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I'm starting up my sign business and have very, very little money to spend on a vinyl cutter machine. I would like recommendations for vinyl cutters and anyone's experience with their own. I'm looking for a machine that will cut vinyl letters (probably no bigger than 12") and that will also create pounce patterns as well. Ideally, it will be able to import graphics by interfacing with a Windows PC, but that's not a necessity right now. I can't afford $3,000.00 for a machine, I'm looking closer to around $1,000.00 or cheaper until the business can get going. Thank you in advance!!!
-------------------- Rick Mercer Sign Wizard 218 Salem St. Wakefield, MA 01880 skyyman@hotmail.com Posts: 9 | From: Wakefield, MA | Registered: Mar 2004
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HiYa Richard; Your FIRST post here,reminds me of my FIRST customer!Hope your business doesn't go downhill as fast as his did! You can ALWAYS "hand cut" with exacto knife, any and all vinyl needed to produce signs. To purchase the needed(machine of your choice!
Sorry..no brand names
GOOD LUCK
hope this helps
-------------------- PKing is Pat King The Professor of SIGNOLOGY Posts: 3113 | From: Pompano Beach, FL. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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iam a corel user and when i started this i went to a ROLAND. i can and still do cut right from corle draw for 90% of what i cut. and i just bought another roland PNC-1100 ON EBAY FOR $1125.
-------------------- joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 2811 longleaf Dr. pensacola, fl 32526 850-637-1519 BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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Check out www.signwarehouse.com Great people, products, and service. When I started out this is where I was advised to go. Best advise I was ever given. Good luck!
Harvie Loomis
-------------------- Harvie Loomis Loomis Signs 76 Cortright Hill Road Newark Valley, NY 13811 (607)642-8616 tozrox@frontiernet.net Posts: 47 | From: Newark Valley, NY 13811 | Registered: Jul 2000
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I can hardly believe the replies this newbee has received with his first post looking for help. Woops, I forgot, I’M AT LETTERVILL…
Richard, I don’t know what to recommend but I know where to get the info. you are looking for. Contact: www.signwarehouse.com or phone 800-699-5512. They will be able to help you and get you going in the right direction. They “use to be” a merchant here. Heavy on the “use to be”. I’m sure you can figure out the why they “use to be…” I wish you the best in your new business. John Weber
-------------------- John Weber 3863 Buckskin Rd. NE Carlos, MN 56319 800-853-7051
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For about ~1k you you will be able to pick up a used 24" roland, good machines for the price. There a quite a number of us here who cut directly from corel, and quite a few more who cut with corel and a plug-in. Don't get pushed into a pricy sign software pkg it isn't necessary... I own both signlab (came with engraver), and Flexisign (came with Matan printer) but I cut vinyl directly from Coreldraw as a matter of choice. Neither Flexi nor Signlab can hold a torch to Coreldraw when it comes to design features. and corel is a complete suite including trace, photopaint, and rave (animation). It also includes over 1000 fonts (both TT and Type One) and a ton of vector clipart. I'd recommend any of the later versions 9,10,11 (12 is current), all work quite well and are easy to find on Ebay
Use the BB search and you'll find lots of info on the subject.
I have a Gerber matched system, Edge, Envision plotter and Omega software. I have never had an issue that could'nt be resolved with a single phone call. Never have I waited more than 15 minutes for a live human being to help me.
Just as important as the brand of plotter, is the customer service and tech support, which is where sign warehouse lacks. They are noted for a good price, but you have to look beyond the price.
I have had excellent support from Advantage Sign Supply. I have tried others, but never has anyone equalled them. (800-522-3698) They have several locations nationwide.
Hope this helps, feel free to email or call. Ultimatly, your decision will set the tone for the early years of business. There is nothing worse than down time when you are trying to build a new business.
""Good judgment comes from experience; and a lot of that comes from bad judgment" - Will Rogers Posts: 3488 | From: Beautiful Newaygo, Michigan | Registered: Mar 2003
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Wow, thanks for all the quick replies. I really didn't expect anyone to reply for a week or so. I'll be coming back here with all my questions from now on.
I took a hiatis from the sign business for about 8 years and I'm taking another shot at running it part time and it looks like I made a good decision to join this site. When I graduated from Butera School of Art, vinyl was just starting to gain speed and after recently checking Signcraft's web site and this site and others, it appears vinyl and computers are a mainstream tool now. It seems everyone using them for stencils, masks, etc.
Thanks again, I'm looking forward to learning from everyone here and hopefully I'll be able to contribute as well.
