Looking for guidance on purchasing a starter vinyl cutter

[ebrown17]

I'm brand new to the forums and have just been clicking around looking at all it has to offer. There is a TON of information on here!
I'm just looking for some guidance on purchasing my first cutter. I'm thinking a 24 inch graphtec. I've worked in the sign industry as an employee and have just always used graphtecs. I have a lot of experience with illustrator as well. I was thinking I'd like to get an illustrator plug in to use to cut from.
So my questions are
Is the CE5000 graphtec series a good reliable cutter? Or is there a better option somewhere?
Also
How do I go about using illustrator to cut from? Are there guides somewhere that I can read?

Thanks so much for the help!

 

[Gino]

Welcome from PA..........................

 

[iprint]

We do a very limited amount of cut vinyl, but our CE5000 has always been reliable. It comes with a plug-in to allow you to cut from Illustrator and is super easy to use especially for those familiar with Illustrator.

 

[ebrown17]

Thanks for the info! Is there a place to buy it from that you would recommend?