretching causing in complete cuts. This was a major problem when I first started and I was using 3 pinch rollers then. I was only able to solve the issue by adding a forth pinch roller. With the graphtec, I'm two pinch rollers down. Maybe that down draft (slight vacuum) will be enough to help hold it? is anyone else cutting a lot of heat transfer vinyl with their graphtec's? I use CAD CUT Premium Plus exclusively. Great stuff and it feels just like screen printing.

That is all it amounts to, not wanting to learn something new. But you know, what? It's time to bite the bullet and dive in. I will be setting conditions and blade settings in no time!

Just for clarification… I love the quality of the graphtec! I said I felt it was limited because it was not readily apparent how to overcome the issues I was having. The pinch rollers for example. Now that I know I can turn those off, that issue is solved. The machines do the same things, just in different ways. The Graphtec's cut quality is leaps and bounds above what I was getting with the 24" SC Cutter. I have done direct comparisons, and there were details that showed up on the Graphtec that I didn't even realize I was missing. If I was still using the SC, would that work for the customer? Sure it would. But why not give them that detail if you can. The only real issues I am having now is getting my OLD SignCut software to work with the cutter. If I use the included cutting master software, it works just fine. As far as my cutter issues and entertainment, that was only referring to the last few days. The other week was from being so darn busy with t-shirts and other vinyl projects, which is a good reason to not be able to play.

I went through a few more "official" channels, so hopefully I will get an answer much sooner! I saw on their Facebook page they had drivers for the CE6000 line and they even show up in the new beta program I downloaded, but the software just won't see the cutter. Hopefully it is something simple I am over looking, but it is still very frustrating. We will get it together soon. After reading a few earlier posts from new graphtec users upgrading from value cutter, I am experiencing the same frustrations. The graphtec almost seemed limited in its ability to do certain things, but I see now that just comes from its advancements. My main issue to start were the pinch roller sensors. I hated not being able to cut farther out to the edge. Now it appears I turn those off. We will see. I plan on sitting through those videos on the DVD today and see if I can get a better understanding of everything. I'm starting to agree with you when considering running smaller decals on this stuff. I ran 50 - 15 x 22 signs with little to no trouble weeding on my 24" SC, but can't get the graphtec to run that same job with similar results. I know it will just be dialing in the settings. This cutter stuff is "cutting" (see what I did there?) into my entertainment time. I have had the new Batman and Battlefield 4 games sitting on my desk for two weeks and haven't even gotten a chance to open them!

I have, on several fronts. But if their response is anything like the last couple of answers I received from them, it will be weeks before I get an answer.

I can get it to cut just fine using the cutting master plug in, but I guess I'm getting old and don't like change.... Lol I hate not knowing something I need and I guess I will just have to get to know cutting master and make that my new program. There is so much to learn.

I still can't get it to work. I will send SignCut Pro a message and see what the issue is. I'm using the USB, but maybe I need to switch back to the keyspan.

Sometimes you have to tell the customer what they really want.... Lol. Nice looking sign. Working in commercial printing as my main job, I know all about the crazy stuff bring in or ask for. We had a guy a few weeks and he wanted business cards but didn't know what he wanted on them. My first question is always what kind of business are you in? "Well I really don't know." I quickly referred him to another designer at the office.

Thank you I will check that when I get back to the office. Much appreciated!

It is green star. I was wondering if oracal had a sticker vinyl or better adhesion to the backing. I will have to give it a try. I still have a lot to learn about this new machine. Every though I downloaded the drivers for signcutpro. I can't get it to communicate. I did that cut using cutting master. It looks promising, but I just have to learn the ins and outs of it.

First cuts on the graphtec. I like how smooth everything is, but I think I need some adjusting on the pressure. The cuts are clean and it's barely even scoring the backing, but the weeding seems a lot more difficult. The lettering pulls up with the scrap vinyl really easily.

Tell you the truth, I have been so busy printing t-shirts I haven't even had a chance to open it. Even after ordering on Friday Afternoon, it came Tuesday morning! I plan on tearing into it very soon! I am so excited!

Well I made that jump. I ordered the Graphtec CE6000-60 and just received confirmation that it has shipped. USCutter had a much better deal in their ebay store than on the website. 12 rolls of 24" Greenstar Vinyl and free shipping for the price of the cutter. Guess I'll be posting my camera equipment on ebay this weekend to help balance this expenditure. I was a photographer until I discovered the hard way I couldn't take pictures of people my wife didn't like, but that's a story for another time... I have 6 months no interest to pay for it. Shouldn't be too difficult.

