how about some opinions?

[PBR Allstar 0]

Hey Everybody, I've been lurking on this forum as a guest for quite a while, and really enjoy looking at your projects.  I was involved in vinyl sign work for a few year about 7 or so years ago. I worked in a race shop that had a rolland Camm machine, I believe it ran on some variant of the Ultra Flex software.  I was somewhat handy with it back then, but unfortunately have forgotten most that I had learned back then.  I've always missed it though, it was a lot of fun at the time, and I enjoyed doing little projects and side jobs after hours, so lately I've been seriously considering buying a small machine to play around with. Mainly for doing some lettering with my son on our R/C cars, messing around with paint mask material and some heat transfer material (I have a nice heat press from back then just going to waste in the rafters).  I really don't have the room to dedicate to a large machine at the moment so I'm pretty set on 12" MH series cutter (unless there are performace/reliability issues with it)  I think it would be fine for almost anything I would want to do getting my feet back in the water with vinyl signage and if I really get into it again and want to dedicate some of my very small house to a larger machine I'll consider it at that point. I am however not as set on the software, I've been playing a bit with Sign Blazer Elements in trial mode, but wondering if it's worth the added cost to upgrade to the flexi starter?   

Any other tips or advice would be greatly appreciated!

thanks,

ford cook

[cutme 5]

a 12 inch machine will limit the types of material you can cut, as most vinyls are not sold in twelve inch rolls. a 15 inch machine may be a better starting point. imho. as for cutting text, don't expect much success smaller than a half inch. i use signblazer for all my cutting. it is quirky and has a learning curve, but not a bad one. i have illy cs3, vinylmaster pro, and inkscape. i use illy mostly for converting files that won't open in sbe, to an eps that will. the more i use sbe, the more functionality i find it has. hope this helps. and welcome to the forum.

bb

[tlzimmerman 11]

SBE worked great for me, then I lucked into a cheap copy of flexi pro and haven't looked back.

I never did my design in either, you will see if you read the forums any I am a huge fan of Inkscape for a design program...love it love it love it, so it just pretty much comes down to what program will drive the cutter the best, and while SBE did a good job, flexi pro drives the curves faster and has more customizing options, I think alot of those options are also available in flexi starter.

My .02 would be start with sign blazer elements as it is more than good enough and its free, if you are wanting down the road then invest in better software to drive the cutter, but you will probably find you never need to.

[PBR Allstar 0]

thanks for the opinions, I'm glad to hear that SBE will probably work more than adaquately for what I plan on doing to start off.  as far as the media size goes, I figured I'd just use 24" media and cut it down with a straight edge as needed, I don't plan on really cutting any long runs so it should be fine to just cut material to fit the cutter as I need it.

thanks again, Anything else???

ford cook

[JoeBlow 5]

Go for 24" cutter, the benefits in the long term out way the extra cost.