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Gerber Users ... Reviews Wanted

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bjones

New Member
I've only had my Edge FX for 6 months now, but so far I love it. Most of what I do is reproductions of 30 year old silkscreened artwork in short runs (2-300 pieces) and the Edge just does so many things found in previously silkscreened work that my ecosol printer simply can't do.

For years I struggled with the ecosol with banding, hitting bright colors and just general consistency along with the dithered look that all inkjet prints have. With my edge, colors are strong and vibrant and very very reliable from run to run. Add in specialty stuff like chromes, neons, super bright colors, deep blacks and white whites and it just wipes the floor with the ecosol for my purposes even if it is an almost 20 year old platform.

I had one equipment problem since getting the system and gerber handled it by overnighting me the parts and calling the next day to ensure I got the part and everything worked. Heck, they even sent me Omega 5 upgrade package and I didn't even know I had it coming :) Honestly, overall very very happy. It's a specialty printer for a specialty market, but it's damn good at it. For my purposes it just blows the doors off inkjet and jobs I used to have to outsource to silkscreeners have come in house because the quality of prints is so closely comparable.
 
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Designermite

New Member
Hello,

Started off in the 80s with the 4b and the cartridges..then a hacked 4b to run straight from computer and I use to take steel wool to the vinyl so it would accept paint to match the pms color...moved on to Gerber Advantage 6.2 and all of it's inceptions..then to Geber Omega 1.56 and it sat dormat for about 8 years as I managed a big box store...recently got into FlexiSign 10.5.1 PDF while working for a client and things have changed a bit I have noticed...welcome to 2012.
 
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boggey090

New Member
I have been cutting decals for my friends at the RC model cjub where I fly. I have recently retired and want to jump into a more entry level plotter. I have been looking at the Gerber Tempo 600 that includes the Omega CS program. If anyone has used this cutter I would appreciate your inputs and opinions on this product.

Thanks!
 
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A Signstore Inc

New Member
Been pretty happy with the Gerber products I've used in various places over the past decade. I learned on an Edge and have since used the Edge 2, and am now on the Edge FX. The Edge and Edge 2 were great from what I remember.

The FX I am using now was a Lemon from the day we got it. It printed great out of the box. I don't remember when the problems started, but I do remember what they were. We've replaced the print head, the mother board, the power supply, the data cable ,3 Z axis motors and some clutch wheels(forgot actual name). It still doesn't work right. More problems started again just last week. There is an ongoing problem with the head not going up and down properly. It's not the Z axis motor. Something is just worn out and won't work if I lift the cover all the way and put it back down. My Edge FX has been a HUGE headache.

Gerber service techs were hit or miss with this machine. Had some that were great and some that were determined to find something that I had changed or done wrong. After all, mother boards just don't go bad on new machines, or so I was told.

I've also used various plotters made by Gerber and they are champions. The seem to last forever. They have there little hiccups now and then, but for the most part they have been great.

Overall my opinion has been severely swayed to not wanting to use the Edge machines because I've my experiences with the Edge FX I have now.
 
Joe Crumley

Joe Crumley

New Member
I visited American Logo last week who has lots of Gerber equipment and is a real fan. They told me Gerber informed them during a casual conversation, by phone, they were planning to discontinue their plotters and software within a year.

I'm wondering if this is good information?

Joe Crumley
 
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X

xDaemoNx

New Member
i bought a secondhand gerber edge 2 and envision 375 last year with 40 foils for an pretty fair price. sadly haven't been able yet to use it as much as i want to
but i really love the machine, makes great results on what i do. i like to do old school stuff with
one or two colours and so much easier then to use inkjet or screen printing when i make stickers for punk,hardcore,metal bands etc.. also got an mutoh rockhopper that has given me more headaches then my gerber. it just keeps going and going..

very happy with my gerber edge 2 and envision 375
using flexisign with it
actually run them on an macpro with parallels software that runs windows xp in en emulated envoriment
and have 2 usb to serial and parallel that works flawless... worked faster and better then my 4 year old pc.
wouldn't had thought an emulated environment would work so good but it did and does... also have the whole software setup easily backed as a separate file incase something happens
 
Joe Crumley

Joe Crumley

New Member
My next door neighbor has an older Gerber CNC and called them for an update and was told they were not going to support routers any routers in the future.
 
Joe Crumley

Joe Crumley

New Member
Tony,

I hope you're right. However I've been hearing for some time Gerber will soon leave the router field. Please prove me wrong.

Joe
 
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Dana Goodale

New Member
Routers YES!

Hi Joe,

We recently discontinued support for the AR600.

However, we enthusiastically continue with Sabre routers and all our other printing, cutting and materials/consumable products!

Thanks very much for asking for clarification.

Dana Goodale
 
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mamabear34

New Member
Gerber Solara = HUGE MISTAKE!

MC_Signs said:
My purchasing the Solara UV2 is without a doubt my biggest mistake in 35 years of sign making.
Click to expand...

I feel exactly the same way. I purchased a used Solara UV 2 from Advantage Sign Supply. Gerber sent a technician several times, from out of state, and they practically rebuilt the machine on site. They were never able to get my printer to print vinyl properly. In the meantime, my time, materials and $$$$ went out the window.
Of course, Advantage offered to take the machine as a trade in and offered me $1500 credit!
As a small business, buying this printer proved to be the worst mistake in my 16 years of business. I feel that the supplier and manufacturer misrepresented the capabilities of this machine, and that was confirmed when Gerber decided to offer the 'new improved' ION, which also flopped.
Now, lo and behold, Gerber has pulled from the wide format market. GO figure. In the meantime, how many small businesses lost tens of thousands of dollars trying to make this machine perform.
My substrate delivery person told me that every customer that owned a Solara was unhappy with it's performance. I am amazed there has not been a class action suit against Gerber, quite frankly.
 
