MrJoel

New into the print world.. where to start?

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Ok, I’ve been cutting vinyl for over a decade.  One of my current lines is requiring 2-5000 black and chrome decals 1”x2” per month and the shop I used to work for quoted me $750 per 5k.  Well, I decided to buy a summa dc4sx and print/cut them myself.  So...what now?  I have coreldraw and I’ll have all the software that came with the summa (and 20 rolls of foil).  What format am I designing in and how does the workflow look?  How do I have the print/cut/flexcut set up?

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now you learn your equipment and new software, watch a lot of youtube videos, mess up a bunch and learn from those mistakes.  personally I drove 4 hrs each way to someone that had the set up I was looking to buy and learned a lot from them - and then made sure I never competed with them.   just like when you learned your plotter there is a learning process and part one you will learn is it is harder than you think to get high resolution images to print (unless of course you already designed them in vector format.  Then you will learn to create a contour area you want to cut and personally I saved those files in .eps because with versaworks for the roland it was easy to work with an eps even if it had a raster content with a vector contour.   

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Hey MrJoel...have you made any progress with your DC4? Ive been looking at these for over a year now and just cant bite the bullet. Ive looked for youtube videos that would give me a better idea of what im getting into but there just isnt enough out there for me to feel comfortable buying one yet. Theres always a learning curve but Im hoping to hear from you that the curve isnt steep or long. That would go a long way in convincing me to buy one myself. Let us know what progress youve made with it.

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10 minutes ago, hotrodz0321 said:

Hey MrJoel...have you made any progress with your DC4? Ive been looking at these for over a year now and just cant bite the bullet. Ive looked for youtube videos that would give me a better idea of what im getting into but there just isnt enough out there for me to feel comfortable buying one yet. Theres always a learning curve but Im hoping to hear from you that the curve isnt steep or long. That would go a long way in convincing me to buy one myself. Let us know what progress youve made with it.

not sure it helps but here is an old article from 2010 on the dc4   https://signs101.com/threads/summa-dc4-owners.69848/

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I’ve run a few jobs through it and have figured out how to design stuff and use the spot colors.  It’s doing what I need it too but there is not a lot of info on the webs about it.  And it’s freakin huge!

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I have mulled over the Summa thermals for several years especially since I already run a Summa cutter and am familiar with the quality of their machines. I still may go that route one of these days.  I hear from what I have read that they made some changes in the DC5 models that helped eliminate banding issues that sometimes happened in the older models. If you are doing multiple small decal type work I bet there are far less worries with that issue regardless of the model. 

I never quite got up the nerve to pull the trigger. I DID however pull the trigger on an old Gerber Edge printer and Envision plotter from Jburns here on the forum. I was out in his neck of the woods last year picking up a walking foot sewing machine that he was good enough to collect at an auction and hold for me until I could make the trip. Very similar concept to the DC it is thermal and uses Gerber take on the foils. I am still messing around with it and learning but it's pretty fun. I like that it can just sit there when I have nothing to print without worrying about print head clogs and ink. If the Summa is anything like the Gerber you definitely get a lot better color and brightness when working with spot colors than with process colors. The Gerber likes to use their software which I don't have but I have managed to get good workflow using Flexi. The long term decision on how that all shakes out is yet to be determined and am renting the use for now while I explore the whole process. I may just build in the cost to the work and shut it off in dead months or something. 

The only thing that ever bothered me about the DC is that the material width is evidently not negotiable or better put has just a few optional widths not infinite widths like the plotters have. You either print on 20" 24" or 30" on the DC5sx 30" machine. I'm sure there is a reason somewhere in there why you can't even go down to 15" material but that was a big debbie downer for me. The plotter part is basically the same drag knife that I run but without the ability to just use it as a plotter on it's own. At least on anything other than 24" or 30" material, Not even sure that the control center lets it just run as a plotter. I have never gotten the change to get close enough to play with one. Pretty much a purpose built machine. Good at what it does but sort of narrow in it's realm. 

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My initial cost on the decals I need for my amazon business we’re going to be around $750-1000 a month.  This DC4sx came by at $1250 and a rental truck and half a day to go get it.  I’ve now picked up a few other jobs that have more than paid for it.  The old shop I used to work at offered me their Old edge at $2k and it was a pro/con list for each.  It came down to me having all 30” material in stock and not wanting to get special sprocket 15” for the Gerber (although I like the footprint a lot better and this 600# beast had to come down my stairs!)

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11 hours ago, MrJoel said:

My initial cost on the decals I need for my amazon business we’re going to be around $750-1000 a month.  This DC4sx came by at $1250 and a rental truck and half a day to go get it.  I’ve now picked up a few other jobs that have more than paid for it.  The old shop I used to work at offered me their Old edge at $2k and it was a pro/con list for each.  It came down to me having all 30” material in stock and not wanting to get special sprocket 15” for the Gerber (although I like the footprint a lot better and this 600# beast had to come down my stairs!)

That's awesome man! 

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