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MASTER Vinyl Cutter Plotter (Desay Canada)
- Thread starter bohica1981
- Start date
I am wanting to buy a cutter. I am just starting out. All I want to know is that the cutter I buys is going to last me until I can afford a really good one. All I am doing right now is t-shirts. I compared the prices and I know the 35" master cutter/plotter is awful big for just doing t-shirts. But I compared the prices of that to the smaller cutters and the prices are about the same. So I figured I would get a bigger since the price is about the same. What do you guys think??
Fred Weiss
Merchant Member
I think you will get a better set of answers if:
1. You introduce yourself in a separate thread and
2. Post a new thread for your question.
Here's a link to how to start a new thread.
Buddy
New Member
I have a nice 2100 series Graphtec for sale. PM me or send email if you're interested.
BUDDY
signgirl71
New Member
I would like to chime in here. I have been in the sign industry since 1989. When my husband and I decided to open our own business we did not have the money to do it. So, he went on ebay and purchased a 24" master. Having used all the good brand named plotters out there - I was not happy at all with his purchase. But let me tell you - that 24" master plotter came with flexi for $400. Any problems we had, being needing drivers or tracking issues were quickly fixed by the excellent customer support we got from Desay (and granted this was purchased used and not directly from them). They sent us extra pinch wheels at no charge, drivers through the email and answered any questions we had. I hated this machine because it was so noisy I couldn't be near it while I spoke on the phone and could swear I could hear the thing cutting halfway down the street. Well, long story short - if you could use one plotter you could use them all. This cheap plotter made us enough money to buy several printers (we had a 44" pigment and a few larger eco-solvents). It made us enough money for our Roland printer we have now, our laminator and our graphtec plotter. We have it in a back room as a back up plotter just in case. I have done alot of really nice layered work with the master and personally I say, if you know what your doing you can work with just about any plotter - no matter how cheap or noisy - and it will make you enough money to buy a better brand. So, to start off with a tiny budget - go for it - just buy a set of ear plugs!
A few years ago we bought a 54" master cutter just to do simple signs and banners. It did what we needed it to do, and if our only option would have been the $8,000 cuter that we have now, we would have never gotton into the industry.
Yes, they work, and most of the time it will do what you need it to do. But at some point, when you have the volume, you will need to go to a better cutter.
That's not the point.... the real issue is how much money you could sell cut vinyl for back in the early 90's.... it was a lot more than you can get now.
If you spent 25 grand on a machine you made a hell of a lot more in return.
The Equipment Guy
New Member
I sold Gerber for years, then Mimaki and a bunch of stuff in between. I am in the same city as Desay. They are of course a small distributor, and they try hard over the phone, but they get stretched out when it comes to really trying to go the extra mile or especially if there is an issue where you might need to replace a lemon. Good price though. Most drivers are still available, if you are stuck I can usually find them.
I think the "knocking" is as a result of the pricing removing the barrier to entry for people who can become "sign makers" for less than $3000. This leads to a lot of inexperienced newbies that quite often did not learn the business first, but just "bought in". There are examples of this in every industry. I remember my mechanic years ago cursing every time the local hardware stores started making automotive tools more available to the end users. Its inevitable.
My personal opinion, and its only just an opinion, is that if you are looking for a backup, an event plotter or just don't do a lot of cutting, then these can be pretty good bargains, but you do have to accept some limitations and quirks. My business is used equipment, I prefer to see someone into a nice Used Graphtec or Summa for almost the same money and then they have a rugged machine that could last them for years and support growth and a higher volume. Lots more support too...both from the manufacturer and your peers.
One thing that bugs me is that Ebay pricing...If they are making money at the Ebay price....That means they must be selling to some unaware buyers at a 3 times markup...thats a TON more than I have ever made on a machine!
Craig
I think the "knocking" is as a result of the pricing removing the barrier to entry for people who can become "sign makers" for less than $3000. This leads to a lot of inexperienced newbies that quite often did not learn the business first, but just "bought in". There are examples of this in every industry. I remember my mechanic years ago cursing every time the local hardware stores started making automotive tools more available to the end users. Its inevitable.
My personal opinion, and its only just an opinion, is that if you are looking for a backup, an event plotter or just don't do a lot of cutting, then these can be pretty good bargains, but you do have to accept some limitations and quirks. My business is used equipment, I prefer to see someone into a nice Used Graphtec or Summa for almost the same money and then they have a rugged machine that could last them for years and support growth and a higher volume. Lots more support too...both from the manufacturer and your peers.
