Hello Everyone,
I've been absorbing info from this site for the past few weeks and have learned enough (hopefully) to ask a few questions. First a bit about my situation. I'm not intersted in going into the sign business but rather using sign making equipment (vinyl cutters and print & cut systems) to make personalized items(both vinyl and apparel) for motocross racers such as Name & Number the back of racing jerseys, sponsor transfers and stickers, bike graphics, ect. I have a friend in the sign business who is willing to let me use his equipment (Gerber Edge and cutter) but, unfortunately he lives nearly 2 hours away from me. For the past few weeks I've been getting up at 5am on saturday morning and driving over there to spend the day "apprentencing" so that I can learn a little about how things work. Last week he left me the keys when he went home at 5:00pm and I ended up staying until midnight....now that's a long day but I'm really enjoying the experience. I own a machine shop and run NC equipment all day long so this is a welcome diversion. So far I've experimented with contour cutting and applying hot split plastisol as well as color printing and contour cutting COLORPRINT thermal heat transfer media and have been pleased with the results. So here are a few of my questions! First of all, understand that my only experience so far is with Gerber products. It seems to me, based on what I'm seeing on the internet, the Gerber is the only one using punched media with a sprocket drive and all the others are using friction drives. It would seem to me that a friction drive would be much less accurate yet, since the majority of manufacturers use that method I'm apparently wrong in that assumption.....any comments would be appreciated. Also it seems that most plotter/cutters use some form of swiveling cutter knife whereas the Gerber unit I'm working with servo drives the knife to point it in the direction of cut. Again the Gerber method seems superior but is the swiveling knife method acceptable for most applications? I did use a swivel knife once in the Gerber unit cutting small text from vinyl and wasn't at all impressed with the results but for all I know it may have been something as simple as a dull knife! I had been considering a Roland Colorcamm for what I want to do but the only people who seem to have anything good to say about them are the dealers who sell them.....are they really that problematic??? And if indeed I should steer clear of them then what, if anything, is in between a Colorcamm and an EDGE (which is out of my price range for the volume of work I'm antisipating)? Would an ink jet printer work for the things I want to produce??? And lastly, for now, why is it that almost every "package deal" with a printer and plotter/cutter pairs a much wider printer with a smaller cutter? If you can print 36" wide but can only fit 24" media into your cutter that just doesn't make much sense to me! Okay....any insight would be greatly appreciated!
Bill
I've been absorbing info from this site for the past few weeks and have learned enough (hopefully) to ask a few questions. First a bit about my situation. I'm not intersted in going into the sign business but rather using sign making equipment (vinyl cutters and print & cut systems) to make personalized items(both vinyl and apparel) for motocross racers such as Name & Number the back of racing jerseys, sponsor transfers and stickers, bike graphics, ect. I have a friend in the sign business who is willing to let me use his equipment (Gerber Edge and cutter) but, unfortunately he lives nearly 2 hours away from me. For the past few weeks I've been getting up at 5am on saturday morning and driving over there to spend the day "apprentencing" so that I can learn a little about how things work. Last week he left me the keys when he went home at 5:00pm and I ended up staying until midnight....now that's a long day but I'm really enjoying the experience. I own a machine shop and run NC equipment all day long so this is a welcome diversion. So far I've experimented with contour cutting and applying hot split plastisol as well as color printing and contour cutting COLORPRINT thermal heat transfer media and have been pleased with the results. So here are a few of my questions! First of all, understand that my only experience so far is with Gerber products. It seems to me, based on what I'm seeing on the internet, the Gerber is the only one using punched media with a sprocket drive and all the others are using friction drives. It would seem to me that a friction drive would be much less accurate yet, since the majority of manufacturers use that method I'm apparently wrong in that assumption.....any comments would be appreciated. Also it seems that most plotter/cutters use some form of swiveling cutter knife whereas the Gerber unit I'm working with servo drives the knife to point it in the direction of cut. Again the Gerber method seems superior but is the swiveling knife method acceptable for most applications? I did use a swivel knife once in the Gerber unit cutting small text from vinyl and wasn't at all impressed with the results but for all I know it may have been something as simple as a dull knife! I had been considering a Roland Colorcamm for what I want to do but the only people who seem to have anything good to say about them are the dealers who sell them.....are they really that problematic??? And if indeed I should steer clear of them then what, if anything, is in between a Colorcamm and an EDGE (which is out of my price range for the volume of work I'm antisipating)? Would an ink jet printer work for the things I want to produce??? And lastly, for now, why is it that almost every "package deal" with a printer and plotter/cutter pairs a much wider printer with a smaller cutter? If you can print 36" wide but can only fit 24" media into your cutter that just doesn't make much sense to me! Okay....any insight would be greatly appreciated!
Bill
