Thread: which plotter/cutter?

Hi all, i'm looking at buying a vinyl cutter, but as i have not had one before i am unsure as to what sort and size to get. I've been checking out ebay(new not second hand) and there are a lot out there.
I'm looking at creation kingcut , rabbit / creation pcut / prorefine / artcut.
Does anyone know which would be favourable out of these brands? I will be using it primarily for stencils for airbrushing, but also for decals, etc. not sure which size to go for, any help appreciated
DAve

Hey Sabre,

I am personally not informed on the different brands however when I was around a sign company in the past and to this day, he is using Roland cutters. I myself picked up a pre-owned 8" Roland Stika for $100 and it is doing the job for what I need.

The issues I had with it was it was old enough that it connects to a PV via a parrell port which is pretty much non exisant on a PC these days and me being an I.T. guy, my PC's are all less then 2 years old. No issue though as I picked up a USB adapter to make it work. The other issue was I had to hook it up to a PC with Windows XP as it does not work with Vista due to it's age. If you buy new, you won't have to worry about this stuff.

For you, size is the main thing you want to figure out. Bigger is better in this case but can be overkill. The 8" I have is fine as I figured I would not need anything bigger but now I can see I may down the road at which time I will look for something larger then the Stika.

Sabre, I'm using a 24" Refine from US Cutter. Went that way so I'd have the size IF I needed it and normally I don't. I run XP on my PC and the Refine works well with that. The cutter program that came with the cutter didn't work well with me... it could have just been me but I ended up buying a different cutter program and all is well. When I occasionally have a conflict with files, I can always try the other cut program and 99% of the time I'm ok, if not, I just go into Illustrator and redo the file and then I'm good to go.
Originally when I bought, I wanted a Roland but since I wasn't sure how or if I'd keep doing this, I didn't want the added expense. Rolands are great machines but can get really pricey as you go up in models and sizes.
PM me if you want more info.
Cliff

thnx for the info guys, it's what i am needing at the moment. not too many places around here to get this sort of thing, so i'm relying on what i find on the net. i will be using it for cars and bikes, so i think a roland that size is a bit out of my price range, although i haven't found one yet to compare
thnx guys..

hello everyone im new to the fourm
i too am looking at different plotters do all of them work with macs im tired of pc
me and my wife are opening up a bike shop so im not looking for size looking more for quality

Originally Posted by mark f

hello everyone im new to the fourm
i too am looking at different plotters do all of them work with macs im tired of pc
me and my wife are opening up a bike shop so im not looking for size looking more for quality

Mark, are you talking about bicycles or motorcycles?
For motorcycles you would probably want a larger plotter than you would need for a bicycle shop.
For most of the plotters out there, there are drivers for either platform (Mac or PC). There are drivers that will let you cut directly from Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw. Basically the program sees the plotter as just another printer.
If you don't already own and use a program like Illustrator then it is something you should strongly consider. Learn to use the drawing tools competently. You will find that the vast majority of the artwork out there is garbage, and poorly drawn garbage at that! The difference between well drawn artwork and the auto-traced and poorly drawn stuff will be glaringly apparent especially when you go to print it, cut it, or weed it.
The ability to draw what you want and how you want it also lets you have something that will actually work for your needs, and that won't look like a rubberstamp of a million other peoples pieces. It also allows you to reproduce and sell your artwork in any form without copyright infringement or lawsuits when you design your own stuff.

thanks for the info
me and my wife are opening a motorcycle shop
computers and me im only so so . so the easyer the better im getting better the more i use i will display some of the things ive done i just had a pc crash lost alot of work that ive done just bought external hard drive so wont happen again
any more info knowledge is power

i started looking at the roland 15 sticka my thought i only have limited ussage for it now buy the 15 then as i use it see what it can and can not do with it . I looked at roland 24 big price jump . hoo knows if things go great i might just buy roland24 for shop and the 15 for my desk top

If you can afford it, the bigger one is the way to go.
It never fails, you get into a job only to find out that what you need to cut is just that inch or two bigger than what the little one will cut, and of course it is always with a tight deadline and an hour after your local sign shops close.

If you do much work it only takes one or two times of that loss of time and money to make up the difference between the two size cutters.
Make sure that any cutter you consider can work on friction feed rather than tractor feed. Tractor feed is great for big complicated and intricate multi-piece items, but for most people it is an expensive waste. The tractor feed materials (vinyl, masking or stencil material, etc.) tend to be more expensive, and much more limiting in their use. Those cutters won't let you cut material unless it has the tractor feed edges on it, so use of little pieces of material and scrap is out.

hi Dave i got a refine recently also.
i just made my first cuts tonight on my new second hand uscutter refine mh721 using sign blazer software for now. it cuts up to 24 inches and can hold a 28 inch roll of vinyl only way i could get it to communicate with pc is with a 9 pin serial cable could not get the usb cable to work,
Deo

Originally Posted by rowie

Inkscape? ArtCut? hrmm... research needed.

I wish I had a Roland, Cut Studio is just the bees knees!

Anyone running a PC that is deviod of a serial port just let me know I still have a few PCI serial cards hanging around that I can post anywhere.

The USB to serial converters are very problematic! If you do need one get a good one not a cheep POC from some 3rd world back yard.

Hi Rowie hope your doin well
I had to hook it up on my old desk top for 9 pin ports, my acer aspire one does not have a 9 pin serial port it has a 15 pin ,but I think its for a monitor? sure wish I could find a way to make it work with the acer,
Deo

Hey Dave Thanks,have ya tried sign blazer elements the trial version is the full version has loads of fonts easier to view to pick them out than inkscape i have the inkscape but haven't tried it fully just played around tryin to fig it out.The sign blazer is free also and has quite a few options made my first cuts in just a few mins messing around and never even touched a cutter before. I'm so glad my second hand pawn shop cutter WORKS I feel this cutter will definitely help me out on my projects. Now i just gotta save and buy some vinyl and transfer paper and other doo dads to use in it. Thanks,
Deo

Will the Stika cut xray film?

Rockie