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.
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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.
-------------------- Dave Grundy retired in Chelem,Yucatan,Mexico/Hensall,Ontario,Canada 1-519-262-3651 Canada 011-52-1-999-102-2923 Mexico cell 1-226-785-8957 Canada/Mexico home
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I love my Roland. They are workhorses and I like that I'm not required to purchase an additional interface program to use it.
-------------------- “Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?” -Winnie the Pooh & A.A. Milne
Kelly Thorson Kel-T-Grafix 801 Main St. Holdfast, SK S0G 2H0 ktg@sasktel.net Posts: 5496 | From: Penzance, Saskatchewan | Registered: May 2002
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""Good judgment comes from experience; and a lot of that comes from bad judgment" - Will Rogers Posts: 3487 | From: Beautiful Newaygo, Michigan | Registered: Mar 2003
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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 ]
-------------------- fly low...timi/NC is, Tim Barrow Barrow Art Signs Winston-Salem,NC Posts: 2224 | From: Winston-Salem,NC,USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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5 years with my Rolands and never a problem.
-------------------- Bob Moroney The Sign Guy 310 Club Valley Drive Falmouth, MA 02536 508-259-6297 Posts: 216 | From: Falmouth, MA | Registered: Jul 2008
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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!
-------------------- Todd Gill Outside The Lines Potterville, MI Posts: 7792 | From: Potterville, MI | Registered: Dec 2001
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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
-------------------- a.k.a. Brian Born www.CheckersCustom.com Harrisburg, Pa Work Smart, Play Hard Posts: 3775 | From: Harrisburg, Pa. U.S.A. | Registered: Nov 1998
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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.
-------------------- 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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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...
-------------------- aka:Cisco the "Traveling Millennium Sign Artist" http://www.franciscovargas.com Fresno, CA 93703 559 252-0935 "to live life, is to love life, a sign of no life, is a sign of no love"...Cisco 12'98 Posts: 3576 | From: Fresno, Ca, the great USA | Registered: Dec 1998
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