Help Choosing a Cutter

[D.R. Smith57]

ANYONE - I'm totally new to all of this, but I'm wanting to make mostly window stickers and some T-shirts using a heat press, so I want something like the Roland GX-24 or the Robo 5000-15" or 24" - both have the electronic eye recognition capability. Can anyone recomend one over the other or recomend something else? Thanks for your help.

 

[D&Tgraphics]

Rolands are good but I personally like the Graphtec.

 

[Pro Image]

You can't go wrong for you first cutter with either one........

 

[511graphix]

are you going new or used

 

[OldPaint]

with ROLAND you can cut from COREL................and no other program needed.

 

[Kottwitz-Graphics]

with ROLAND you can cut from COREL................and no other program needed.

Sorry, OP, I gotta throw my pennies in the bucket...

I have a Summa, and I like it better than Roland. I always had problems getting the Roland to track straight (The guy that owns it could load it straight most of the time). Also had problems with it when it had 50 yard rolls of material, you had to roll the material out, or when it reached the end, would "snag" and you'd end up loosing that run. (The machine was about 7 years old, and was a Camm-1. I don't know if the new ones are any better)

With Summa, it has marks front and back to align the roll. The summa when is loaded will pull out about 24-30 of material, run, and when it hits the end,pauses, pulls out another 24-30 of material, and continues on. They do include a bridge program that sends the job to the machine, so I design in Corel 13, and send the cut file directly to the plotter with the bridge. You can upgrade to Co-Cut Pro for about $400, and that gives you the ablility to add weed lines, outlines, and a couple of other things.

 

[w2csa]

Roland here, great support and as OldPaint says, u can cut from Corel

 

[MariaMartini]

I bought my Graphtec from this website - http://specialty-graphics.com/. Very happy with it. They offer package deals with the heat press in it and everything.

I am going to private message you a coupon code I have for 5% off.

 

[Fuzzbuster]

I `ve owned both... they are both good and have different features but i now prefer Graphtec

 

[D.R. Smith57]

Thanks so much for your feedback. It almost sounds like the old "Ford or Chevy" preference. Do you know of any sites that compare or review various cutters?
--- I also don't mind a used machine as long as it will do the job. ---

 

[Sign-Man Signs]

We just got a new Graphtec CE5000-60 and it's GREAT! I've bad mouthed Graphtec so long until now. Thank you Sign Warehouse!

 

[Idea Design]

...It almost sounds like the old "Ford or Chevy" preference....

That's exactly what this is. The best advice I can give you is to stick with one of the big names that keeps coming up; Graphtec, Roland, Summa. When this question is asked, you'll always find old timers and experienced people arguing about which one is the best, but they're never arguing about anything other than the big three.

Stay away from anything names after an animal.

I have a Graphtec CE3000-60 and a Graphtec FC7000-130 and wouldn't trade either one of them for anything. Love 'em both.

Good luck to ya.

 

[Techman]

ya,, big names only like mentioned above and ADP too.
All birds, cats decay and master will cause you pain.

 

[511graphix]

yeah I got attacted by my panther last night and it hurt OOOOO the pain LOL j/k techman

 

[OldPaint]

Sorry, OP, I gotta throw my pennies in the bucket...

I have a Summa, and I like it better than Roland. I always had problems getting the Roland to track straight (The guy that owns it could load it straight most of the time). Also had problems with it when it had 50 yard rolls of material, you had to roll the material out, or when it reached the end, would "snag" and you'd end up loosing that run. (The machine was about 7 years old, and was a Camm-1. I don't know if the new ones are any better)

all ROLANDS are CAMM-1. i started with a PNC-1000. 15-20" cutter. bad on aliginment, if you dont set it right to begin with. i did 20 ft runs with it, when needed. i moved up to PNC-1100, have 2 of these. 24", tracking was better, but still had to line up right to start.
i now have a CX-300 and its great. STILL need to line up properly, and it will feed page size, then go back to begining and cut.
and with all these since 93, ive cut from corel, and nothing else. i never used a summa or graphtec, so i can say anything about em, but i belive SUMMA , has a driver that will also cut DIRECT FROM COREL.

 

[Idea Design]

... but i belive SUMMA , has a driver that will also cut DIRECT FROM COREL...

And if you're interested in Graphtec, they have a plug-in for illustrator that will cut directly from illustrator.

 

[Jackpine]

Both are good, but my choice would be a Graphtec CE5000Mk2-60. It comes with a stand and plugin cutting software for Corel and Illustrator.