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Mutoh & Contour Cutting

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paul123

New Member
Hi,
I am new to this forum and just starting up my own business after 12 years in the general screen print trade. I am going to purchase a 1204 Valuejet and a laminator, only trouble is that I already own an old Graphtec vinyl cutter that obviously doesn't have the registration to cut the digital print media from the mutoh.

My question is if my general work is real estate signboards, site signs, A-Frames, vehicle signage etc, would I really miss having the ability to contour cut my digital prints? At least until I become established.

Any advice would be appreciated

Thanks
Paul :Australia
 
Compilla

Compilla

New Member
I am not sure what Graphtec cutter you got and what RIP comes with your VJ, but if you get FLEXI you can contour cut using the manual 4 point method.
 
DRPSignsNGrafix

DRPSignsNGrafix

New Member
U do not need the eye to read the marks. You can tell it where the marks are, then it will be able to cut. Takes longer and is more of a pain in the butt. But it does work.
 
SignosaurusRex

SignosaurusRex

Active Member
I.M.H.O., Get a New Graphtec or Summa plotter as well to go with the printer. I think that if you don't, very soon you will wish you had, especially for the purpose of contour cutting. We quickly found that we were doing much more and larger print w/ contour cut projects than we expected. Match your plotter size/capabilities as close to the printer as you can and your budget allows. Additionally, you should be able to find a good package price for all....saving a little on each item. We married the VJ 1204 up with a Graphtec FC7000 and Wasatch SoftRip and Love it. The FLEXI would also be an excellent choice.
 
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paul123

New Member
Sounds like I need to make the initial investment. Has anyone regretted purchasing the Mutoh as apposed to the Roland which has the cutter included?
 
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Steve C.

New Member
It's been an ongoing debate for some time. I think it's a personal thing, but
most think having 2 machines is preferable to printer and cutter in one.
We've had our 48" Mutoh Falcon Outdoor for 4 yrs. now. It's been a good
printer.
 
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Steve C.

New Member
One other suggestion. Unless you plan to do a lot of large vehicle graphics
or a lot of other very large prints that need to last a long time out doors, I
would save the cost of a laminator and spend it on a good cutter to do
contour. The Big Squeegee or just laminating small stuff with liquid laminate
will do just fine for most jobs. When we first got our printer, lamination was
a big worry for me. But we have managed just fine with out one.
 
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paul123

New Member
Okay, thats something I did't consider was the liquid laminating. Is the liquid laminate sprayed on? I vaigly remember reading about a liquid laminating machine a while ago.
 
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Steve C.

New Member
Have a look at the Big Squeegee. IMO real estate signs don't require
lamination. Most will not need to last more that 3 yrs. I roll laminate banners
and spray laminate 4x8 mdo, etc. We have applied lamination to prints as
large as 4x16 by hand. My point is that you can get by without a lamination
machine easier than without a good contour cutter. I have used or seen
a liquid laminator, but it sounds messy to me.
 
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paul123

New Member
Yeah I am a screen printer and I quite often laminate screen printed signs by hand with anti-graffiti (Tedlar) usually up to about 1000mm x 760mm sheets.
One advantage I thought I would be missing out on is the fact that I would be able to digitally print vinyl and cut so as to save on cast vinyl coloured stock etc.
 
R08

R08

New Member
I bought a second hand Mutoh 48 printer with the Mutoh ultima cutter and they work like a charm.
 
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gnemmas

New Member
Even though our plotter has OPOS, I still see the pain sometimes to read the reg. marks, and it can only do about 8 feet long a a time. I have directed my fabricating staff to hand cut the straight-line-only printings. Only use the plotter to contour cut shaped decals.
 
Conor Knoxx

Conor Knoxx

New Member
I have a 1204 Mutoh (and love it) along with a cheap-ass "master cutter".

Now, this cutter is workhorse, no question there. Cuts all day with hardly any maintainance (noisy as hell, lol) and even cuts pretty straight, if you're careful loading the media. Did I mention it was crazy-cheap? :wink:

Well, I can say that a nice Graphtec or Summa is at the very top of my "equipment to buy this year" list, lol.

The ability to find registration marks and accurately contour cut stuff is VERY important, in my experience. I can do it now ( I can still hear the Mutoh installer/tech saying "good luck with that" when I asked about contour cutting on the Master Cutter) but its SOOOO tedious, so hit/miss and if anything is very big at all, its gonna run out of alignment, guaranteed...

I feel my heart sink everytime a project comes up, where I know I'm gonna have to struggle with this.

If you value your time, material and hair - get a nice cutter while you're at it :biggrin:
 
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