Suggestions for a New Cutter

[conwaycopies]

Hey folks, my 6 year old Sign Warehouse brand vinyl cutter is on the verge of dying so I need to get a new one pretty soon. I haven't kept up with who's making what these days so I was hoping someone could fill me in as to what brands and models would work well for light-medium work load of cutting. Of the ones that read contour cut marks which one do you guys recommend? The one we have right now is a 24" which is ok since we can cut anything larger on our Roland 540 but I'd like to go up in size if feasible to take some work off the Roland. Any and all suggestions are welcome.

Thanks.

 

[SightLine]

Summa !!

 

[royster13]

Sign Warehouse has deal on a 42" re-badged Graphtec for 3,000....There is a thread here somewhere...
http://www.signwarehouse.com/EMAILBLAST-EQUIP-p-EM-Q42-UVP.html

 

[PHILJOHNSON]

Have you considered a Summa?

I just sent you a PM. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[Jim Doggett]

For pure cutting, nothing compares to Graphtec and our Vinyl Express Q Series, which is Graphtec FC8000-based. Summa is a great cutter too, especially in tracking and contour cutting accuracy. But when it comes to cut-quality and bullet-proof reliability, Graphtec is truly in a class of it's own. Absolutely superb cutting and weedability even cutting tiny lettering and Diamond Grade reflective. In fact, Graphtec is the only cutter that specifies it will cut Diamond Grade. Truly great cutters, and we offer it in 24 inch width models, FC8000 and Q Series.

We may be able to take your older SignWarehouse cutter in trade as well. Call our sales department if you'd like more info. 800 699 5512. We're open today until 4 CST and tomorrow Noon to 5.

Thank you,

 

[wes70]

Summa is the best! No ands, ifs or buts!


I have a Summa D60 so I may be a little biased

 

["Deposit Please"]

Cutter

Graphtec

 

[LittleSnakey]

We tried a graphtec fc8000 and could never get it to consistantly find crop marks printed with our Roland. We replaced it with a summa and couldn't be happier.

If you use Versaworks for a rip you will have to add your own "opus" marks but if you use Flexi it will print them for you. Onyx and Wasach may but I have never used them.

I just cannot belive how many people praise the graphtec and we could not get ours to work and neither could our salesman. Must just have been ours????

Also the summa is built way better and has easier user interface... no conditions... real life numbers.

Summa did cost more though. We went with the S140 D series.

Only Thing the summa could use is.... Are you listening..... networking so you can connect with a cat5e cable and assign an IP address. The Graphtec does.

 

[Jim Doggett]

Hi LittleSnakey,

I am surprised that you had trouble finding registration marks, since I know Summa cutters (new S Class and SummaCut-R) have the same sensors (white light scanner on the cutting head) that are used on all Graphtec cutters with ARMS contour-cutting. Your Graphtec might have had a glitch.

Best Regards,
Jim

 

[GB2]

Just out of curiousity, does anyone know if either the Graphtec or the Summa plotters have a dual position cutting strip system like the Mimaki plotters? That would be one hard strip for cutting normally and one soft strip for die cutting.

 

[CES020]

I have a Graphtec FC7000-MK2 and I couldn't disagree more with Jim. Several months in, text became almost impossible to weed. Called Graphtec, couldn't get any help. They told me it wasn't the machine, it was the material. I asked if they could try my files using some Oracal 751. They told me they didn't have any Oracal. I told them it happened on all materials, not just Oracal. They said they were moving and didn't have access to any materials right then, but it was not a problem with the machine.

Called the people we bought it from, they said it shouldn't do that. I took examples to them, I did everything I could. They said it was the blade. They were all Graphtec factory blades. They said the material as well. Finally, someone came in and saw it in person, took about 10-15 samples with them, and I never heard another word from Graphtec or my supplier.

I spent hours on the phone, time and time again, all to keep hearing "it's not a machine issue, thank you, have a nice day".

So I'd completely disagree they cut and weed perfectly and they have great support. I've experienced neither from them and won't be buying another one when the time comes.

Just my experience, I'm sure it's not typical, but I honestly don't care what typical is, I care how they handle problems. That's what matters to me. I'm not going to call you when my machine is working great, I'm going to call you when it's not working and how you handle that situation is how I determine if I'll buy more equipment from you.

 

[royster13]

I have always made it a practice to view negative comments very carefully because I have found folks that are "mad" at something are about 100x louder than satisfied folks...

 

[Gene@mpls]

Hi LittleSnakey,

I am surprised that you had trouble finding registration marks, since I know Summa cutters (new S Class and SummaCut-R) have the same sensors (white light scanner on the cutting head) that are used on all Graphtec cutters with ARMS contour-cutting. Your Graphtec might have had a glitch.

Best Regards,
Jim

Hi Jim- I still have the 2 T750s that you sold me in one of your past lives-
they have OPUS but I think it was an older system? I would dearly love to
be able to cut some of my Versa-camm prints on a decent cutter- do you
know if the older OPUS would work if I masked the registration marks and
removed the UV laminate? Nice seeing you back in the biz BTW. Thanks Gene

 

[LittleSnakey]

We had the same experience with graphtec support. The tech came out and replaced our eye but the machine still would not work consistantly. sometimes find the marks, but sometimes not find them. sometimes if you kept sending the same file it would find them very time consuming and fusterating.

Graphtec also told us the problem was on our end blaming flexi sign. I tried using the supplied cut master software and had same issues. They told us we were trying to fix something that was not broken... but we could not get it to work.

We were lucky and our salesman took it back we only had to pay for a blade and protection strip.

Gene you can make your own opus marks with your design software if you want to use Versaworks to print then use Summa software to cut. We print with a vp-540 roland and cut with the summa.

