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Vinyl Express plotters
- Thread starter Mark H
- Start date
Bradley Signs
Bradley Signs
Let me be as fair as I can.... I'm not a nice guy...
I live very close to Sign Whorehouse, so it's very convenient for me to get things there when I need them. The people at will call are great, but they have added a $5.00 charge for you to pick up your items. Not impressed.
When you get to the people up front, like any place else, there are good and bad ones.
I have used Vinyl Express machines for years. I have a 30" inch one over 15 years old, still runs like a champ.
I recently bought a 24" machine, the Endura Cut 3...
Not overly impressed, but it does what it needs to do. We use it for cutting vinyl for hats and shirts.
It does cut very nice, clean, small lettering, but you must nail the setting of the blade and the speed.
It all depends on the vinyl you are using at the time... but....
When I got the machine, first thing I didn't like was it only had two pinch rollers. It uses a vacuum.
Something else to go wrong.
It is quite far out of alignment too, so I had to figure that out, as they told me all I had to do was mark it myself. What?,
and they would not trade me for a new one, so there went the warranty I was suppose to have with it.
We took it back, they looked it over, and told us it was fine. Bulldinky!
When it advances the vinyl ahead, it occasionally jerks the roll off of the retarded roller system they have come up with.
The LXI Software is great, basically a copy of Flexi, but way cheaper. It reads Flexi Files nicely.
You get the idea.
So over all, would I buy another Vinyl Express Machine? yeah, I would.
Would I ever buy anymore equipment from The Whorehouse? NO! Supplies, yes!
I live very close to Sign Whorehouse, so it's very convenient for me to get things there when I need them. The people at will call are great, but they have added a $5.00 charge for you to pick up your items. Not impressed.
When you get to the people up front, like any place else, there are good and bad ones.
I have used Vinyl Express machines for years. I have a 30" inch one over 15 years old, still runs like a champ.
I recently bought a 24" machine, the Endura Cut 3...
Not overly impressed, but it does what it needs to do. We use it for cutting vinyl for hats and shirts.
It does cut very nice, clean, small lettering, but you must nail the setting of the blade and the speed.
It all depends on the vinyl you are using at the time... but....
When I got the machine, first thing I didn't like was it only had two pinch rollers. It uses a vacuum.
Something else to go wrong.
It is quite far out of alignment too, so I had to figure that out, as they told me all I had to do was mark it myself. What?,
and they would not trade me for a new one, so there went the warranty I was suppose to have with it.
We took it back, they looked it over, and told us it was fine. Bulldinky!
When it advances the vinyl ahead, it occasionally jerks the roll off of the retarded roller system they have come up with.
The LXI Software is great, basically a copy of Flexi, but way cheaper. It reads Flexi Files nicely.
You get the idea.
So over all, would I buy another Vinyl Express Machine? yeah, I would.
Would I ever buy anymore equipment from The Whorehouse? NO! Supplies, yes!
eahicks
Magna Cum Laude - School of Hard Knocks
We have a Q54. It's just a rebadged Graphtec, so it's a good plotter. We've had a couple issues with it over the past 5 or 6 years or so that we've had it. Had to replace the display once, and I've had to disassemble the entire blade carriage assembly to tighten up the track wheels, as the entire carriage became loose and all plotting was erratic and inaccurate. Other than that it's been fine. As far as Sign Warehouse's support? Only dealt with them once early on to fix another problem (forgot what it was) and service was ok. All the other things we did ourselves.
Mark H
New Member
Thanks Mr. Nice Guy for the very thorough review. You would buy a Vinyl Express but would not buy equipment from the only company that sells Vinyl Express, funny.
TDFcustomSL
New Member
I actually have a q54 listed for sale on ebay. It was a great cutter but I decided to upgrade to a summa when i bought a new printer. I still use the q54 on occasion if the summa is loaded up with jobs. The Vinyl Express treated me well and really the only issues I ever had with it came down to user error/lack of knowledge. As for support, from S.W. there basically is none. Any support questions I had about my machine were answered through members here, or other places online.
Mark H
New Member
I see a few, which one is yours?
bannertime
Active Member
Can't go wrong with the Q series. The dark gray ones. Though I do see that the Roland CAMMs are about the same price. That's kind of interesting. Don't know much about them.
TDFcustomSL
New Member
Item Number: 123150862383
visual800
Active Member
i bought a VE plotter back in 99, that thing lasted 11 years and was a workhouse....I bought another one that was a POS, then I bought a Q series, in less than 2 years it was on ebay sold for parts and thats when I bought a summa. Sign warehouse sucks I will never do business with them again. Do not but a VE plotter or this POS "Q" series, get a summa
decalman
New Member
I like signware house. They got great deals on vinyl. Very good deals. I've had hardly any problems with them. I order from Stephanie.....
When my Roland started showing its age, I did look at the q54 but no way. I need a no nonsense plotter, that tracks great. I got a new Summa d75 , which perfect for my needs
When my Roland started showing its age, I did look at the q54 but no way. I need a no nonsense plotter, that tracks great. I got a new Summa d75 , which perfect for my needs
Texas_Signmaker
Very Active Signmaker
I have a cheap $300 vinyl express, along with a Titan II. The Titan was $1000 and is much quieter but they really cut about the same...no issues. I mainly use the Titan because you can NOT have a phone conversation in the same room as the express. Also, the express can't pull a roll of vinyl into it, you have to prefeed, the Titan doesn't have that issue.
bannertime
Active Member
Not sure what happened with yours, but we run our Q64 with perfcut all day some times for the past the 3 years, in between that, just regular cuts in 8-12ft lengths. The worst that's happened was the USB cable went bad. Our Q30 is 5 years old now and still tracks flawlessly. Only issue with it is having to tighten the cutoff blade because I always forget to locktite it. We really don't except these to last nearly as long as our older VE machine(18 years counting), but we can definitely see them lasting longer than 8-10 years. Either way, they paid for themselves in the first year.
Mark H
New Member
I've read the good, the bad and the ugly on plotters. Some like you love Vinyl Express, some not so much. Signwarehouse is now offering a free LXi upgrade to Expert. Do I save a couple grand and go with the 48" VE?
bannertime
Active Member
If I was starting a shop over again I'd definitely get a VE as my cutter, unless I had some extra thousands to spare. As for the size, the idea around here is to get the biggest cutter you can afford, and even then stretch to get the next size up. It makes no since to get 48in cutter if you have a 54in printer. So, gotta think about that too.
Mark H
New Member
Q54 with LXi & free upgrade to Expert listed on Signwarehouse site for $5499. 42" is $4499. Graphtec CE6000+ 48" with Cutting Master & Graphtec Pro Studio $3600 delivered. Graphtec comes with tech support, VM you have to buy tech support. I thought VM was cheaper than Graphtec
Mark H
New Member
I just learned that I was not comparing apples-to-apples, that the VE plotter is comparable to Graphtec FC series not CE. I spoke to a salesman that sells both Graphtec & Summa and he says I will not be happy with a CE6000 mainly due to tracking and compared it to a hobby plotter. It can only track 6'. but my flatbed can only print 8'. A Summa is going to cost a few thousand more + I need to but Coreldraw.. What do you think about the Graphtech CE6000 48"?
eahicks
Magna Cum Laude - School of Hard Knocks
Yes it is cheaper, for the same model machine. a Q54 is a Graphtec FC8600-54, with a couple less features, and is about $1000 less.