Purchasing a Used Vinyl Cutter - supply Sources?

[Bill George]

I am picking up a used Vinyl Express Qe60+ 24 About 6 years old, it uses servo motors and appeared to be top of the middle range cutters at one time. The price was very right and has only been used as a hobby based business venture.

I know Sign Ware House as lots of selection for vinyl but how is Amazon for ordered decent material. I see having one grade for interior use as decals for walls, windows and mirrors and also having a good exterior grade for small vehicle graphics.

Suggestions, warnings and free advice accepted.

[Rodger MacMunn]

Bill, there's quite a bit of difference in the quality of vinyl & what you're going to run into is having an inventory of the different thicknesses, You'll soon get over-run with 2 yards of this & 2 yards of that, So, I'd recommend buying a good mid-range vinyl & generally using it for everything, The thicker vinyls are cheaper & aren't as conformable .... have you ever noticed a dirty line around lettering? .... that's the thicker cheap stuff, & since it doesn't expand & contract with the substrate, they use a more aggressive adhesive to compensate.
I use Oracal 751 ( I think) .... it's not their very best, but close. Since most shops use the cheap stuff, sometimes the high-performance vinyl is old stock & it's very brittle. If you think about it, using $10 of vinyl or using $20 worth on a $175 truck lettering job isn't that much of a difference & your work will still look good 5 years down the line.
One caveat .... if you're stacking colours, like with a shadow, it's generally cheaper to do a digital print, even if you have to outsource the printing. My shop is too dusty for a printer, so I have to outsource it & I still make decent $$$ doing trucks, & it's a LOT easier.

[Bill George]

So Roger this is the kind of advice I was looking for.... thank you. I have a new to me Polaris RZR off road UTV side by side toy and I think I could develop a small market doing sensible graphics for those types of vehicles.. The other idea was doing the wall decals.

[Keith Outten]

Bill,

I own the same vinyl cutter that you just purchased. Its a pretty good machine for the occasional vinyl job, I use mine to cut light duty sandblasting stencils as well. I can't give you any better advice than Roger on purchasing vinyl.

Congratulations on the new Polaris RZR, they are excellent machines. Last weekend I was at Trailfest 2016 in Gilbert West Virginia, there must have been two hundred RZR's there at least. My riding partner has a 2011 RZR 800 and i have a 2016 Sportsman 570. We had a fantastic time riding the Rockhouse trail and will be going back in a few weeks for our last ride of the season, probably to the Pocahontas Trail. The picture below was captured from a video so the quality is pretty poor.

Don't forget about making custom license plates for ATV's they are required in some states.

[Bill George]

The seller has software that came with it, but it looks like its XP and Win 7 only and they want extra cost to purchase the software. So what software besides Corel Draw are you vinyl cutters using? I am looking at Vinyl Master the Ltr version as I can do the graphics if needed in CD and Import but I can also do just the lettering and with drop shadows in the Ltr software. It has drivers for the one I am getting and looks like about every other cutter in the Universe!

[Joe Pelonio]

The better software with features lik converting raptor to vector, nesting, many fonts plus font creation capability are very expensive. Mine is Gerber, and cost $10,000 back in 2004. If you already have Corel, look at CoCut, a plugin that allows cutting from Corel. Watch out for the inexpensive products that are very basic, may not have drivers for your plotter, and charge a lot more for additional features. I have used Vinyl by Arlon, 3M, Oracal, and Avery. All are good, just use the 2 mil cast (premium) for anything outdoors that you want to last more than 2-3 years. Calendered vinyl is cheap, and good for short term or indoor but never on vehicles, it shrinks pretty fast and doesn't conform well.

[Bill George]

Thanks Joe, I don't mind purchasing good used equipment but I tend to purchase good new materials, because I know quality counts when it comes to keeping customers.

[Bill George]

I just sent an order into Sign Warehouse for some basic stuff. But H&H has Oracal 651 assortments in 5 yard rolls. I know this is not the most expensive but its an mid grade and a high grade calendared not cast. Will it work for exterior on off road vehicles with plastic for body? I know its not a 10 year cast vinyl, but most off road machines don't last ten years!

[Joe Pelonio]

I just sent an order into Sign Warehouse for some basic stuff. But H&H has Oracal 651 assortments in 5 yard rolls. I know this is not the most expensive but its an mid grade and a high grade calendared not cast. Will it work for exterior on off road vehicles with plastic for body? I know its not a 10 year cast vinyl, but most off road machines don't last ten years!

It's 2.5 mil, not 2, so the problem is in conforming to compound curves or over trim. For fairly flat or simple, gentle curves it should be good for 5-6 years with your application.

[Rodger MacMunn]

I agree with Joe. I used a SMF 2.8 mil for a long time that was rated for 7 years ( mostly because the 2mil I'd order from them was always old & brittle) & I never had the shrinkage problem with it. However, it didn't work well over compound curves.
Just my thoughts ( which may be totally wrong LOL)..... I suspect your vinyl business will take you someplace you've never even thought of yet. I bought my first plotter ( used) in 1996 & figured I could make a living doing what you're thinking, but I still had 4 kids at home. A truck here & there, a few snowmobile numbers, some cheap vinyl on coroplast just didn't cut it. So, within 6 weeks, I was sandblasting cedar & painting signs. I'm in a very rural area & it wasn't long before I realized that my local market wasn't big enough so I had to do stuff that I could sell anywhere that I wouldn't be stepping on the local guy's toes. I keep very little vinyl in stock any more. Most want multiple colours & it's less expensive to just outsource the digital prints.

[Bill George]

I am going into this will no idea of where its headed. I did notice there was a shelf life of vinyl so I ordered in small quantities but a basic assortment of colors. Hoping to tie it in with my laser, but who knows. I want to again thank those who replied. The Sawmill Creek forum is full of intelligent, talented people.