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Graphtec vs Summa cutters

Rooster

Rooster

New Member
Zambookajoe said:
Is it hard to setup or a piece of cake
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I'd never used a vinyl cutter before and was up and running with the system (Summa T140) within minutes. I use it with my JV33 and a wasatch rip with the contour cut option.

My summa arrived with a strange problem where it was occasionally not recognizing the head positions. One call to tech support and within 24 hrs I had a new mainboard installed and it's been rock solid ever since.
 
G

gamerxr72

New Member
I use both a Graphtec FC7000-160 and a SumaSign T1300.

One difference is that the graphtec uses a drag knife and the suma uses a tangential knife. It means that my suma can cut a smaller font than my graphtec.

Overall I'd say the FC7000-160 is a superior machine to the SumaSign T1300.

There are things I like about the suma, the tangential knife being one of them. It is just easier overall to do smaller jobs and thick reflective materials on the suma.

One thing my suma does better is cutting small scraps of expensive materials that I save every square inch of, like adhesive backed gold leaf. But it doesn't have an expand feature like my graphtec. The expand feature lets you cut beyond the measured cutting area on a graphtec fc7000, which is good for getting that last 0.4 inches of cut area taken up by the pinch rollers if you really need it.
 
CES020

CES020

New Member
Add me to the "We have a graphtec and it'll be the last one we ever buy" column. Stopped working right after several months and they've blamed it on everyone but themselves. They have repeatedly told me it's the material. Doesn't matter what material we use, but "it's the material" is always their comment. Buy the material, cutters, and machine all from the same place, so you'd think they'd have some ownership of the issue, but they don't.

Everyone openly admits it's not working right, but no one makes any effort to make it work right. The factory just keeps saying the same thing "It's not the machine".

So we won't own another one.
 
artsnletters

artsnletters

New Member
I also have a Summa T-750 30" AND a Summa T-610 24" plotter(s)...both on the same "chassis" and share same basic architecture. The tangental heads cut detailed stuff like nobodys business (and fast)...problem as previously mentioned the older ones like these the tangental heads go out and start cutting incomplete segments of finishing cuts. I've used as loaners Graphtec and Roland and found the user interface MUCH easier with the Summa (IMO). I need to send in my T-750 to Summa for a tune up and all this considered i would STILL have another Summa...they really do cut well and quite fast. I would hope that the newer models don't have these problems with the T heads. They do have the OPOS option as well, many of my friends use these for the contour cutting of their digital prints.
Tim
 
David Wright

David Wright

New Member
artsnletters said:
I also have a Summa T-750 30" AND a Summa T-610 24" plotter(s)...both on the same "chassis" and share same basic architecture. The tangental heads cut detailed stuff like nobodys business (and fast)...problem as previously mentioned the older ones like these the tangental heads go out and start cutting incomplete segments of finishing cuts. I've used as loaners Graphtec and Roland and found the user interface MUCH easier with the Summa (IMO). I need to send in my T-750 to Summa for a tune up and all this considered i would STILL have another Summa...they really do cut well and quite fast. I would hope that the newer models don't have these problems with the T heads. They do have the OPOS option as well, many of my friends use these for the contour cutting of their digital prints.
Tim
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I would do more than hope if Summas newer models have the T-head problem, I would verify. Hope isn't helping my T-750.
 
artsnletters

artsnletters

New Member
David Wright said:
I would do more than hope if Summas newer models have the T-head problem, I would verify. Hope isn't helping my T-750.
Click to expand...
Like Summa is going to give a straight answer on that one...The whole t-head thing pisses me off but when they are cutting like they're should i don't think any thing can touch 'em. The service rep suggested i use a drag blade as a stop-gap method but i REALLY need to send it back for service (and a $1000 parts bill)...ouch. It's definitely a love-hate thing with the older Summa tangentals...
Tim
 
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