The Panther was awesome! Was disappointed when it stopped working as it was no longer available so replaced it with that Roland that was junk compared to it.While i'm not familiar with that particular brand, we're still using a 30" Panther cutter we bought from them back in December 2005, so they can offer up some good stuff, for what it's worth...
I would be very leery of using that plotter for your contour cuts - Especially coming from your Summa
What RIP are you using, and does it provide drivers for that plotter?
Great idea on your catch basket! 2 questions for you;I did buy this Muse M60 plotter and have been pleasantly surprised at how well it contour cuts printed vinyl. It is spot on. I had to make a catch basket for it, but that was no big deal. It does not have a vacuum to suck the vinyl down against the platen. But, it does have 7 pinch rollers and 11 grit roller positions. Probably all I will ever use it for is contour cutting. It has 2 tool holders and can do etching and put creases in box material (for folding the box material into a box shape). It doesn't have the usual laser to read registration marks. It used a camera for that. It comes with LXI Expert 19. I use Flexi 12. They also have Mac software that you can download.
Thanks so much for the details answer! Definitely answered my doubts. I reached out to Leisa today. I'll update this post once I get a response from her. Thank you1) I don't know what to tell you about perf cut. I have never tried that, mostly because I don't want to cut into the cutting strip. My guess is that it will perf cut. After all, it will do etching in soft metals. To be sure you should call Signwarehouse and ask for Leisa.
2) The catch basket was fairly easy to make. I didn't have to drill any holes. I used 8 eye-bolts with a center diameter of a little more than .75" (I think they are 5/16"). A .75" aluminum tube is best for the rods that slide through the eye-bolts. A wooden dowel rod will work but won't slide as well. I made the rods for the back side 24" and 18" for the front side. I used a curtain rod front and rear to attach the basket. I used a shower rod in the middle to attach the basket. The basket material is a polyester fabric which doesn't wrinkle and hangs well. I'm not into sewing, so I used iron-on adhesive strips to hem the basket in 3 places. Hope that answers your question.
Last weekend I tried the plotter's segmented registration marks and they worked perfectly. This is a great feature that lets you put more registration marks along the sides of your graphics. This makes contour cutting long runs very accurate.
DO you or anyone else have problems with the Muse M60 Cutting strip? my keeps popping out of the channel after installing it. i have tried to use a screwdriver, double sided tape and everything but it keeps popping right back out.I'm looking at a Muse60 plotter sold by Signwarehouse. If you have ever used one of these, please share your opinion of it. If you have heard anything about it or even the smaller Muse plotters, share that, too. Thanks.