Advice on buying my first cutter please?

[David-Foster-]

Hello Steve

Haven’t got much time at the moment but the good news is that your budget is good. Most people come on here with a budget of £250 so end up with a PCUT and pirate software.

Top of my head, Graphtec £1000 (Or Roland, Summa…), CorelX4 £250, Sign Tools 3 £80 (or just use the plug in you get with the cutter).

I am sure you will get similar replies as you have a decent budget 😀

Edit: Oh and some Vinyl, App tape etc…. oh…. and Phils Book, and Mike Stevens Book, Mastering Layout

[Steve Goddard]

cheers for the reply mate, it’s good to know that I can afford something good to start with.

I took a trip down to Grafityp the other week and had a look round their showroom, I think I was looking at a puma III cutter and their stand alone software (it was called something along the lines of signpal?), how do their products stand up against the likes of Roland, Summa and Graphtec?

Apologies if I am asking stupid questions, i’m a bit like a fish out of water when it comes to vinyl cutters.

[Mark Jahn]

We run a CE5000-60 with Corel X3. Works a treat. I know some here feel Corel isn’t a dedicated sign software package but it does a fantastic job as far as I’m concerned.

If you shop around you should get plenty change out of your budget but try to avoid the academic/student etc version of Corel which doesn’t have the VB plugin.

[Graeme Harrold]

This book should give you what you need…..fresh off the presses

Sign makers start up book

Basically go for the best you can afford and don’t be tempted into buying cheap without support.

[Steve Goddard]

cheers for the advice everyone. That book looks pretty cool, i’ll have a look into getting that ordered.

There is no risk of me going for the cheap Chinese option, i’m a nightmare for always wanting my work to be perfect. I think a cheap nasty cutter would drive me insane

[Graeme Harrold]

Also have a look at Grafityp for Jaguar cutters. Had mine 18 months and very happy with it. Not bad on price too, support first class. Cut direct from Corel.

[Steve Goddard]

yeah I think I will, I was really impressed when I went to their showroom.

I’ve noticed a lot of you keep talking about Corel, would I be better looking to buy that and getting a plug in to make it cut as oposed to going for somthing like signpal master?

[Mark Jahn]

Steve – you’ll get the Illustrator and Corel plugins on the disc with the Graphtec cutter. Once installed you use the Application Launcher icon in Corel to launch Cutting Master which sends the job directly to the Graphtec.

I installed the Roland Corel plugin for a friend on his machine last week to use with his GX24. Not entirely the same process though. Once the design is complete in Corel you click an icon on the toolbar which drops the job into Roland Cut Studio then cut from there. Works ok though.

[Alan Drury]

They all seem to work slightly differently the Summa puts an icon on the Corel top tool bar and you just click on that to tranfer the object into Summas’s Winplot for cutting. Winplot has less features that Cutting Master but is significantly faster. Summas also have software to allow all cutter settings to be done from the computer rather than the cutter itself, this is outside Corel
Alan D

[Steve Goddard]

cheers for your advice everyone, it’s really appreciated. I’ve done a bit more saving so I’m going to pay GrafityP a visit tomorrow and purchase a jaguar II. Expect loads of ‘omg how does this thing work’ topics on here shortly lol

[Andy Taylor]

quote Steve Goddard:

cheers for your advice everyone, it’s really appreciated. I’ve done a bit more saving so I’m going to pay GrafityP a visit tomorrow and purchase a jaguar II. Expect loads of ‘omg how does this thing work’ topics on here shortly lol

Did you ever buy one and how did you get on??

[Steve Goddard]

Apologies for not keeping this thread up to date, yes I got the Jaguar II from GrafityP, its an amazing piece of kit.

I’m still doing the vinyl alongside my day job at the minute but the work is starting to ramp up nicely so i’m hoping to go self employed at some point in the future.

I started off making small decals for friends cars, moved up to doing full graphics on a couple of race cars and then got asked to go and see a friend of a friend who owns a taxi company. To be honest with you I’ve been snowed under with work from that point onwards.

I’ve been producing magnetic signs for his taxi’s, making stickers for advertising, done a few big graphics and adverts on their cars. Just trying to take each day as it comes and learn as much as I can on the way.

I’ve been asked if I can re-do his shop front which is going to be a huge learning curve but I’m very keen to take on the challenge. Expect a thread in the very near future asking for advice on that one lol.

I’ve just been concentrating on doing the best job I can and from word of mouth I’ve already got a limousine and a takeaway wanting work doing. Hopefully I’ll be putting some pictures up in the gallery soon.

[Andy Taylor]

What software are you using ??

Did you have problems working out where the vinyl will actually cut?? I get so much wasted Vinyl. The biggest problem is that the Puma decides to wind in about 3 foot of vinyl and then send it back out again before it cuts meaning I cant use scraps or small pieces for testing the cut. Does the jaguar do the same??

[Robert Lambie]

andy you should be able to turn the feed off within your software. if not, then the cutter will have the option.
what it is doing is unrolling the media in preparation for cutting. this way it can snap back and forward cutting at high speed without snagging on the heavy roll of vinyl. if that makes sense?

[Andy Taylor]

quote Robert Lambie:

andy you should be able to turn the feed off within your software. if not, then the cutter will have the option.
what it is doing is unrolling the media in preparation for cutting. this way it can snap back and forward cutting at high speed without snagging on the heavy roll of vinyl. if that makes sense?

Cheers for that .

I can see why it wants to do that but I pull it out myself and by doing what it does it does not let me use the little bits of Vinyl.

I will look for the options when I get some software to use with it again.

[Karl Williams]

Plus if it’s pulling at the same time as cutting you’ll burn your motors out or blow the fuse. Leave it on mate…it’s there for a reason. 😉

[Steve Goddard]

quote Andy Taylor:

What software are you using ??

Did you have problems working out where the vinyl will actually cut?? I get so much wasted Vinyl. The biggest problem is that the Puma decides to wind in about 3 foot of vinyl and then send it back out again before it cuts meaning I cant use scraps or small pieces for testing the cut. Does the jaguar do the same??

I’m using signpal master edition, as I come from an autocad background I found it a bit of a struggle at first but i’m getting there.

As for cutting small pieces of vinyl, I’m not sure if your puma is the same but with a jag when you first load the vinyl into it you get the three options on the screen withthe arrows, I think its (left arrow) roll, (up arrow) edge, (Right arrow) sheet
If you select sheet it pulls the off cut through the plotter and measures it. Then when you send the job to the cutter it starts straight away without running half a metre of vinyl through first.

I hope that helps

[Nigel Pugh]

Andy you said you are using a Puma II, so the settings for running either in roll or single format will be done via the switches on the right side cover, the same will go for the auto unroll feed too.