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  • Advice buying a Roland Cutter please?

    Posted by Dan King on May 22, 2014 at 7:42 pm

    Hi All

    Im sure you’ve heard this a million times, so I will keep it as short and to the point as possible.

    Looking at Roland Stika SV-15

    My aim is to use it to cut small to medium sized vehicle decals, signs and hot flex designs all within the width of the cutter.

    I have a laptop with Windows 8, but how could I make this vinyl software compatible

    Also can you recommend any alternatives to the Roland, my budget is no more than £250 and I don’t want a Chinese machine :-0

    Does anyone know any second hand cutter websites I could use as I haven’t found any so far.

    Anyway any help is much appreciated

    Thanks
    Dan

    mod-edit

    Dan King replied 9 years, 10 months ago 8 Members · 18 Replies
  • 18 Replies
  • Michael Egan

    Member
    May 28, 2014 at 12:25 pm

    Try a Silhouette Cameo from MDP Supplies, cracking little machine 😉

  • Dan King

    Member
    May 28, 2014 at 12:43 pm

    Hi
    Aren’t these only capable of very limiting designs.
    Do you have one yourself?!

    I’m looking to produce vehicle decals.

  • Lloyd Vincent

    Member
    May 28, 2014 at 1:36 pm

    Forget the stika then, it’s nothing more than a toy.

  • Dan King

    Member
    May 28, 2014 at 2:22 pm

    Llyod… Tbh I’m looking on e bay at 2nd hand machines and I’ve seen sellers showing a whole business setup… So I’m not so sure they are toys although I understand there are many people well advanced on these forums. But the question remains they are marketed at being able to cut vinyl and flex vinyl, so surely they must have some capabilities especially as they are hundreds of pounds new.

    mod-edit see board rules

  • Robert Lambie Robert Lambie

    Member
    May 28, 2014 at 2:45 pm

    The bottom line here is no matter what you see people selling these machines bundled as a sign business or vehicle graphics business etc they are not upto the job!

    cutting hobby type stuff yes, cutting short runs of textile media yes, cut some A4 sized bits of vinyl media, yes, but very slow and tedious to work with.

    last i saw one of these, they were about the same size as the graphtec craft robo. 12 "inches wide" 🙄

    bottom line is, your not going to be able to start a vehicle graphics business using one of these machines. you will be wasting "allot of time" and your money.

  • Jamie Wood

    Member
    May 28, 2014 at 3:05 pm

    I had a Roland Stika many years ago, before we got into digital, and Rob’s got it spot
    on. I only used it for T. Shirt vinyl, and it was arsenumbingly slow.

  • Dan King

    Member
    May 28, 2014 at 3:06 pm

    Hi Robert

    Thank you for putting your point across i appreciate it, especially as a newbie.

    Im looking at producing say 10-20 cuts the size of no more than 200mm by 100mm each time, so using a 1 metre stretch to bundle produce 20-30 vinyl cuts at a time.

    I wanted to avoid going the chinese cutter route, but i know a few people who have and seem to be ok.

    It wouldnt be my main job unless it really took off, then i would invest more once ive made a fair profit.

    Any suggestions then on a make and model that i could pick up 2nd hand that would not be a waste of time and money?

    Thanks again for the invaluable advice

    Dan

  • Colin Crabb

    Member
    May 28, 2014 at 3:43 pm

    +1 for Rob’s comment

    A cutter costing a few hundred pounds is aimed at the hobbyist market (Some rolls of vinyl will cost you more than that!) , Yes you can slooooooooooooooowly cut vinyl, but if you looking to make a business out of this idea, you should be looking at a good cutter (Roland, Graphtec, Mimaki, Summa just off the top of my head, you might find some good second user machines about) with a minimum width of 610mm, any smaller you’ll will be limiting your market from the start, plus your vinyl supplier will make a charge for slitting down rolls for these smaller machines.

    Yes you can buy a cheap ebay cutter that will work for you, I know a few people on these board use them to good effect, but you will also notice these cutter bring the most problems, something that a new business doesn’t need.

    If your seriously looking at this as a business, then allow a proper budget to get you started, I’m not trying to scare you at all, but its worth setting up properly with good equipment at the start, there is enough pressure starting up without unsuitable equipment causing you extra headaches.

  • Dan King

    Member
    May 28, 2014 at 10:37 pm

    I see all these points and again appreciate them.

    24" cutter as the minimum size, but what should realistically be my budget then and what would you suggest brand/model I should start with ?

  • Steff Davison

    Member
    May 29, 2014 at 6:32 am

    Hi Dan,
    I understand this market, If you are looking at selling online then my opinion is save yourself some money and don’t bother. The online market places are saturated with sellers, many Chinese have joined the UK market and are selling at extremely low prices. Prices are still dropping!!! I know of one seller in the UK market who started 4 years ago and they were doing good numbers, they are now turning over less than £200 a week with over 2,000 listings ( all automotive ) on one major selling platform.

