Yet another "which cutter" thread

[vinylmotivations 143]

From what i read, the specs on the CE5000 are underrated for pressure. Alot of the lower machines, such as my LP24- there is not a snowballs chance it could not only withstand cutting at all 400grams constantly, but deliver that pressure accurately and consistantly.... There are a bunch of folks that have no issues cutting sandblast and magnet stock on the graphtec cutter- I do know with its accuracy you could easily run the cutter at multiple passes to compensate for the pressure if the material demanded it. IMHO 10mils is pretty thick... I mean you can run items like card stock through it on a carrier sheet with no issues whatsoever.

[Jay2703 704]

I'm literally sitting here with my credit card in hand with a CE5000 in thenshopping cart. I'm leaning that way because, it comes with a stand, baskets and a bunch of goodies. I feel I'll regret it if I don't get a servo machine, but to take any of the other servo units, and add in the stuff the CE comes with, I end up spending as much or more.

One thing keeps bothering me though, the CE 5000 for whatever reason has a much thinner max material thickness than the rest. (10mil) Also less pressure, which you guys have mentioned isn't as important. But why does a "higher end" cutter seem to have weaker specs than some of the MUCH less expensive cutters.

So will there come a time that I'll want to cut something thicker than 10mil and I'll be stuck? Like the sandblast material or magnetic stock? I do have a sandblasted, and although I have no plans to, I may one day want to cut some of the stuff. But since I've never done it, I have no idea how thick that stuff is. Is a 10mil max thickness much of a limit, or is it one of those useless specs?

Go with the CE. You won't be dissapointed. It is a good machine.

[vinylmotivations 143]

Go with the CE. You won't be dissapointed. It is a good machine.

Granted the CE doesn't come with an actual catch basket, but the stand parts have the threading for one.... All you need is some flat aluminum and 2 dowel or aluminum rods to support material and material itself and you have a media basket for less than 75$.... Less if you know someone with a sewing machine and how to operate it. I think I spent 30$ at menards on aluminum parts to make mine.

See pictures- http://forum.uscutter.com/index.php?/topic/24158-cutter-basket-for-ce5000-or-ce3000/page__p__192310__hl__%2Bcatch+%2Bbasket__fromsearch__1#entry192310

Edited September 1, 2011 by vinylmotivations

[Nitsuj 5]

Not that I've been around this stuff long enough to have a pet peeve, but if I did have one, that would be it. $415 for a media basket!? Will it improve the gas mileage in my truck? I've seen some stuff that looks over priced for what it is in other industries, but that is insane. Its a couple of rods and a piece of cloth. How on earth does Graphtec justify that? The profit margin on the media basket has to be better than on the cutter itself.

[vinylmotivations 143]

I think it is to encourage you to buy the FC series... IMHO. Really for most of us, especially hobby use, a basket is not needed. Me? I have cats and they like to shed, A LOT... so a media basket, just adds one more barrier to keep my product clean as it hangs in front or back.

I also bought a couple of blade holders off ebay for it- Their blade holders are over 100$.... each. Expensive? yes, Justifiable? probably- I do like how graphtec has markings on theirs to set blade depth incrementally. It gives a visual to adjustment other than how far the blade is sticking out. Plus on say, black Oracal 651 versus red, I know for the black I have to back the blade off a half tick mark. better than trying to "guess" each time how far a 1/16th of a turn is lol.

I didn't ever figure I would use Corel that came with the graphtec... and honestly I ended up liking it a TON better than inkscape, and you can print and cut right from it on smaller printers, maybe even on larger ones too. Handles registration marks and cutter settings with a breeze.

[roxanneupnorth 106]

One sticking point for me on the Graphtec was the cost of blades....

[MZ SKEETER 4,709]

I think it is to encourage you to buy the FC series... Plus on say, black Oracal 651 versus red, I know for the black I have to back the blade off a half tick mark. better than trying to "guess" each time how far a 1/16th of a turn is lol.