No offense Jim just stating my experience. I really don't think the problem is the eye... its the marks are soooo thin. The Roland uses a big round circle, The summa uses solid rectangles. I think if graphtec changed the marks it may work better.

I have a Graphtec FC7000-MK2 and I couldn't disagree more with Jim. Several months in, text became almost impossible to weed. Called Graphtec, couldn't get any help. They told me it wasn't the machine, it was the material. I asked if they could try my files using some Oracal 751. They told me they didn't have any Oracal. I told them it happened on all materials, not just Oracal. They said they were moving and didn't have access to any materials right then, but it was not a problem with the machine.

Called the people we bought it from, they said it shouldn't do that. I took examples to them, I did everything I could. They said it was the blade. They were all Graphtec factory blades. They said the material as well. Finally, someone came in and saw it in person, took about 10-15 samples with them, and I never heard another word from Graphtec or my supplier.

I spent hours on the phone, time and time again, all to keep hearing "it's not a machine issue, thank you, have a nice day".

So I'd completely disagree they cut and weed perfectly and they have great support. I've experienced neither from them and won't be buying another one when the time comes.

Just my experience, I'm sure it's not typical, but I honestly don't care what typical is, I care how they handle problems. That's what matters to me. I'm not going to call you when my machine is working great, I'm going to call you when it's not working and how you handle that situation is how I determine if I'll buy more equipment from you.

 

[CES020]

I have always made it a practice to view negative comments very carefully because I have found folks that are "mad" at something are about 100x louder than satisfied folks...

Maybe they are louder because the hit dead ends on getting legitimate help for real problems with equipment that people sell and don't support. I spent a year trying to resolve my issues before saying anything public. I don't think they make bad machines, I just couldn't get anyone to help. Last time I checked it had a 3 year warranty. It still doesn't work right and they tell me it's not a machine problem, so what should I do, just live with it and keep my mouth shut when someone asks for opinions? So then someone buys it without knowing there are some issues out there. If all you want people to hear are praises, what's the point of asking for opinions and experiences?

 

[royster13]

Not suggesting you keep your mouth shut....Just suggesting that problems like yours are not the norm based on the number of machines sold...

And if you research pretty much any equipment sold today has a problem now or then....So we often have to overlook the negative or there would be nothing left to buy...

 

[LittleSnakey]

Roy
We purchased the graphtec cause it got great reviews here on signs 101, and even Frank Fellers sells them (my hero). I am sorry it didn't work for us, it would have save me and my partner many arguments and helped get our work done. They had us sanding the crop marks, putting masking tape on them, shutting the lights off all sorts of unacceptable methods, none of them worked and to be honest if thats what it would take to find the marks it deserves to be sent back.

By all means buy a graphtec if thats what you want to do Just telling you how our brand new FC800 and graphtec treated us. Funny how I don't have any problems with the summa....... Guess I am not smart enough to work a graphtec.

Good Luck!

 

[conwaycopies]

Thank all you guys for the great input. Pretty much where it stands right now is trying to make a decision about the "reading reg marks problem" with the graphtec, the "no Ethernet connection" problem with the summa, and last but not least the "what size should i get" problem in general. Of course I'd love to get a 60" one so we can cut everything that comes out of the Roland but then i worry we may spend all that money and not have the volume to make it worthwhile. Plus we're getting another Roland print/cut machine later this year and even though i know i would cut all the printed/laminated stuff with whatever cutter i buy, for the stuff that we don't laminate it's not worth taking it out of the printer and cutting it, I'd just let the Roland do it. I guess i have some more thinking to do.
Does anyone have a Roland cutter??

 

[TresL]

Same here.
There are MANY post of the same Graphtec issues on this forum alone.

Graphtec support takes DAYS to call back.
The factory or the vendor could not solve the issues.
Keep up with the same thing. My PC was the issue.

I went through 4 PC's to solve the issue with just base OS's installed
The factory even told me they had the same issue with the files I sent them.

As a cutter, the FC's, cuts fine. Just has issues with REG marks.

Summa solved the issue. It's in the same room, same PC, using the same lights, with the same materials being cut.

Phil & Summa support are top notch!

For all the hours spent with the FC to get it working properly, cost me way more the than the cost of the Summa.

Let alone the extra savings of not using rolls of Scotch tape.

Roy
We purchased the graphtec cause it got great reviews here on signs 101, and even Frank Fellers sells them (my hero). I am sorry it didn't work for us, it would have save me and my partner many arguments and helped get our work done. They had us sanding the crop marks, putting masking tape on them, shutting the lights off all sorts of unacceptable methods, none of them worked and to be honest if thats what it would take to find the marks it deserves to be sent back.

By all means buy a graphtec if thats what you want to do Just telling you how our brand new FC800 and graphtec treated us. Funny how I don't have any problems with the summa....... Guess I am not smart enough to work a graphtec.

Good Luck!

 

[LittleSnakey]

I think the biggest roland cutter is 48". At least when we were looking that is what was available.

We have an old laptop running the summa windows xp, 256mb ram. I save the cut file to that computer (via network) then use summa software to send cut to plotter.

Thank all you guys for the great input. Pretty much where it stands right now is trying to make a decision about the "reading reg marks problem" with the graphtec, the "no Ethernet connection" problem with the summa, and last but not least the "what size should i get" problem in general. Of course I'd love to get a 60" one so we can cut everything that comes out of the Roland but then i worry we may spend all that money and not have the volume to make it worthwhile. Plus we're getting another Roland print/cut machine later this year and even though i know i would cut all the printed/laminated stuff with whatever cutter i buy, for the stuff that we don't laminate it's not worth taking it out of the printer and cutting it, I'd just let the Roland do it. I guess i have some more thinking to do.
Does anyone have a Roland cutter??