abullock22

summa D60 - any good?

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just seen a deal for a summa D60 - any opionions on this machine?

he said hes only had it a year, ive read they no longer produce this cutter so has me concerned, also does it contour cut, anyone used it to do so?

thanks

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top of the line. right up there with Graphtec and Roland. maybe even above.   maybe not this model still making. . but all companies have to change models to compete,  The Summa company still makes vinyl cutters

http://www.summausa.com/

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nice one, we actually have a summa t120 at work and its a beast, just wasnt sure if this trickled down to the cheaper cutters

The seller says it contour cuts too (just what im looking for!!) but im just wondering if anyone else can back this up - I just asked if he can give me a demo so hopefully he can but wanting to know before I set up to meet

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hmmm so further research...

Im actually reading the D60 desktop has x-y axis alignment for contour cutting whereas the D60SE has OPOS, for auto align.

Since it looks like he has the D60 desktop in the photo is it easy to contour cut with x-y axis alignment - what is that?

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If it is not real OPOS it is manual three point alignment like the US CUTTER  Laserpoint machines.

The OPOS is automatic contour cut.

I ordered 2 days ago a SUMMA D60 Pharos which has OPOS.

It seems older machines with manual laser are also called D60.

Paco

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Although old information, this is very helpful! I've got a HP L25500 (Latex) printer. It's a few years old now, but low usage. I'm thinking Summa might be the best cutter for me, as their Salesperson told me just the other day that the software that runs the D75 and D120 printers compensates for vinyl shrinkage that you get with the HP Latex printers. This is good news,  since I will be doing some prints that we be contour cut with close tolerance and also want to do cuts on bleeds.

It's been a while since I looked at what cutters are available with optical eye, I have a smaller Silhouette cutter that's got the optical eye, but I don't use it often. My other cutters are the older MH721 models, I think. I've gotten some good use out of them. Time to move up and start using my printer smarter. I know it's a money machine and don't make enough with it.

Just sharing!

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I have the Summacut D75R and have absolutely loved it. I don't have a printer to utilize the optical eye much but as far as cutter go I believe it to be the top of the line drag knife cutter. There are some with higher downforce if you do sandblast resist like the FC series from Graphtec but if it's normal cutting I would put it against anything out there. Price is about half way between the CE series and the FC series Graphtec so it's really a better value. Other than downforce, cut ability is at or above the FC and the OPUS optical eye is reported to be about the best at registration recognition even on laminated prints. I don't spend a lot of time pushing them on the forum because USC doesn't sell them but I wouldn't trade mine for anything other than possibly one of the S2 T series with the true tangential head. Those are the way to go if you do a lot of thick cutting and want the top of the top of the line. 

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Wildgoose,

You know, I did read your posts and that was encouraging for me. So thank you for that. I'm glad you chimed in here too, just exactly what I needed to hear. I am so glad to have my L25500 paid off, so I can actually look at a decent cutter now. Good equipment/tools are my goal. But hey, you have to start somewhere! I'm really glad to hear that you feel the D75 and the D120 have the quality I'm looking for. I really don't need to cut anything thicker, like you mentioned. But if I do, I have a friend that has a 25 foot long tangiential flatbed cutter, over 10 years ago I ran that machine for her,making patterns and cutting huge Sunbrella fabric patterns. It will also cut vinyl and other thicker materials. So I do have the ability to do heavier work without purchasing the equipment. Her shop is a few miles from mine and we help eachother out quite a bit.

I'll keep you updated on my decision to buy the Summa. Here is some information that may help U.S. Cutter about HP Latex and the Summa cutters... My Salesperson did tell me that he thought the HP Latex Printer was the best printer I could get to work with their cutters! I told him I did want to explore the possibility of getting one machine that will do it all and was thinking about their Thermal Cutters. Before he realized I already had an HP Latex, he did start to tell me about the Summa Thermal machines with cutting ability. Then when he knew what printer I had, he recommended I stick with it (since it's better than what he could offer me at Summa) and told me it would be best to just go for a Summacut, the largest one I could afford. But I don't want the largest, I'm only going to do door vehicles, not entire wraps. : ) Too easy to get tangled up in wrap material! Trust me, I've done it. Then when you get somebody helping you (and when you are a woman there is always someone standing around) who thinks they need to help you and then you are really tangled up because someone standing around doesn't always know how easy it is to get stuck! The stuff is like fly paper, LOL. I think smaller door decals are safer and easier for me since I work alone most of the time.