    If you still want to enter the market, then a 610 wide machine such as Graphtec, Roland, Summa expect to pay £600 -£800 ish.

    Then give yourself enough capital to keep your enterprise afloat for the 6 months it will take you before any selling platform trusts your business enough to give it the exposure to sell in any meaningful volume.

    If your’e looking to sell to friends or enjoy making vinyl stickers buy a 2nd user craft robo.

    And as a footnote, friends will always tell you business is good and they are making money. Buy Terapeak for a month and look at the categories you are interested in selling in. Figures never lie.

  • Dan King

    Member
    May 29, 2014 at 8:18 am

    Hi Steff

    I can see your point, the market does have many hundreds of sellers, but i believe have found a niche market to exploit..so its worth a gamble or i could buddy up with a person that has a cutter to produce these items, but that is risky as my idea could be imitated.

    For me i dont see this being anything more than a side job, alongside my 9-5 job so i would probably be looking at no more than £100 a week revenue. With bespoke work here and there when i advertise, so perhaps more than that amount actually.

    I have seen these, D60/Graphtec GCC Expert and the Roland GX24.

    Thank you, all valuable comments to me.

    I still unsure if i could get away with a Stika or Robo Craft

    This is true, they will but then true friends will also show when times are tough. Never heard of that software but i may well look it up.

    Thanks again and have a good day

  • Simon Worrall

    Member
    May 29, 2014 at 8:31 am

    What is Terapeak?

  • Steff Davison

    Member
    May 29, 2014 at 8:32 am
    quote Dan King:

    Hi Steff

    I can see your point, the market does have many hundreds of sellers, but i believe have found a niche market to exploit..so its worth a gamble or i could buddy up with a person that has a cutter to produce these items, but that is risky as my idea could be imitated.

    For me i dont see this being anything more than a side job, alongside my 9-5 job so i would probably be looking at no more than £100 a week revenue. With bespoke work here and there when i advertise, so perhaps more than that amount actually.

    I have seen these, D60/Graphtec GCC Expert and the Roland GX24.

    Thank you, all valuable comments to me.

    I still unsure if i could get away with a Stika or Robo Craft

    This is true, they will but then true friends will also show when times are tough. Never heard of that software but i may well look it up.

    Thanks again and have a good day

    You may find a niche, but if it sells it wont be a niche for long!! sellers are scouring ebay for products that sell in any volume. And as soon as they find it, they copy and undercut. eg. A high volume seller ( 2,000+ sales per week mainly selling craft goods, beads card etc, happy to net 50p using his economies of scale will sell at prices you cant ship for. Its no longer a friendly place to try and do business.

    But it already sounds like you have committed to the idea, so I wish you good luck.

  • Simon Worrall

    Member
    May 29, 2014 at 8:34 am

    Googled it. market research tool

  • Dan King

    Member
    May 29, 2014 at 9:25 am

    Hi

    I see where you’re coming from and yes a quick sale and then move on to the next product. But then again surely this is normal in the business world..
    After all isn’t that what most people carry out anyway?! It was good while it lasted etc, skim as much profit off a niche market then onto the next

    I haven’t committed yet, just feeling my way to see what my plan should be 🙂

    Thanks will check google.

  • Steff Davison

    Member
    May 29, 2014 at 12:21 pm
    quote Dan King:

    Hi

    I see where you’re coming from and yes a quick sale and then move on to the next product. But then again surely this is normal in the business world..
    After all isn’t that what most people carry out anyway?! It was good while it lasted etc, skim as much profit off a niche market then onto the next

    I haven’t committed yet, just feeling my way to see what my plan should be 🙂

    Thanks will check google.

    Yes to a degree, but to be a niche there needs to be more buyers than sellers which keeps the price points buoyant. This isnt the case with the selling channels your’e looking at. And because of the nature of online selling prices for good selling decent margin products can be eroded overnight.

    There are now more sellers than buyers all clambering for a slice, so you don’t need a degree in economics to work out that prices are dropping and will continue to drop. Why would you want to risk your money in a marketplace like that?? The volumes are getting harder and harder to achieve, and the lower levels of sales will not sustain the smaller margins, expenses are going up, margins are coming down.

    As I said previously, good luck.

  • Robert Lambie Robert Lambie

    Member
    May 29, 2014 at 12:31 pm
    quote Steff Davison:

    to be a niche there needs to be more buyers than sellers which keeps the price points buoyant. This isnt the case with the selling channels your’e looking at. And because of the nature of online selling prices for good selling decent margin products can be eroded overnight.

    There are now more sellers than buyers all clambering for a slice, so you don’t need a degree in economics to work out that prices are dropping and will continue to drop. Why would you want to risk your money in a marketplace like that?? The volumes are getting harder and harder to achieve, and the lower levels of sales will not sustain the smaller margins, expenses are going up, margins are coming down

    well said… :thumbsup:

  • Dan King

    Member
    June 3, 2014 at 10:42 am

    I see your points…ok I still haven’t really decided but I have found a Roland PNC 1200 for sale, would this be a decent machine to start off with?

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