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Suggestions vinyl cutter for contour cutting

So I have an opportunity to buy a vinyl express q130 54" cutter for a decent price. I need a wide cutter soon, my question is, is this a good cutter? I mainly do detailed contour cutting as I make laptop and cell phone skins. Currently I use a graphtec ce-6000 24". Let me know what you guys think!

TIA
 

bannertime

Active Member
Make sure it has the eye and ARMS system on it before purchasing. I use two of the new gen of VE cutters and I have used the Q75 which was that same gen. They all work flawlessly. For my purposes, it's been plenty accurate. The smallest I've done is 1.75in circles and they fit perfectly on the part they were going on. Our last VE machine was 16+ years old when we decided to upgrade it. Right before it died we ran a crap ton of rolls of reflective through it. Things would shoot off and you slam it back on it hit continue. I don't think the Q series are that durable, but they are capable of lasting long enough.
 

Mark H

New Member
Make sure it has the eye and ARMS system on it before purchasing. I use two of the new gen of VE cutters and I have used the Q75 which was that same gen. They all work flawlessly. For my purposes, it's been plenty accurate. The smallest I've done is 1.75in circles and they fit perfectly on the part they were going on. Our last VE machine was 16+ years old when we decided to upgrade it. Right before it died we ran a crap ton of rolls of reflective through it. Things would shoot off and you slam it back on it hit continue. I don't think the Q series are that durable, but they are capable of lasting long enough.
I'd really appreciate hearing about your thoughts on a VE plotter. I've really been struggling with what to buy and budget is definitely a consideration. I'll do cut vinyl and contour cutting after printing on my flatbed. Thanks
 

bannertime

Active Member
I'd really appreciate hearing about your thoughts on a VE plotter. I've really been struggling with what to buy and budget is definitely a consideration. I'll do cut vinyl and contour cutting after printing on my flatbed. Thanks

The current Q series, that matches the current Graphtec FC8600 series, is pretty good. I have no complaints about it. Out of the type of "intermediate" line of drag knife plotters, I'd say it was king. We've used VE cutters exclusively since our first Gerber from the early 90s. No other reason than that they work and don't cost as much. We've had the Q30 since 2013 and the Q64 since 2015. Our Q30 doesn't have ARMS because the owner didn't know about it and it was turning into a pain to get the module to install it. That's why I said to make sure it comes with it. Like triple check. The Q64 has it and we typically do 8ft to 10ft runs when contour cutting. It is possible to do longer and I've done up to about 25ft. I see no reason to risk loosing 20ft of material if something messes up 5ft into the roll.

I seriously don't have any complaints about the machines. If I was doing a lot more pop out stickers, then I'd probably get a different machine. I have no issue changing the tool position to switch to perf cut, but I'm just not convinced the drag knife is the best for doing those. However, we knock out square and circle cut decals no problem. It's main purpose is contour cut vehicle graphics and 48in Cast and Calendar cut vinyl.

Accuracy with the ARMS has been well within general use requirements. I wouldn't go so far to say it was spot on, but it appear that it is. When we do perf cut 18x24 graphics to apply to perf cut coroplast, it's almost always a perfect match. So there's that.

The biggest issue with the Vinyl Express machines is Sign Warehouse itself. If you're comfortable with doing tech support stuff yourself, then you'll be fine. If you need to call in for help, I'd find a different machine. We haven't had any issues with our current machines, but have had issues with other products sold by them and were pretty unhappy with the results. Our last machine didn't have issues until about year 10 or 12. We quickly realized we'd need to fix it our selves. It ran another 4 years after that.

This is probably a bit scattered, but I've been running back and forth all morning so I may come back and edit this later. Gotta get back to work!
 

Mark H

New Member
Thanks for all thee info, it has been very helpful. I think I'm going with either a VE or the Titan 3 SE which has ARMS and from all the research I have done seems like a good machine. Thanks again.
 
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