You are right, I need to stop being so cheap! It has burned me a few times… I can't believe I'm still considering that VE option even after the SIgnwarehouse guy told me it was hit and miss with the MAC. He even said go with the graphtec if you want out of the box compatibility. I guess my main hold up is I will STILL be using the same SignCut Pro software for either machine. I seriously doubt I would be using the cutting master software, other than the Illustrator plug-in. We will see. Maybe I can get the salesman to hook me up with a discount. Looks like I just missed rebates on the graphtecs that ended on the 25th.

Did you cut your samples with your VE model? I finally got an answer from my cutting software company and they said their CE6000 drivers should drive the VE QE6000. How do you do contour cuts with the VE you have? Does the ARMS work or do you have to do it manually?

All I can say is WOW! I have to agree, the difference is night and day compared to the samples I just cut. The main things I notice are the extremely sharp corners, and the super straight lines. Even with my adjustments, my corners are rounded and the slanted letters have waviness. I am convinced! You have made me a believer! Thanks for the help, but my pocket book will be upset with you guys for quite some time….. I may just order this thing today. I have two rather large payments coming this week for shirts and signs for the local schools that should just about cover this. Was hoping for a PS4, but you can't make money with one of those.

I have attached the file. Thank you for taking a look at this and helping me with the comparisons. Walking Tall2.eps

Most of my adjustments were to the carriage belt tension. I lightly greased the carriage wheel. They are plastic and probably self lubricating but what could it hurt? I looked up a few articles about servo vs stepper motors and used that info to try different things with mine. Basically it said stepper motor have only so much resolution and any slippage will go uncorrected when using them. So if your software said go 100 clicks and it bound up and only when 95 clicks, it had no real way of knowing it didn't make to all 100. So I just took some of the pressure off the drive belt, played with the driver setting and while she is far from perfect, its better than I had. I still see consistency issues though. Some cuts are perfect and then some have chatter in them. I may be looking at the graphtec's again sooner than I expected. I guess that bad demo taste is fading. Would anyone with a graphtec or clone be interested in cutting a small 4" x 4" file and posting a pic? I would like to have something I can directly compare against.

I made a few adjustments to my 24" SC cutter. Graphtec Quality? Definitely not, but it looks much better! Original: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/3n7LXZlxCNqBnU30y8dZddMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink 2nd Adjustment: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/box86YhuIbXB88PMKj6I6tMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink Final Adjustment: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/nx9rhZEjq6Hcbh2hBFWx6tMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink I still see corner blow out issues, but the chattering on the angle cuts is less noticeable.

I need to do some research, but the only problem is nobody seems to have one. I figured I would make sure they had a decent return policy and see if I could get something going as a test bed and maybe they would give me a discount is I provided info on how people could make this mac compatible using whatever workarounds I can come up with. A fella can dream can't he? What drivers are you using for your older model? I hear graphtec's ce5000 drivers work with the CE6000. Maybe it will translate on the VE series as well?

This is true, but don't get me wrong, I was all ready to make the jump and move "up" to a graphtec, but that demo left a bad taste in my mouth. I am seriously considering the Vinyl Express (Rebadged Graphtec CE6000-60) and seeing if I can make it cut with my sign cut software. They say it is not mac compatible, but I have my suspicions.

Well I just saved a bunch of money on my insurance….. and vinyl cutter! I had a demo of a graphtec cutter yesterday and maybe it was the skill level, or rather lack of, on the part of the salesman, but I was not impressed at all. First they didn't have a test file to use other than a contour cut, which he couldn't get to work. Luckily I brought several of my own test files I had recently completed and a roll of vinyl to play with. First cut was so heavy it pulled up the corners of every letter it cut. When I say every letter, I mean EVERY letter. It even tore through the back line on an entire section of the cut. He makes a few adjustments, then runs a few test cuts and cuts it again. When I start to weed the sample, letters just start jumping off the page with the scrap vinyl. We go round and round about my issues and concerns, and then I get the dull blade, bad cutting strip excuse. I'm like ok, this is a demo machine that your are using to sell other machines. Shouldn't it be in tip-top shape for that very reason? I have to agree with slice&dice, there doesn't seem to be much difference in the final products of the more expensive and less expensive machines. I mean sure, I have the slightly wavy lines on diagonals cuts, which I have attributed to the steps in the geared belt and drive motor types. The graphtec had several really nice features like the slight vacuum pressure on the vinyl as it cuts to help with material buckle (if that is what it's called.. LOL). It was super quite! Another plus, but with the issues I observed, I just couldn't justify an $1800 outlay just for less noise. I'm sure many will have something to add. Maybe when I'm in a better mood, I will look at them again. But right now, a $12 replacement cutting strip for my 24" SC cutter has me dancing in a circle at how much better and consistent my cuts are again.