Considering A New Machine For Sandblast Stencil

[ihscout 0]

Since the headstone shop I ran went under 2 years ago Ive had a couple lousy drive across town for $9.00 an hour "own tools own truck" kinda jobs. Im done, and ready to try my own thing.

The shop had Gerber GS750s w/Omega 3.x... Im not able to afford this investment, or afford the maintenance on these, so ill need to take a hard step down. I had my mind made up on a  Qe-60 (Graphtec?) package from sign wharehouse, but my wife got a little crazy for xmas. Im now considering a much cheaper unit. I have some big concerns w/them, maybe you guys can help me through them and pick the best bang for my $$. This machine will need to be able to cut sandblast masks in the 25-35 mil range. For now this will be a low level operation. The machines Im considering are the Pcut, the vinyl express "R-series" (redsail) 31", or copam (if i can afford it).

1st. What software should I shoot for? I was a pro in Composer, Ive looked over some of the lower end software and they appear to suck. Flexi looks ok,is VE LXi Apprentice the same thing? Uscutter has a some Corel options, will they even work with the china cutters?

2nd. Downforce. These machines are all boasting 500g of DF. I find that hard to belive, I imagine the cheap stepper motors wouldnt last long if it is true?

3rd. Unit size. Alot of the stencil Im familiar with comes in 15" 25" & 30". the machines I like come in conflicting sizes and dont mention a min cutting width.. Ive been searching around and I havent found too many stencils that come in 24" rolls.

4th. Will friction feed work reliably for stencil cutting?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[deth502 39]

3rd. no minimum cutting width (within reason, your not going to be able to get a 1/2" strip to track well)

a cutter that will handle the 30" rolls will also work with the 24 and 15" rolls

[ihscout 0]

3rd. no minimum cutting width (within reason, your not going to be able to get a 1/2" strip to track well)

Ok cool, the Gerbers had very little width adj.  IIRC.

Thank you.

[ihscout 0]

The copam specs state it can handle media up to .8mm (31mils) thick. Its the only unit on my list that states a media thickness. This would be acceptable, but id like to know if the others can handle this as well.

Any one know anything about the GCC expert 24?

-Sam