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DecalAvenue

What cutter to buy?

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Hi. Like I say before I do decals as a hobby and have a small cutter 12", but people start asking if I do big jobs, so what 24" or bigger cutter I should buy? What brand is best?

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I wanted the best  -  Graphtec or Roland - Ended up with a Roland GX-24 (used since it was what I could afford) and I love it.

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I swear by graphtec but from what I've been reading lately with the ce6000 I will either stay ce5000 or look into 4 land for my next cutter.

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I have never used a Graphtec but I have owned a SC & Tittan2 I would suggest the Tittan2 if you can afford it. The SC works just fine also and if you are starting out it's one of the better value cutters. The SC will cut precise however the tracking is a bit tricky but once you understand the machine it will make almost anything. 

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The best you can afford and plan to save for a better one if

it's not a Graphtec, Roland or Summa.

 

Often there are good deals around on used if you watch.

 

Sue2

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I swear by graphtec but from what I've been reading lately with the ce6000 I will either stay ce5000 or look into 4 land for my next cutter.

 

What have you heard about the ce6000?

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What have you heard about the ce6000?

 

 

+ 1...

 

 

My CE6000-60 is excellent.  I think it is inevitable that some may experience problems with their cutter even when its a high end brand.

 

I think many times its due to software issues or user error which you cant fault Graphtec for...

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At least twice cutters were replacd being bad as new and someone recently sent one back and went to Roland because nobody could resolve their issues with the ce6000. Might just be a couple bad apples but I can't recall reading anything about a ce5000 other than user error.

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At least twice cutters were replacd being bad as new and someone recently sent one back and went to Roland because nobody could resolve their issues with the ce6000. Might just be a couple bad apples but I can't recall reading anything about a ce5000 other than user error.

 

 

My money is still on that was some type of software conflict -  Being that i had the exact same problem, but after changing hard drives in my mac, reinstalling adobe software and new cutting master plugin the problem was resolved.  I have not had the need to test Graphtec's support, and i hope that i don't have to.  ;D

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I wasn't personally involved so I can't say 100% but it seemed like graphtec was involved in at least 1 I read about and they ended up replacing the cutter. I still love graphtec but I'd be careful buying a ce6000 used because at least new you have a warranty if these things arise.

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I was one of the people having problems with a CE6000-60.  I am positive it was not a software or computer issue at this point. The Graphtec techs had me try it on 2 PC’s 1 of the PC’s was a fresh install and we also tried it on a Mac.  The Issue was also happening when the techs had me send files directly to the cutter bypassing the software using one of their utility programs. The Roland GX-24 has been running great right out of the box.  I honestly think I received 2 bad machines in a row.
 

I think the Graphtec has a much better feature set and just seemed more modern overall.  Also having the stand included is key.  I hate not having a stand with the GX-24 and I am either going to buy a cheap stand and modify it or fork over the $300 to Roland.

 

I was also not impressed by Graphtec’s tech support.

 

I would still recommend either one at this point just make sure whoever you use as a vender will stand behind the product in case you do have any issues.

 

Does anybody know how Mimaki stacks up against Graphtec & Roland.  I just noticed UScutter is now selling them. Just curious?

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Does anybody know how Mimaki stacks up against Graphtec & Roland.  I just noticed UScutter is now selling them. Just curious?

I have never heard of anyone buying it,  but here is something to take notice  On the ad:

 

Drop Ship:

Will ship directly from the supplier's warehouse to your address. May take longer to arrive than our regular ETA. Is not eligible for return.

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I do not like the idea of no returns either. I know when looking through my Grimco catalog they carry Graphtec and Mimaki cutters and it is at the same price point as the Roland and Graphtec.

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love my ce6000.  I think a lot of that was new users overthinking it - I'm confident enough that I would have bought the ones they sent back!

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<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="dakotagrafx" data-cid="369196" data-time="1408847440"><p>

love my ce6000. I think a lot of that was new users overthinking it - I'm confident enough that I would have bought the ones they sent back!</p></blockquote

Me too but would you but one used without the warranty. At least 1 I read about couldn't make a clean test cut and I think that was the one graphtec was involved with but I band remember. I know what to look for when buying used as do you a Scott which gives us an advantage over somebody going on blind.

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<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="dakotagrafx" data-cid="369196" data-time="1408847440"><p>

love my ce6000. I think a lot of that was new users overthinking it - I'm confident enough that I would have bought the ones they sent back!</p></blockquote

Me too but would you but one used without the warranty. At least 1 I read about couldn't make a clean test cut and I think that was the one graphtec was involved with but I band remember. I know what to look for when buying used as do you a Scott which gives us an advantage over somebody going on blind.

experience gained from working with our value cutters taught us a lot about troubleshooting too.

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Yup Im sure it could of been user issue 2 bad machines and each machine is tested right before it ships from the manufacturing plant.most dont even know what blade angle offset is and usuall set the offset.

One person on here last week just had that same issue and he was using the blue holder but had it set to the red and his offset angle was set to a 60* blade but he was using a 45* blade

He changed that all his cuts were back normal.

I know some machines are bad but they fix those real fast.

My next one will be the ce6000-40 for mobile work

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busterbay- tracking on the SC. Mine tracks off so I can't do anything of great length. Any tips. I have someone wanting a banner type cut for his trailer. About 15 feet long with me cutting the words out and him installing the whole strip with the trailer color showing through the negative space of the words. Glad they don't want me to install. !!!

Need tracking advice. Thanks.

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busterbay- tracking on the SC. Mine tracks off so I can't do anything of great length. Any tips. I have someone wanting a banner type cut for his trailer. About 15 feet long with me cutting the words out and him installing the whole strip with the trailer color showing through the negative space of the words. Glad they don't want me to install. !!!

Need tracking advice. Thanks.

Get the 7 day trial of SignCut Pro and use the Step-by-step cutting option. I would suggest also using the preview before cutting as it will let you see the step by step in action ad you can decide if it would be better to adjust the lenth you allow it to go in each step. Sometimes on text only graphics the step by step doesn't work as well though so depending on the size of your text it may or may not work great. Big text OK, lots of smaller NOT OK. 

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Back when I had my P-Cut I used to specifically design my text and graphics in a workflow that would just work it's way along each word without jumping around. (in Illustrator I ordered my objects or letters to flow from one to the next in the stack within the layer. Not sure if this is an option in whatever design program you are using). I now have a Summa and haven't needed to worry about it but I noticed that the progress of the work proceeds across the design without doing too much back and forth all on it's own. I don't know if that is a product of the drivers for the Summa or just an upgraded feature that does that on all cutters since I was using it on my P-Cut. I have had great success with the signcut program and they have wonderful (live) tech support if you run into any issues getting it going.  

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busterbay- tracking on the SC. Mine tracks off so I can't do anything of great length. Any tips. I have someone wanting a banner type cut for his trailer. About 15 feet long with me cutting the words out and him installing the whole strip with the trailer color showing through the negative space of the words. Glad they don't want me to install. !!!

Need tracking advice. Thanks.

 

Slow the speed down and turn the wheel pressure up.

 

I don't cut anything over 4 foot long on my SC I cut the longer stuff on my Titan2.

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busterbay- tracking on the SC. Mine tracks off so I can't do anything of great length. Any tips. I have someone wanting a banner type cut for his trailer. About 15 feet long with me cutting the words out and him installing the whole strip with the trailer color showing through the negative space of the words. Glad they don't want me to install. !!!

Need tracking advice. Thanks.

 

 

You could buy oversize vinyl and shoot for the middle knowing on that long of a run the SC will not track straight. But most likely  when you close the rectangle it will be misaligned,  

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