MikeOswald

Just sent you an email regarding the plotters and your sand blasting set-up.

How big of a cutter do you want to go to? I myself as started with low grade equipment also. I have upgrade to a Graphtec and have never looked back, it is simply AWESOME, fast, quite, and the quality plus features is amazing. For software I just use Corel for design and as my cutting program. You could go get Flexi, but I do not have any experience with that. Best of luck bud

I have been looking to start up my website, and boy oh boy does the price vary on what you depend to do with it. I also do laser cutting and engraving so I have a larger products catalog On one hand a simple 5 page layout from go daddy might do the trick to start. Give people a way to see my work and contact for the products. But also, if I want to sell products from the site, accept credit cards, with SEO, this turns into a $250 +/yr investment. For you guys with the big websites, do you see good results? So far the guys I talk to locally, the expensive websites are not turning any profits. Would be curious with your experiences. Thanks.

Thanks for the pointers. Next is how big of a compressor to get? Would only be doing a glass or two at a time but can not get something too loud as it will be in a basement. Also, what is the trick for doing curved surfaces? Like a large wine glass. How do you wrap the stencil around it and keep it smooth and flat?

I have been looking into getting into this for awhile now. I currently laser engrave all of my glass, but using sand is the way to go, no doubt about that. I like that set-up cabinet either the 30 lbs or 40 lbs, my question is what else do you need to buy? The cabinet comes with a nozzle, but I am guessing for glass you need to be able to control the psi to get the fine details of the SOA glass in the picture? Parrt 2. For a masking, can you use just regular vinyls that are plotter cut or do you need to buy a thicker material to use as a mask. Will my craft robo pro cut these thicker materials? Thanks in advance.

There is a used one these for sale locally. They are asking $500 with stand, 5-6 years old. Does this sound like a fair asking price? Also, I currently have a craft robo Pro (love it!) I am basically looking to upgrade to the larger machine, but, since this is 5 years old, am I taking a step or 2 backwards in technology just for the larger machine? Thanks in advance

A local broker has a whole sign shop for sale. The main piece is a fc7000 used, not sure how old yet. They are asking $3k or $3500 with a mac and software (also not sure what is on it). Also about 100 rolls of vinyl of various colors, widths. Don't know all the details yet, its about a 1.5 hr drive just want a little more info to go back to the guy and maybe submit a lower offer. I currently own a 48" p-cut but I have been having problems with quality on small parts.

Stay away from the MH series. Go with the Pcut, or Copam if you can afford it.

I know in Corel there is a "weld text" feature. Not sure if Sign Blazer has that option or not. Try doing a search on the help menu in sign blazer

I can get Corel and Robo Master Pro to run just fine with the plug in drivers, but no luck with Artcut. What I am missing here?

Thank you, glad to be in the graphtec family. Yes, I can export eps, dxf, plt, but my multi-up parts where I might have 2 or 15 parts on a design nested tight togeterh, export as 1 group, then I have to ungroup them and and regroup. Not hard, just time consuming with hundreds of files

Thanks guys, I only use artcut as a program to click and cut. All my designs are done in other programs, autocad, corel. But I still love artcut, it is easy to use, simple, basic, and does a great job everytime for me. I have started swictching files over to corel, its going to take awhile, but so dat loving the graphtec's speed and quality.

I have ALL my files, sized, nested, etc through artcut. I have to resize and start over if I use Corel or Sign blazer. More of a convienence issue. I did not buy the 54", just too big and too much for my budget. I found a local person with a Robo Pro, new in box purchased in Nov of 09, for $600. It will suit my stuff so much better and a lot better on the wallet too. Now I just have to learn how to use it, lol. Way over my head from what I am used to. I am sure I will have lots more questions coming

I did do that, but not sure how to recognize the cutter within software still. I do not think it is a com port setting like my pcut and rabbit cutters, but this driver I think is for a USB port setting. Every time I click the USB port setting in Artcut, artcut tells me "file not found"

With Artcut, are you using USB or seriel? the biggeset thing is to make sure your com port settings are correct on the machine and cpu.

Welcome, where in WI are you located?

I am no expert on the pcuts, but on mine pcut machine, it has a x-scale and a y-scale on the control panel. Somehow your y scale seems to be too long. Try bringing that number lower 50 or so and try it again, remeasure it and adjust as needed.

Ok, Cutting Pro (never heard of it) is the software preload on the MAC. Machine is 2 years old with daily use. http://milwaukee.craigslist.org/bfs/1878116513.html Probably still out of my range as the high offer is $4500 (rejected) for machine, cpu and vinyl on the racking. Might still be a good deal for the right person starting out though

Thanks for the input gentlemen. It is probably not in like new condition What if the machine has 2 solid years of wear and tear on it. Is $2,500 reasonalble with the mac? I know the graphtecs are build like tanks and should last forever though. Bottomline is I don't want to over pay for the machine as 54" is probably way over kill for what I need, but gives me flexibilty down the road as I grow..

Yes, 54" cutter Not sure about the software, won't know until I look in person. The broker doesn't know much yet as they just aquired everything, and of course want to flip it fast. I would assume flexi or so other industry program as this was from a commericial sign shop.

Thanks John, I have mis-spoke aboove. The $3K is for the machine only. $3.5K for machine and cpu, and $5-$5.5K for machine, computer and all the vinyl. Does that change your opnion on how good of a deal this might be? Sorry for the mix up.

Hello all, I am starting to be a help wanted regular, lol. I hooked up a new cutter today, its a Pcut 48", its on a trial basis where I didn't pay for it yet, but if I like it I can get a good deal on it. So far so good, but the corners are not cutting good at all. These corners should be square cuts but as you can see there are anything but. This is not too small of a part, probably about 1.5" in hieght. I have never ran into this with my other cutter. Seems to me like a software issue I am running both Artcut and SignBlazer and both do the same thing. Are there adjustments that can be made for this sort of thing? Any thoughts would be a big help?

Hello, great forum you have here. I have been cutting for about 2 months and been doing pretty good locally. Today I replaced the blade and my cut lines are now very very rough a jagged. Never seen this before. Please help. Attached are 2 pictures. It is not just the straight lines, also the curves are very rough. The blades are new Rolands The depth is perfect, I think, just enough to get through the vinyl and barely cutting into the linear. Pressure is 100g. There must be something simple I am missing. I have some huge jobs coming up and there is no way I can present this to the clients, it looks like it is cut by a 1st grader. The files are perfect, I have cut some of these in the past flawlessly, but now they are just bad. Thanks in advance for any help guys!

Thanks Rodger. I did a search, found some posts about, but nothing that appears to help. I don't know know what a stepper or servo is, nor do I know if I have both or one of them. Anyone want a 31" rabbit cutter for cheap?

I did use a thicker harder tape on the pad and that did work a little better, but still bad overall. Now, today I did install the new strip I ordered. Did a test cut and no better results. The parts cut and are not so wavy, but more very jagged now. I don't know what else it could be. It is not software related as the same program controls my new pcut and it cuts excellent. Blade is at the right depth and I have tried several different blades and different angled blades. All I can think of now is it would be the roller feed system, the material is not slipping at all but maybe it is not advancing back and forth in the correct manor. I'm ready to pull my hair out