-------------------- Rick Mercer Sign Wizard 218 Salem St. Wakefield, MA 01880 skyyman@hotmail.com Posts: 9 | From: Wakefield, MA | Registered: Mar 2004
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Thanks again for all the advice. I was wondering if these machines come with a pounce wheel attachment like the old Gerber machines had so you can make pounce patterns with them. I would like this feature to save time on pattern making. I do alot of airbrushed hand-lettering and saving time making patters would be huge.
-------------------- Rick Mercer Sign Wizard 218 Salem St. Wakefield, MA 01880 skyyman@hotmail.com Posts: 9 | From: Wakefield, MA | Registered: Mar 2004
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Most new plotters have pounce options which act like a sewing machine. The good ole 4B's still have plenty of use to them and have pounce wheels.
Having the experience you have amd skills after butera I would recommend the 4B. Yes you can buy a new fangled high speed plotter for cheap money today but the 4B is still a work horse and was designed to be in a work shop rather than an office.
I personally would not recommend any supplier who "used" to be a merchant here and would not do business with them either. This site still rocks but sometimes you just have to weed through the Bull ****!
Just curious what led you away from the sign biz? and what brought you back?
If you dont want to answer that publicly I understand.
Oh and I forgot, welcome to letterville
-------------------- Bob Rochon Creative Signworks Millbury, MA 508-865-7330
"Life is Like an Echo, what you put out, comes back to you." Posts: 5149 | From: Millbury, Mass. U.S. | Registered: Nov 1998
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Some very encouraging posts here for Rick?! Use an xacto knife?
Rick, Here are a couple of links that may help you out. The "Lynx" cutters aren't some of the higher end names like Roland, Graphtec, Summa, Ioline, etc. But you can get a new 24" for only $1,200. There have been good and bad stories about these plotters...but I gotta believe it would be decent to get you going.
I gotta tell you, I sold a Roland PNC 950 to a gentlemen that pops in and out of here and wish I would have kept it.(I hope it's worked out for you Dennis!) The Summa I bought is tougher to use in that their control panel must have been designed by aliens...nothing makes sense. It's like you have to learn an ancient heiroglyphic code...Rolands are straight forward and do the job. MHO.
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go to the classified section and read what i posted in the PNC-1100 post.
-------------------- joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 2811 longleaf Dr. pensacola, fl 32526 850-637-1519 BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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Alot of good replies here...check out e-bay!! It's your best bet to get equipment under $1000.00 but seeing as you do a lot of airbrushed hand lettering why not see about a printer cutter? It prints full color, contour cuts, works as a stand alone cutter...ecol-solvent ink is the way to go...This route saves time, materials, fumes, you don't have to keep a lot of vinyl in stock... PROFIT PROFIT PROFIT!!! This will quickly make your business grow,...Keep watching E-Bay for great deals!! Good luck!
To be brutally honest, I never really dedicated myself to my sign business and I never gave myself enough credit to charge what I deserved, so I ended up doing good sign jobs for cheap money and always ended up complaining that there was no money in this business.
I ended up going back to school and got into computers, which is what I'm doing now-I'm a computer analayst for a law firm.
I work nights so my days are free, so I'm going to try and start up the business again, but I'm going to make damn sure that I charge enough for my jobs. I've learned that you can't please everyone and also that if someone says they can get it cheaper, I'll try to convince them to get better with me and pay more otherwise I have to let them go... that's one of the only good things about aging... you do get wiser!
I'm sure this bulletin board is going to help me out a lot and will be back frequently.
-------------------- Rick Mercer Sign Wizard 218 Salem St. Wakefield, MA 01880 skyyman@hotmail.com Posts: 9 | From: Wakefield, MA | Registered: Mar 2004
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Welcome to Letterville Rick! Gerber 4B's are workhorses but you need a fast card in order to design and cut from your computer. Otherwise you have to deal with X Y moves and a tiny LED window on the machine. Good luck in your endeavor whatever plotter you end up with! Judy
-------------------- Judy Pate Signs By Judy Albany, Georgia USA 229-435-6824
Live simply...Love generously...Care deeply...Speak kindly...Leave the rest to God. Posts: 2621 | From: Albany,GA,USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I have the set-up that was mentioned here, a Lynx plotter (they're cheap in comparison) and cutting directly from Corel. But there is no pounce feature. Do you really want to go smaller than 24"? I bought Corel 9 from e-bay, and have Corel 10 Upgrade, but 9 works just fine. Congratulations on your attitude about pricing. Try the search feature (top right of this page) to find tons of great information on this and other topics.
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