Vinyl cutters? use one? have one? thoughts on brands/software...

[dspring]

I am looking to pick up a vinyl cutter sometime soon for a variety or reasons... wondering who has any experience with them? I worked with one years ago but I am sure they have changed. Looking for something somewhat small... 24" wide or smaller... something that I can send to from my Mac if possible... not sure if most software requires PC or not... and something that has decent support. I see alot advertised but have never heard of the brands and just don't want to get hosed and end up with some crap plotter that once it cocks out no one can do anything with it.

Cheers

[mikeybloodbath]

holas mr spriner,
cut miles o' vinyl here. as a suggestion most chinese eBay plotters are utter crap. i'd be glad to help yinz. solid brands are inculsive, but not limited to, summa, graphtec, epson, vinylExpress, roland, mimaki.... we use oracal mostly, but there's many other vinyl's in the world. many of them will work too, all depends on application and expectation.

[johnny_on_the_spot]

I've got a graphtec ce5000-60 plotter and it's been great. You can cut directly from illustrator (on a mac) and it has a laser sensor built into the head for contour cuts on printed material. it's also a lot cheaper than plotters with similar features. the down side is there isn't as much support info around, but if you get one, i can always help you out

[Fools Gold]

Gerber and Roland are two other brands that have good reputations. I've had stuff done off a Roland and the results where great. Check on Kijiji . . sometimes they are there for cheap/

[andydiesel]

i have a Mimaki CG series, it works great. i use it with my mac. thats all i know about them.

[squeegeethree]

I use a Roland, it was cheap and it cuts stuff that's about all I can say about it though

[silverscreen]

I have a 4 foot US cutter.
Cheap machine with Mac cutting software included.

For really small fine detail this is probably not your machine. I use it for very large stuff/ creating paint masks.
2 years and no problems.


From the desk of Chad Silver » MOMA Wall Graphics

[dspring]

thanks for the input... I'm looking, comparing and shopping around...