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To Wildgoose and all those here who have shared their knowledge about Summacutters, I went ahead and bought one a few days ago!!!

My MH721 cutter gave up the ghost, and although I did have a backup cutter (same one)... I decided to just bite the bullet and get a new Summa! So, I chose the Summacut D75. I called Summa to see if they had one in stock, and they did. Asked them to hold for me because I was coming down to buy it. So I drove down there and bought it minutes before they closed for the day. We packed it into my car and drove it back to my shop. We set it up that evening and loaded up the software to my computer. In the morning, we called Tech Support at Summa and they walked me through the first sample cut over the phone. That same morning, I was able to begin doing very close tolerance contour cuts on a very large order of car decals printed off on my HP Latex printer. The decals were also laminated. We did a kiss cut and most of the sheets were about 5' long on 30" wide material. There were absolutely no issues with registration and the job turned out fantastic! We were applying decals to vehicles early the following morning. Job done! Happy Customers! I now have about 6 dozen more vehicles to do for the same Customer! Yay!

Thank you all!

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Side note"Wildgoose" has the D75R Cutter, I have the D75 Cutter. I believe these are the same cutter? From what I could find available online, the "R" in D75R stands for "Refined" and it appears they started using that description about 2007. "Refined" means the cutter includes the OPOS x technology. I have the OPOS on my cutter, but they have since dropped the "R" from the model description. Looks like the same cutter to me. Just mentioning this to help anyone who might be making the same comparison that I was making, as I had considered purchasing a used machine as well. In the end, I had to buy a new one due to the Emergency situation I was in... broken down cad cut machine. I just had to replace it to stick to my deadline for my Customer. Only wish I was able to purchase the Summa earlier, it sure would have saved me a lot of time messing around!

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Su-z-q

I am happy to hear that you really like that cutter. SOO many people are happy with their summas - Quality, contour cut, controls- repeatable and accurate OPOS measurements- they truly are the best.

I have an old D620 - works awesome, but I rarely use it. For my contour cuts I use a Gerber Envision 375 since I use a thermal printer. But if I go with an inkjet- Summa all the way.  

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They are a real workhorse too. I can't tell you how many feet of vinyl I have cut at this point. Still chugging away without a hint of issues. Glad you had a good experience. I have rarely needed tech support but when that time has come they are there ready with the answers. 

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JBurns and Wildgoos, thank you for your comments. Yeah, I think it's a great cutter! The USCutter model machines I have used got me through a lot of jobs, but I could never do the contour cuts around my printed graphics. I had to sub out that stuff, which was not cost effective for me and I was at the mercy of another shop as far as their timeline went. I did have to justify the expense with a buying Customer, otherwise I would not have made the investment. I think to my big advantage, Summa is within driving distance to me.So I am pretty lucky in that regard. Thanks for the support!

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5 minutes ago, su-z-q said:

JBurns and Wildgoos, thank you for your comments. Yeah, I think it's a great cutter! The USCutter model machines I have used got me through a lot of jobs, but I could never do the contour cuts around my printed graphics. I had to sub out that stuff, which was not cost effective for me and I was at the mercy of another shop as far as their timeline went. I did have to justify the expense with a buying Customer, otherwise I would not have made the investment. I think to my big advantage, Summa is within driving distance to me.So I am pretty lucky in that regard. Thanks for the support!

curious being so close to a roland dealer why not a roland.   I admit I have never had a summa but have had several rolands and of all the cutter that I have tried the roland finds registration marks better than all the others.   I am a hard core graphtec person for cutting but for my print part I will always use a roland for the ease of doing the contour cuts . . . .

