The company I work for has asked my to do a little research and then make recommendations to purchase a vinyl plotter. We do mostly prototype work so we do not need a work horse by any means. Looking for a general purpose 24" or 48" easy to use machine to cut various vinyl products.
We might cut an occasional sandblast resist, so that would also be a nice option.
Most likely be running this with a XP PC machine loaded with Illustrator CS 4 or CS 5.
Any help here would be appreciated.
Thank you,
Posted by Dave Grundy (Member # 103) on :
I am biased since Roland cutters worked well for me.
A nice thing about Roland cutters is...the company provides drivers so you can cut directly from programs like Illustrator or CorelDraw on a Windows based system.
Posted by Kelly Thorson (Member # 2958) on :
I love my Roland. They are workhorses and I like that I'm not required to purchase an additional interface program to use it.
Posted by PatRaap (Member # 4290) on :
Dale, we run a Graphtec, and it is great. Can't remember the model number right off...cuts up to 30". Highly recommend it! Posted by Rick Beisiegel (Member # 3723) on :
I have the same plotter as Pat. I second the recommendation. This thing is a work horse
Posted by Tim Barrow (Member # 576) on :
I just set up a graphtec for a computer client/sign shop here and having used rolands for years I was quite impressed . it worked great right out of the box and the tech support was very well documented,..all in all I have to say if i was going to buy a plotter tomorrow I would go with graphtec,....they are very reasonably priced too,...they come with a free plugin driver for illustrator and corel also,...
[ November 09, 2010, 11:14 PM: Message edited by: Tim Barrow ]
Posted by Bruce Brickman (Member # 8180) on :
When I was looking a few years ago Summa and Graphtec were best I was told. I have a old used graphtec and it's built like a tank.
Posted by Bob Moroney (Member # 9498) on :
5 years with my Rolands and never a problem.
Posted by Weston Pulley (Member # 10330) on :
Roland, Graphtec and Summa are all great plotters. I have a Summa D60 and I haven't had any issues with it for over 5 years.
Posted by Todd Gill (Member # 2569) on :
I have a 30" Summa Dale - been a really solid plotter... and the best thing is; when I've had questions or user-error issues, the tech people at Summa are not only available, but excellent. Highly recommend their plotter and tech/service support. One without the other makes for a bad experience.
My first plotter was a Roland PNC-950 (I think) and it did a great job as well... probably any name brand will work for you: I suggest sticking with Roland, Summa, Graphtec... the big dogs with good reputations.
Also - each has it's different price-point models... also recommend going for the higher-tier models within each manufacturers offerings. Good luck!
Posted by Checkers (Member # 63) on :
Hiya Dale, Just about any name brand plotter (Summa, Graphtec, Roland, Mimaki, etc) will work quite well for the basics. 24" is good for about 85% of the work I do. But a 30"- 48" (or wider) would be nice for that occasional job.
I would prefer a sprocket fed plotter like the Gerber's HS 15 or their newer/wider models for reliability and accuracy, but I can't justify the additional cost of the software to run it.
When you mention prototyping, do you want it to do more? Because some of the flatbed plotters can do a lot more than just cut vinyl - including patterns, package containers, etc - at a much higher price though.
BTW, I have a Summa D60 24" and can't complain. Even though it's friction fed, it cuts long runs without any issues. Just the other day, it cut about 10 yds. of 22"+ letters win one shot without an issue - which is something many complain that most friction fed plotters are unable to do.
Havin' fun,
Checkers
Posted by Bob Rochon (Member # 30) on :
Depends on the size and materials, being friction fed or sprocket.
I have a graphtec and like the others, it's as solid as my old gerbers were. I aquired a newer Gerber envision and I rarely use my graphtec anymore. There was a used envision for sale in the classified section for around 2500.00 and that is a great price for a rock solid HIGH speed sprocket machine. I'm not quite sure about running it from illustrator though. Maybe others can chime in on that one.
Posted by FranCisco Vargas (Member # 145) on :
Dale, at the time I was looking for a 24" plotter, Mimaki was the only one that had the pounce feature CG-6 I think. Which I really liked. But after years of use, it started to start up skipping when I would begin a cut then would be ok. To much hassle when I wanted to cut alot of stuff. So I picked up a demo 30" Graphtec Pro 7000-75 from a retired rep. It has the contour cutting feature and also pounces. I haven't used the contour yet. The machine works great, I like it. I hear good things about Summa and Roland, never had one so can't really say. As you know next year I want to drive cross country again. I'm looking for another used 24" Mimaki or a Graphtec but it needs to have the pounce feature, so if anyone wants to get rid of a used plotter that they're not using let me know...
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