Cheap vinyl cutter

[sal shepherd]

I am forced to buy a cheap vinyl cutter. To start with i will have a order for heat press numbers on polyester. I will be suppling 5 screen printing shops. I hope i can get a few magnetic door sign jobs. Also window tint for tail lights. The brands i am looking at are 24" to 30"
redsail
seiki
us cutters
pro cut

i need to be in the 400.00 range
talked to sign warehouse redsail only email tech
vip studios in canada has redsail with telephone tech support

the us cutters i can't find what one i need. Can any cutter contur cut for domming?
Can anyone help me with my delima

[Joe Pelonio]

Most plotters can do contour cutting, the difference is in the accuracy of the alignment. Some have a laser like the red dot pointer on a laser to hit the printed registration mark.

You get what you pay for, so in the price range you can get a decent "hobby" quality machine, but expect to upgrade if your business grows to where you are cutting more than a few hours a day.

If doming will be a specialty, the best machine for you (though over 40 times higher than your budget) is the printer/cutter such as Roland VersaCamm which I think is available at US Cutter.

[Scott Shepherd]

What are you going to be doming? Vinyl cut letters or previously printed items that you cut. If it's the printed items, $400 won't get you there. You'll need a registration eye on there and the cheap one's don't have that, that I am aware of. We paid $3500 for ours with the eye on it.

[Aaron Koehl]

What are you going to be doming? Vinyl cut letters or previously printed items that you cut. If it's the printed items, $400 won't get you there. You'll need a registration eye on there and the cheap one's don't have that, that I am aware of. We paid $3500 for ours with the eye on it.

This is new to me.. what is doming with respect to vinyl?

[sal shepherd]

Aaron, I saw some crome vinyl that was cut with sportsman theme an flure de lis. than they put the doming material on. The prismatic looks great. I figured I could cut 8.5 X 11 piece print from Corel and send to vinyl cutter. Shouldn't it all line up???

Joe , Scott, I am leaning more to US Cutters. As for all 3 lines they have "value cutters" do you think I would be better with the middle of that line?

[Scott Shepherd]

Aaron, what is done in many circumstances I have seen is that you have someone print a sheet of objects, such as a flag or a company logo or whatever you want. Then you bring the printed vinyl into the plotter, pick up the registration marks, cut the outlines of the objects, then you pull all the outlying material off, leaving a large sheet of hundreds of small "decals" printed with whatever the graphic is. You can then come and dome them all with the epoxy, and when it dries, you peel it off and stick the domed decal on something, like the center of a keychain.

[Aaron Koehl]

Aha http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIltd0IXf-0

Thanks

[AL Ursich]

The Liquid Lens Video got me hooked... I use the UV Cure and 3 shop lights with 4 foot UV tubes for the oven.

I too have the Graphtec FC 7000 with the photo eye. You can add registration marks in Corel and print. Place in the FC 7000 and it will read the marks and do much like the Liquid Lens video on youtube.

I still have not got it to work for me yet.... I need to print on bigger than 8.5 x 11.... Need to put more time into working with it....

I too thought CHEAP.... Bought a cheaper Plotter from US Cutter and then realized the potential of Stickers with the FC 7000.... Since I did not open my plotter yet, they took it back in trade for the FC 7000.... I commend US Cutter for working with me... They could have blown me off..... They did the right thing... I paid shipping back to them.

Get a FC 7000 in a 30 inch and you will not regret it.... I have the 24 inch and I can cut 22 inches wide.

You will find it posted here and many other places that the Plotter will pay for itself more than once a year if properly utilized.

Good Luck,

AL

[Scott Shepherd]

Yes Aaron, but imagine he didn't cut the decals into individual pieces. Print 100's or 1000's of them on a sheet, remove the waste material, leaving them all on the vinyl backing sheet, then dome them while on the sheet. Then you could cut them into individual decals, leaving the backing paper to be removed when installed.

[sal shepherd]

Ok, I bit the bullet.
I purchased the 48" Creation P-Cut. I already have a few jobs lined up with plenty of time to pratice. I need to buy some cheap vinyl to pratice on.