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Advice On Cutter Choice
Hello All,
I’m looking into the possibility of purchasing a simple cutter for producing the graphics for our race cars. Essentially these consist of sponsorship logos, supplier logos, few stripes, flags and a bit of plain text (drivers names etc.)
Currently we get it all cut by a local sign writers but it’s pretty pricey and a pain when a driver falls off and we need to get sections cut again to replace those on damaged bodywork etc.
At most we’d cut a couple of 100m a year – basically three cars worth, hence spending over £500 on a cutter isn’t cost effective, we may as well carry on getting the local boys to cut it for us.
The two cutters that seem to fit the budget are the (infamous?) PCut 630 and the RedSail RS320C – both of which are available for around £300. Whilst we don’t really need to cut anything over 250mm wide the extra capacity of the PCut is swaying my decision somewhat.
Does anyone have any input on the best choice out of those two or alternative options?
Many Thanks
MattP.S. Rather a long time ago I spent a year at a sign writers part time whilst at school so rather looking forward to playing with Vinyl again – always found weeding rather therapeutic 😉
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21 Replies
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I personally think the Pcut subject has been done to death. Look at previous posts and come to your own decision. Basically it seems that if you are lucky you will be happy and if not they will be a pain. Do you feel lucky?
Alan D -
Hi Matt and welcome. Tell us a bit more about yourself? How long have you been a signmaker and what type of sign business are you running?
Become a full member here and you’ll get some useful feedback to your questions and you in turn will hopefully be able to help out others with their questions. That’s what these forums are all about , people in the industry helping each other out. 😀
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Hi,
I’m not a sign maker (haven’t been for a long time!) I develop certain aspects of race cars and deal with running them on track.
As above all I’m really after is an idea if these cutters would be any good for our purpose and if so which one the Pcut or the Redsail would be preferable….. or of course if they are both rubbish if I should not bother.
I have searched the forum for both but the issues posted seem to be more about problems getting them connected etc. whereas I’m more interested to know if they will actually cut good decent quality graphics?
Any advice or opinions much appreciated!! If anyone is currently using a P Cut can you let me know if you are happy with the quality?
Many Thanks
Matt -
quote Matt Faulks:I have searched the forum for both but the issues posted seem to be more about problems getting them connected etc. whereas I’m more interested to know if they will actually cut good decent quality graphics?I can’t help on the quality issue, but if you can’t get them to work then what does it matter?
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Well they seem to work as people are producing on them – just that they are rather tricky to setup.
Luckily we’re used to stuff like this as we run remote telemetry up-links to the race cars via Com/USB – Radio Modem – ECU/Dash. Also all the engine management comms are done via RS232 which these days we run via USB/Serial adaptors so I’m pretty used to dealing with the issues this brings and confident (based on what I’ve read of others problems) that it won’t be an issue getting it working.
Thanks
Matt -
Matt, as Alan has already said those people who have been able to set them up OK have been happy with them so the quality must be alright. If you are sure you are not going to have problems setting it up then there shouldn’t be a problem with it at all.
Some of the problems seem to be down to where you buy them from as well, if you have been reading the other posts you will know that some of the machines being sold are for the Chinese market and will probably never run in the UK so you need to watch where you buy it from.I personally don’t think it will save you a lot of money if this is all you want it for as it is going to take up some of your time to produce the graphics that you need. I guess it really comes down to how much you think your time is worth and what else you could be doing during the time you are spending producing your graphics.
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Hi Martin,
I’d be buying from Sign Wizard to ensure it was a UK spec machine. Seems like it would do what we want okay.
We already design all our graphics etc. in house and then e-mail them to our local sign writers to be cut – we also apply them ourselves. As such all we’d really be doing is cutting out the middle man and from a rough calculation we’d save £300 or so a year with the added convenience that someone wouldn’t have to run out for 30 mins to collect a new bit of vinyl, drivers name, flag etc. etc. It’s the convenience that really appeals to me – especialy if we want to brand up a new tool box or similar, we could have it done it 5 mins.
Many thanks for all the input – I will let you know how I get on.
Matt
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quote Matt Faulks:I’d be buying from Sign Wizard
You should be alright then.
Most of the trouble seems to be from folks who buy these things from places where they can get no back-up. One of the most important things to me is reliability and this is especially important when you only have one cutting machine. If it goes down you need to be able to get up and running again in the shortest possible time.
One other benefit of producing your own decals is that you can work to your priorities rather than a suppliers.
As Martin says, there doesn’t seem to be any complaints from users on quality so I think you should be fine. Certainly if it is only going to save you £300 per year then you can’t justify a more expensive machine.
In your circumstances I say go for it.
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Thanks again for the advice chaps. It’s all much appreciated.
Looks like I’ll be going for a PCut.
Regards
Matt -
BEWARE OF THE WABBIT!!! 😀 😀 😀 😀 (:)
Sorry chaps. Couldn’t help myself. -
I take it I have missed something here? :lol1:
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What?….you can’t see Harvey???? 😀 😀 😀
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Matt, if you have been reading all the other posts about these cutters I am surprised you didn’t come across the post about someone asking advice on a rabbit cutter, it was quite an interesting read !!!!
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Can’t say I read that one, but then was looking for thread titles with Pcut and Redsail in them.
Take it the consensus was to steer clear?
Matt
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Elma fudd eat your heart out! 😀 😀 😀
I really am a bad boy at times. lol. -
Here’s the thread about the Rabbit cutter Matt
http://www.uksignboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=25603 -
quote KARL WILLIAMS:Elma fudd eat your heart out! 😀 😀 😀
I really am a bad boy at times. lol.Too true mate, beware of the curse of the WABBIT :lol1:
Good thread though, worth the read.
Warren
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quote KARL WILLIAMS:Elma fudd eat your heart out! 😀 😀 😀
I really am a bad boy at times. lol.You Wascall!!!!!!
😀 😀
Peter
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Matt,
Without wishing to sound a killjoy/smartar$e I think that you should sit down and do the arithmatic again.
Can you really buy a cutter for £300? Does that include cutting software, VAT and delivery?
If you buy 100m of the cheapest cr*p material in one go it’ll cost close to £100 including the VAT and delivery, and I assume you’ll not be using all one colour.
If you buy application tape in one or two narrow rolls you’ll pay well over the top for it so I think that you’ll struggle to do it all for £500, and you only want to save £300.
Oh, and you will not get much done in 30 minutes even when you’re good with the equipment and techniques.
I think you are better to stay with firm who are doing the job at the moment.Steve
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Steve,
£500 was for a plotter not the material etc. we pay £290 per car at the moment – three cars plus all the bits we damage over the year and branding of new bits and bobs = puts us well over a grand.
A P Cut with Signblazer elements delivered is about £320 – all our graphics are done in Corel Draw and from what I can see it’s a quick convert text to curves and paste it in. Anything none text is a vector object anyway so again should paste straight in.
As I said above it’s really the convenience that’s important not the saving – although 300 quid is still plenty of beer for the boys when they’ve done a good job.
At the moment we design all the graphics in house, have an external company cut them and then apply them ourselves. All we’re really looking to do is move the cutting in house.
Cheers
M -
What’s up doc?
bebe de bebe de dats all folks!
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