I agree on them wanting you to buy the FC series. I purchased my FC 7000- 75 in 2008,NEW It was an ez $1000 less than now on the FC8000-75..Having the media basket and stand, made me choose over the Roland and I have never regretted it. @ Vinylmotivations, I don't understand why you change your blade length, for different colors, just change the force a number or 2. .. I do not change my blade length for anything. Unless I have used the blade for a long time and trying to get a little extra out of it before changing blades. I use the Graphtec Cutting Controller all the time.. I make all adjustments from there. Makes it very ez. I never have to change anything on black vs red,,,Oracal 651, I don't even change the blade length to cut Avery Chrome, I just raise the force. Cuts perfect. Maybe changing the blade length is easier for you,but personally I think using the controller is VERY ez. I don't make any adjustments directly on my cutter. Vinyl in, load media, origin, prefeed, ready to cut.

[MZ SKEETER 4,709]

One sticking point for me on the Graphtec was the cost of blades....

I pay $22-23 shipped fast in the US. for 5 Graphtec blades and they last months.. And I cut every day. Yes, more than Roland blades, but I have no problem paying that.. They are great quality blades with springs. I don't even use 5 blades in a year. I'm just cutting vinyl.

[larryisme 6]

My experience with my Greencut 48 and USCUTTER.

June 8th, 2011

Registered online and ordered the Laserpoint contour cutter that was online. Used unit I figured would be good to try out and see if this really was something I was going to get into and make money on.

June 13th, 2011

Received notice US Cutter processed order and payment

June 15th, 2011

Received a call from US Cutter that the used unit I ordered was not available. Was going to order the same unit new then but they wouldn’t be available for some time. Told sales person I would think about their recommendation of going with the Greencut for more money and call back.

June 16th, 2011

a.) I called back and went ahead and ordered the Greencut. Wasn’t that happy that the money I already gave USCutter for the first unit I couldn’t get, couldn’t be applied to this order and I would be waiting on a refund back to my credit card on that.

b.) When ordering I confirmed with sales that the Greencut would be shipping that day out of Redmond/Seattle, which would have had it to me Friday which I was hoping to assemble and then and be able to play with over the weekend.

June 17th, 2011

I called early to make sure that the unit had shipped and get tracking on. Found out the the unit didn’t ship and was still sitting there. I sent someone down to Redmond to pick it up. Gas, lunch and little extra cost me $50.

Late that night we assembled the unit only to find that the signcut software and key were not in the box and we were unable to proceed with anything.

June 19th, 2011

I registered and started ticket online for the missing software.

June 20th, 2011

Benjamin sent a message back saying all the code info was in the box. We had already been through the packaging 10 times and knew it wasn’t’. I called in and then emailed me the link and key.

June 21st through 30th I had to go out of town so machine sat.

July 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 2011

Loaded software and tried tried tried to get the unit to work. Read manual many times and watched online videos of Brandon using one of the other cutters and other videos of other users using other cutters. Could not get the unit to work right.

July 5th, 2011

Sent message to USCutter support and started support process trying to get fixed. USCutter support remotely logged in to my computer and tried to get unit running.

July 8th, 2011

After days of not getting anywhere, Ruth from GCC America was brought in to this. She logged in remotely and tried. No luck.

July 11th, 2011

Ruth again remotely logged in and updated the units software and drivers. Still not working right. She let me know she was communicating with USCutter about the situation and was going to set up a conference call with me and them and remotely log in again on the 12th.

July 12th, 2011

Hours after the set appointment time for the conference call was suppose to happen and there was no communication, I called USCutter and spoke with Levi. He said they were working on it.

July 14th, 2011

I had to go out of town for an install and machine sits.

July 23rd, 2011

I sent pictures to Brandon of step by step process I was doing. He wanted me to send him step by step in my own words of what I was doing so he could tell me what I was doing wrong.

July 28th, 2011

I called USCutter and told them I was bringing the unit up so someone could show me what I was doing wrong(Brandon says is usually user error). Staff said that was fine to bring up.