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Summa is based in Seattle which I believe is very close to the OP. I did a lot of research when I was upgrading and found Summa to be the hidden jewel out there that probably doesn't get nearly the exposure it could in large part because they don't sell through dealers within the US. On top of offering true tangential cutters (T-Series not the SummaCut drag knife like myself and the OP have) they actually developed the original optical eye and are purported to be the best at optical registration particularly with laminated prints. I don't have a print side to my business as you and many know so I have never been able to test out the actual ability compared to other cutters but the roller system they have to feed with is pretty amazing (and quite simple) and probably contributes to their awesome tracking abilities. About the only thing I have ever had an issue with is that the pinch rollers are very aggressive and on most products it will cause enough of an impression that you generally want to stay within the inside of the pinch rollers for working width. If you get a wider unit that has middle rollers they will run at less pressure and not effect the vinyl as much but the outer two are REALLY aggressive. This causes about 1/2" on each  side to be unusable where many of the other cutters use less pressure and you can get away with cutting out past the rollers if you need to. Doing as much HTV work as I do it is not uncommon for me to load a 10 or sometimes 50 yard roll and let the cutter work all night on a big order while I go to sleep. 

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True that goose - just pointing out that the sponsor of the forum is right there in redmond, next door to seattle and from experience I know the rolands they sell are killer with registration marks.  I did see that summa had offices there and on the east coast ;)

I've had about 5 rolands cutters and 3 roland printerrs but never a summa . . . . so my knowlege of the summa is limited on how well they find registration marks - I know the graphtec system isn't nearly as easy when working with registration marks from my past experience 

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2 hours ago, Dakotagrafx said:

True that goose - just pointing out that the sponsor of the forum is right there in redmond, next door to seattle and from experience I know the rolands they sell are killer with registration marks.  I did see that summa had offices there and on the east coast ;)

I've had about 5 rolands cutters and 3 roland printerrs but never a summa . . . . so my knowlege of the summa is limited on how well they find registration marks - I know the graphtec system isn't nearly as easy when working with registration marks from my past experience 

Gotcha, I looked very hard at the FC8600 but the optical scan problems were one of the things that I thought about in my own purchase even though I have never needed the optical equipment. The upside to the higher end Graphtec is the higher downforce if you are cutting sandblast resist. To match that with a Summa you have to step it up to the tangential machines which are quite a bit more $$$. than the FC models. Graphtec was my tendency due to local support and their name for being rock solid and tough. I have not heard much of Roland around this area but maybe up there in the Seattle area they are more prevalent. Always heard they were nice running though. Some of the locals have Roland print and cut machines and that was a whole other consideration that I talked myself out of thanks to yourself actually. 

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On 6/12/2017 at 7:08 AM, Dakotagrafx said:

curious being so close to a roland dealer why not a roland.   I admit I have never had a summa but have had several rolands and of all the cutter that I have tried the roland finds registration marks better than all the others.   I am a hard core graphtec person for cutting but for my print part I will always use a roland for the ease of doing the contour cuts . . . .

Dakota,

Sorry, just saw your message. I think you were asking me why not a Roland? Well, that was one of the ones I considered, but I have a close relative who worked at a large Aircraft Co. who told me they were using Latex printed wallpapers on the interiors of the airplanes. Much of the work I was doing had to do with the Aerospace Industry, so it made sense to get a large format printer that was approved by this Aircraft Company! However, I ended up not doing wallpapers for them in the end. Decided that I didn't like the way they always chipped away at my profit by wanting cheap prices, and that they had a habit of always rushing me at the same time, which made it not such a desirable prospect for me. To be rushed and underpaid, no thanks!  Sometimes I do question my decision, wonder if I should have went with the Roland instead. But there is no looking back now!

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actually I was referring to the roland plotters and not printers = the roland uses a big dot and square for registration points in most programs and it finds them a lot easier than the other plotters I have used

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Oh, thanks for explaining that. Yes, I have seen the marks that the Roland plotters use. The Summa has square registration marks. They are applied all along the left and the right sides of the print, and another set about every 12 inches. Works pretty well. The machine lines up all the marks through the entire piece before the cutting begins. Very precise.

Also, with the Summa I picked, I liked the 30" option. It is just a good size for me. I didn't want a to be limited to 24" and many of the rolls of materials I use are 30" for printable/adhesive backed. Again, just made sense. If I need a roll of 30" material in a hurry and find my suppliers do not have it in stock, I can get a 54" roll and have it slit to (2) rolls measuring 30" and 24" - both sizes I can use. Have had to do that a few times already!

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