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S11930

New Member
i have been with gerber since 1990

envision 375 great plotter like a timex watch, omega 5.0 also great can't beat detail editing and other features. I wish and hope that gerber opens up it software to other printers like roland. I have the Roland sp540v and i can create in gerber export into flexi and print. or try and export as an eps and print through versa works. Someday when the planets align all sign making software will play nice together and be compatable
 
Fred Weiss

Fred Weiss

Merchant Member
mamabear34 said:
I feel exactly the same way. I purchased a used Solara UV 2 from Advantage Sign Supply. Gerber sent a technician several times, from out of state, and they practically rebuilt the machine on site. They were never able to get my printer to print vinyl properly. In the meantime, my time, materials and $$$$ went out the window.
Of course, Advantage offered to take the machine as a trade in and offered me $1500 credit!
As a small business, buying this printer proved to be the worst mistake in my 16 years of business. I feel that the supplier and manufacturer misrepresented the capabilities of this machine, and that was confirmed when Gerber decided to offer the 'new improved' ION, which also flopped.
Now, lo and behold, Gerber has pulled from the wide format market. GO figure. In the meantime, how many small businesses lost tens of thousands of dollars trying to make this machine perform.
My substrate delivery person told me that every customer that owned a Solara was unhappy with it's performance. I am amazed there has not been a class action suit against Gerber, quite frankly.
Click to expand...

S11930 said:
envision 375 great plotter like a timex watch, omega 5.0 also great can't beat detail editing and other features. I wish and hope that gerber opens up it software to other printers like roland. I have the Roland sp540v and i can create in gerber export into flexi and print. or try and export as an eps and print through versa works. Someday when the planets align all sign making software will play nice together and be compatable
Click to expand...

Please :readthread: and use the Product Reviews section of Signs 101. Here is the opening post:

Fred Weiss said:
Do you get tired of seeing posts wanting to know "What's the best plotter, printer, software, fill in the blank?". The new Signs 101 Product Reviews is aimed at developing an answer to this constantly asked question. But we need your help to develop this into a useful resource.

If you have direct experience with Gerber printers, plotters or software, please take a few minutes and tell us what you think by reviewing the products you know about.

Here's a link to the products that have been started so far. If there are missing products you'd like to review, just let us know and we'll add it into the mix.
Click to expand...
 
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adseureka

New Member
Gerber CAT|UV

We have one, works good a lot. When it doesn't it costs thousands and tech support only has one good guy. Flatbed = Gamble. We use Graphtec for cutting and Mutoh for printing. Everything but the Gerber works fine 100% of the time.
 
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mdleisure

New Member
Why I choose the Gerber.

I am not a full time printer but use printing a lot in my other business and i am using it more every week now people know.

For internal prints I use a couple of encads, They are superb for what i use them for, very cheap to run but thats another topic.

For external prints I had a converted rock hopper 2. The main problem, it was a convert from dye so no heaters and more important no auto clean cycle. The biggest problem is that if its not used daily then you risk clogging of the heads. I made sure that it was used to keep the heads running but then the unthinkable. I left it for about 2 weeks. It was unavoidable. I managed to get one side working but the other head was blocked. By the time I got around to trying again both heads had gone. That was it, To the big ebay in the sky for parts it went.

I am told that most solvent or eco solvent printers if not used even with an auto flush run the risk of clogging.

I recently got a second hand edge 2. It had not been used for 5 years. Yes 5 years, It was a gamble as I did not see it working, No media. I picked up some foils and some media and ran a test print. Apart from a few dust particles it ran a perfect test print. I dont use it every day and probably wont use it from month to month but at least I know when i need it it will work no matter how long its left alone.

I thought that i would easily be able to use my graphtec 5000 to contour my edge prints but after days of messing with the auto registration marks I once again scoured around for a gerber plotter. eventually it paid off and I recently got a gs15 plus plotter. I still need an eyepiece to line up perfectly the registration mark but on a near guess I contour cut an edge printed graphic and what do you know once again near perfect results.

I still have a few little issues to sort out with the knife holders etc but to me there should be a new slogan.

Gerber Edge Printing System - IT WORKS......

ok maybe a small line after ....... but its not the cheapest in the world.......and parts are expensive lol.

So yes to sum it up as a review. It works time after time, biggest problem is the width for large prints but using panels is no big problem.

Matt
 
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adseureka

New Member
I have the Gerber CAT|UV

gcrocker26 said:
I have a Gerber Solara Ion X. I love what it can do when it works. I'm more disappointed with Gerber Service.

There is no doubt that flatbed printing is the way of the future. I would never be in the sign business without a flatbed printer again.

It is probably best that Gerber abandoned this category if they can't properly support it. I think they need bulletproof products.
Click to expand...



No truer words said. When this printer (which its discontinued now) works it works great, but gerber service isn't even service. Don't buy a flatbed printer from GSP. Do your shopping.
 
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ChaseSign1

New Member
Gerber Edge 2

I have been using using Gerber Edges since the 90's and have had nothing but great success. This machine makes money! Recently we we just completed a 35 ft set of graphics for gas station canopies all printed from our edge. Not an issue!!
 
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