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Decision Help -Roland camm 1 GX-24
Not sure which section to put this.
Hi folks, I have finally given up on that Cheap Rabbit plotter from EBay after two months, never even got it to plot my name!! 20 meters of vinyl later with rounded text and uncompleted letters and score marks between and over the letters.Have sent it back and waiting response, they won’t give me my money back but if they give me a new plotter i will sell it on without opening the box. I tried everything I could to get it to work but it was a disaster, poor quality. Problem was I found eBay long before I found and joined this site. Would have saved £300 and actually be bringing money in by now. Least said about that chapter the better
Options I’m considering this week as I have now got about 10 jobs lined up and no machine yet, all friends so they prepared to wait a few more days.
Have my heart set on a Roland Camm 1 GX24
1. Have contacted xpres.co.uk – Have got a price for one from them. £1150+vat .Problem being that i thought with the optical eye i would be able to print( ink jet ) onto vinyl and then contour cut out a colour graphic to place onto signs, outdoor use. I have an A4 ink jet at present but a new printer could be got in the long term. Is this possible? xpres tell me that only way possible is to buy the versacamm at £7500. Not ready for that yet. Could I buy a printer and laminate for outdoor use? Will the Roland still be able to contour cut this?
I still need to wait till Tuesday to find out if they will travel to Northern Ireland and set it up with full days training if I’m only ordering a plotter from them with the 2 years on site warranty. This is offered in England. They want me to purchase a printer and heat press etc before they will come over. Good sales team.
2. Roland Ireland – same price with extra blades with £ 105 threw in(ZEC-U1005). I’m taking it for granted that they will come and install it as well.
3. Do you know if there is any place selling a second hand Roland apart from eBay? Want the new style one. I have finances ready for a new one but an ex demo or a year old machine would also suit.Anybody have any dealings with these companies and help me make the correct decision this time? I know the machine has many capabilities but I will mainly use it for cars, vans and small personalized graphics which I hope I will be able to do in colour. Plus loads of fun stuff for myself
Many thanks, the information I get this time will be what I use to make my choice of supplier. Remember that I am in Northern Ireland. If anyone is actually using this set up in northern ireland i would love to see it in operation and pick someones mind for an hour
T.Douglas -
10 Replies
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You could always call roland direct and ask for prices. ide imagine whoever you buy a cutter from may sell on the basis you could upgrade to a versacamm with 3-6 month?
try calling round some of mainland agents like Grafityp, Europoint, Solution 2 etc i am sure someone will be able to advise you and give you a good deal. -
Tim, firstly don’t know why you have had so many problems with the original plotter, there does seem to be problems with some of them getting them set up but there are quite a few people on the boards using these or similar plotters and once they are set up properly seem to operate OK.
As for printing using an ink jet printer I would forget it if I were you, even if you laminate the graphics it won’t stop them fading under UV light so you could very easily end up giving yourself a bad name before you really get established. Better option would be to buy your graphics in from a trade supplier until such time as you can afford to buy a printer that would be suitable yourself.
Someone like Harry may be able to be of more help about the plotter you are looking to buy, he is in Ireland himself so will probably have a better idea about suppliers over there.
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Thanks lads, yeah I think that full colour is a step to far at the moment. Yeah I think that there has to be a problem with the machine i first got. I’m an engineer plus my mate who used to work in a sign company was baffled by it, it had its own mind.Everything was set up correctly and 100 calls to the supplier he had no answers either. It has not put me off. The full colour graphics would only be A3 size anyways, All the printers I have seen to be full size. Going to place my order at the start of the week with either company.
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Tim, I am sure there are members on the boards who would be able to supply you with full colour prints at trade prices until you were in a position to buy your own printer. You say they only need to be A3 but if you were able to find a suitable A3 printer I am sure it would only be a matter of a few weeks before you realised that it was to small and limiting and wished you had bought something bigger.
Just read some of the posts by people who have bought their own printer and all of a sudden the amount of digital printing they are supplying has amazed them. -
You can print and contour cut with the GX 24, so long as its up to 610 mm
wide, the eye picks up the registration marks and then you cut, that’s how we do it for T shirt transfers anyway.
I couldn’t recommend the GX-24 more highly, its a lot of machine for the money and super fast.
We couldn’t be without ours now.P.S I got it from xpres good service from them
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I have a GX-24 and never had a problem with it – a perfect cut every time.
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I have finally given up on that Cheap Rabbit plotter from EBay(quote)
I am sorry to hear about your Rabbit Tim. I am having the same problems, mine keeps crashing after sending too much down, not even going to go there. I am intrigued with this Roland GX 24, So it prints onto vinyl and is a plotter? Where can you buy these, will have to speak to mr bank manager again.
Regards
J
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GX-24 is a cutter/plotter, not a printer.
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Buy the Roland plotter. Get any print farmed out until you have enough business to justify a printer.
Peter
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Would agree with the above advice – there is plenty you can do with just a cutter until the amount of work justifies buying a printer.
Whatever you do, dont inkjet print signs and then laminate them – even with laminating they are going to fade really quickly, and you’ll have a lot of unhappy customers coming back to you !
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