One thing that bugs me is that Ebay pricing...If they are making money at the Ebay price....That means they must be selling to some unaware buyers at a 3 times markup...thats a TON more than I have ever made on a machine!
Craig
petrosgraphics
New Member
we have all started somewhere... on a shoestring, working for someone to get a little knowledge... not knowing what is out there from software for cutting, printing, design,
hardware for the same..seeing you can afford, that can even mean spending a little more
what ever that $ amount is...... years ago i bought a used Roland CAMM-1 24" plotter
did not pay a whole lot of money for it, i never had a problem with it.. still use it every now and then..... the little workhorse.. so it is all in what you can truly afford, when you start to make more money, you can move on to a bigger and better machine, as i am sure we all did.....
hardware for the same..seeing you can afford, that can even mean spending a little more
what ever that $ amount is...... years ago i bought a used Roland CAMM-1 24" plotter
did not pay a whole lot of money for it, i never had a problem with it.. still use it every now and then..... the little workhorse.. so it is all in what you can truly afford, when you start to make more money, you can move on to a bigger and better machine, as i am sure we all did.....
Techman
New Member
No, that barrier had nothing to do with it.
Its because the machines are a pile of junk. They caused more damage and pain to those who bought this pile of junk.
The company let good persons fail and forced them to come to site like this to get tech support they should be providing.
It got ridiculous on how many persons were posting here, there and every where else asking the same questions to fix the same problems over and over. Most of those problems should never been a problem. We almost never saw a noobie posting for help with a name brand machine. All to often the question could not be answered because there was no single answer for each problem.
As for we all started somewhere. That is no problem. The real problem is when some noobie comes in asking for help in the middle of a job he had no business attempting to perform in the first place. Then would reply back with some lame attack on the answer.
thesignguy1986
New Member
I'll be honest when I started out I bought a cheap plotter that was a creation pc cut. It honestly laster probably around 2 months. I then bought a Copam 24" plotter and to be honest it's the best $800 I think is out there and other then the noise I'd buy one over a roland anyday. I did just recently purchase a DGI Omega Plotter though that is just a workhorse and in my opinion is the best plotter available. Though Graphtec is awesome I'd still take a DGI. Now back to the subject of first starting out if you have a master and it's getting you by then all the better and keep it up. Though when your able to buy a newer better plotter I would defintally do so.
Wow i can't believe it. Its been 2 years i didnt came here, and you keep bashing on these plotter!!! Do yourself a favor and GET A LIFE, at least an exiting one.
For my part, i found what the problem was. It was a comunication problem. I was runing on osx with a usb adaptor. THAT WAS THE PROBLEM. Nothing to do with static and humidity and shit like that. Its was only a comunication problem, nothing else. I switched on a pc and connect via the parallel port. Works like a charm. I can even cut a full 10yd roll with lots of details without any issue. I'm still using my xp-300p full time after 2 years. Yes its loud, yes the keypad will fail, yes customers service sucks (they are chinese after all), but hey, it does the job as well as a Graphtec or a Roland will do for 1/10 of the price and it has paid for itself over 1000 times. That said, i can live with the noise.
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Dave Drane
New Member
This is a very good reply.
OMG SORRY maybe i lost notion of time... I'm not that kind of guy who live and pass all his free time on the internet and forums like you and oldpaint do. Its funny that you keep yourself updated every days. IT SAYS IT ALL!
My first was Master brand and was perfectly fine with it. Only thing is it is little loud when cutting which I did not notice until I purchased Mimaki for the registration detection. It's workhorse and haven't failed me once.
Software is basic, but if you have illustrator (and KNOW how to use it), you can create whatever you want and import to cut. The purchased art clips are junk since some of them may have 2 or more cut lines on the same path which end up cutting through the vinyl and to the paper and ruining the entire job.
Based on my experience, it is a great start up machine or even as the back up machine.
Software is basic, but if you have illustrator (and KNOW how to use it), you can create whatever you want and import to cut. The purchased art clips are junk since some of them may have 2 or more cut lines on the same path which end up cutting through the vinyl and to the paper and ruining the entire job.
Based on my experience, it is a great start up machine or even as the back up machine.