July 29th, 2011

10:30am I dropped the unit off with Levi and he said he would look at it right away. Should be a few hours. 3 hours later he called and said the unit was fine. I went in and he showed me it run a cut on 8x11 sheet with the word test on it. I had him do several other jobs which the unit was unsuccessful at doing. He said he was going to get another unit out and run the jobs we had tried on it and see if they worked on it. It was late so I left thinking he was going to do it that evening as he stated.

August 1st, 2011

Brandon says he is working on the issue and was going to be contacting Taiwan, Japan or wherever about most current firmware. If nothing is wrong with the machine why is Brandon checking on firmware update with them for?

August 2nd, 2011

I received email from Benjamin that Brandon says I can go get machine.

August 25th 2011 Email from Brandon with templates that should work with the cutter.

And still as of 9/1/11 just cant get a correct contour cut.

Questions to be answered.

1. Why when i was there was there no contour cut done with a more complex contour cut other than the word TEST on an 8x11 sheet of paper? maybe because they couldn't

2. Why are there no actual drivers for the Zencut green 48? I'll keep trying all the others till I find one that may work.

3. Why are the tec's taking over a week to come up with some templates that should work with the cutter if the cutter is so fabulous and has no problems? There are 3 main technicians i have dealt with over there and every one of them says they know more than the other, and none when remotely logging into my computer can make my cutter do what it is suppose to do.

[Rodger 527]

Why does it seem I have read that somewhere before ?

[Nitsuj 5]

My experience with my Greencut 48 and USCUTTER....

I'm sorry that you're having trouble. But you already started a topic about this. Why did you feel the need to hijack my unrelated thread by re-posting it? But no matter, I can make lemonade out of lemons and bring it back on topic. ;-)

One of the other reasons I chose the Graphtec was that I seem to read less stories like this about it. The other units all have people who love them, but they also each have a few horror stories. I'm sure it's a small percentage, but still, if I can minimize my chances of a nightmare by getting a more well thought of brand, then I try to do that.

That said, I'd like to see US Cutter respond to this. Not that Larryisme is lying, I'm not saying that at all. But there's 2 sides to every story. If this story is accurate, it's not a very good sign. If I buy a machine that doesn't function as it should from day one, I want it fixed. Now. Not "we have to conference call this with such and such" or "we need to try this then try this." The correct response is "we're sending you a new one we've tested and know it works." (Assuming the issue is a machine issue and not user error) In my business, if a customer has a problem, I break my ass to get it fixed. And I buy from companies that do the same.

That said, I'm judging by one side of the story. If the problem truly is user error, then it's a whole different story. That's why US Cutter should respond to things like this. Normally, I wouldn't advocate making a disagreement between them and a customer public. But if the customers chooses to, then I see nothing unethical about US Cutter chiming in to say "It's a user error, and this is why". That way the rest of us can weed through horror stories and decide which ones have merit, and which ones are user error alone and help us avoid the same error.

Just one guys opinion.

[Rodger 527]

I would like that also , But i think they would have to hire another employee just to take care of the more vocal/dramatic members . Heck 1 member was openly buying direct from Asia & was blasting USCutter for not finding out what " dual cutting strips " meant . Many people take days/months etc to decide to purchase something & then expect to be treated like a business does not have any other customers ahead in line . USCutter pays for , supports this forum , but it is used as a toll against them many times . Some are resonable , many are not .

[Nitsuj 5]

I would like that also , But i think they would have to hire another employee just to take care of the more vocal/dramatic members . Heck 1 member was openly buying direct from Asia & was blasting USCutter for not finding out what " dual cutting strips " meant . Many people take days/months etc to decide to purchase something & then expect to be treated like a business does not have any other customers ahead in line . USCutter pays for , supports this forum , but it is used as a toll against them many times . Some are resonable , many are not .

I would think that if 3 or 4 of their people had forum profiles, or access to one company profile, they could check in when they have time and respond when warranted. Not that I think they have nothing better to do, or that I feel they need to offer 24-7 support via the forum, but it's always nice to hear both sides. I've been in sales for a while. We all know you just can't please some people. Other people will say whatever they think they need to to get what they want. It would be helpful when reading the horror stories to know what is an actual horror story, and what is an unfortunate situation where no one is at fault.