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Small Cutter Recommendations

WiseDesign

New Member
Hello,
I am looking for recommendations for a small vinyl cutter to use at home. The decals are for RC cars and it would need to be very accurate, and be able to recognize registration marks on metallic vinyls (mainly chrome). I'll attach a couple of the ones I've made at work.

The reason for me looking to cut these at home is because I don't want to rely on the production guy at work being able to get to them done in a timely manner, or having my boss get annoyed by the amount of decals I've been making. Plus, I have to pay a little bit each time I make some. It's a decent arrangement now, but I don't know how long this will work out for.

We've been using an HP latex and a large graphtec cutter with flexi.
My idea is to print them at work, and cut them at home. The production guy is getting frustrated with our cutter finding the registration marks on chrome and I don't want my side gig to be a burden to him or waste his time. The printing has been going very smooth and quick however.

Ideally, I think most of the RC decals are made with a gerber edge or something similar to that, but I'm not sure if that would even be in my price range. The number in my head was around 2k that I'd like to spend but maybe that's unrealistic.
Would a graphtec 15" cutter be a good solution to this situation? Maybe I start out with getting a small cutter at home and work my way up to purchasing a printer later on? Any print/cut machines I should be aware of?

Thank you in advance for any insight. I'm pretty new to making decals and I'm just trying to think about my options.
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WiseDesign

New Member
Put a piece of transfer tape over the registration mark and draw it in with a pen. then it'll read without a problem
We did try this today and it seemed to help with being able to find the marks, but then we noticed the cuts were off. White vinyl was perfect.
We didn’t try drawing on it with a pen though. Just tried the tape only. We’ll have to do some more testing on that.
Either way, I’ll need to start thinking about getting started with some of my own equipment.
 

WiseDesign

New Member
We did try this today and it seemed to help with being able to find the marks, but then we noticed the cuts were off. White vinyl was perfect.
We didn’t try drawing on it with a pen though. Just tried the tape only. We’ll have to do some more testing on that.
Either way, I’ll need to start thinking about getting started with some of my own equipment.
I reread your comment and and we actually didn't try the transfer tape method. We used a transparent matte tape. Thanks, I'll try the transfer tape.
 

Stacey K

I like making signs
IMO, you are already using the best cutter out there - a Graphtec. I would get nothing but Graphtec. I had one for 17 years and it still works great. Never let me down, cuts perfectly straight lines for 20'. I bought a printer and it came with a Summa. It's good but nothing beats a Graphtec.
 

WiseDesign

New Member
IMO, you are already using the best cutter out there - a Graphtec. I would get nothing but Graphtec. I had one for 17 years and it still works great. Never let me down, cuts perfectly straight lines for 20'. I bought a printer and it came with a Summa. It's good but nothing beats a Graphtec.
Thanks for the reply. Maybe I will get a 24” graphtec for home then. So I don’t bog down production at my day job. I can have production fire off the prints at work, then cut at home on my own time
 

Boudica

I'm here for Educational Purposes
IMO, you are already using the best cutter out there - a Graphtec. I would get nothing but Graphtec. I had one for 17 years and it still works great. Never let me down, cuts perfectly straight lines for 20'. I bought a printer and it came with a Summa. It's good but nothing beats a Graphtec.
I've never used a Graphtec - we have a Summa and I love it. Notareal isn't loving his though ... yet.
 

FireSprint.com

Trade Only Screen & Digital Sign Printing
We run 5 Graphtecs at FireSprint. We run millions of small decals. They are great machines.

Summas are also very good, but we didn’t like the workflow integration into our automations. Most don’t need that tho. You’d be in good shape either way.
 

Notarealsignguy

Arial - it's almost helvetica
I've never used a Graphtec - we have a Summa and I love it. Notareal isn't loving his though ... yet.
It's just trying to figure out GoSign and the corel plugin. I hate changing software. To me, between the graphtec FC9000 and the summa S2T with the opos cam, there is no comparison. I should have just bought the summa to begin with.
 

WiseDesign

New Member
We run 5 Graphtecs at FireSprint. We run millions of small decals. They are great machines.

Summas are also very good, but we didn’t like the workflow integration into our automations. Most don’t need that tho. You’d be in good shape either way.
What programs are you using with it?
Any issues with metallic vinyls such as chrome?
 

Mr.Signboy

New Member
It's just trying to figure out GoSign and the corel plugin. I hate changing software. To me, between the graphtec FC9000 and the summa S2T with the opos cam, there is no comparison. I should have just bought the summa to begin with.
I’m went through( and still am a little) the same thing. I watched all of Summa’s YouTube videos and learned a lot and feel way better about GoSign and the Corel plug-in. There’s still a couple quirks I’m working out but, I really like it.
 
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