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I want a printer but already have a cutter…
I’m looking to buy a printer. I already have a huge Roland cutter. I think ideally I would buy a Roland printer & cutter all in one type system but I was wondering how easy it would be to print on say a mimaki or something and contour cut with the Roland cutter I already have. I guess it would involve knowing about registration marks etc but since I’ve never done it before it sounds convoluted.
Money-wise after looking at the price of second hand printers etc, it looks like things could be a lot cheaper if I could find a printer and work out how to contour cut with the cutter I already have?
Advice appreciated…
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9 Replies
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Hi Gordon
The Roland print and cut machines are great printers and really do open many doors on what you can now offer your customers. I would NOT look at the print and cut machine replacing your stand alone cutter though.
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Thanks Rob…
I suppose what I want to know is this… as you know, I have a pretty good cutter, should I buy a printer that also cuts or is it going to be easy enough to print on one machine and then take it to the cutter I have for cutting?
I have seen some reasonably priced Mimaki printers etc but they do not cut. I am worried about how difficult it would be to take printed vinyl from that machine and then contour cut on my existing cutter… (seems to me that doing that on an all in one would be easier but I don’t know how much easier)
G
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cut on an other machine than the printer is very easy. If you laminate, it will be exactly be the same if you cut with a cutting plotter or a print/cut machine. You can mix roland cutter with mimaki printer, not problem either.
According to buy a used printer, I would be very very carefull about it because it usually costs more in repairing/refitting than buying new a one (for which you have a warranty and support from your dealer).
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I have had a VersaCamm print & cut since I started and it has done everything. Originally it was more of a space issue as I did not have space for 2 machines. I have not had any major problems, but the worst thing is while you are printing, you cannot be cutting and vice-versa.
I’m not sure how it works with printing on one machine and cutting on another, but as far as I know as long as your machine has an optical sensor for reading crop marks it will be fine. A print and cut machine is great if you are not laminating as the whole job can be done in one go, but it is very rare we do anything without laminating so we always use crop marks.
If you can get one for the right money then I would get a print and cut machine. It will be good for printing and give you the option to print and cut when required. As Rob says though, I would advise against just having the one machine as I find it a bit of a pain.
John
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Cheers John, very good.
It sounds like I need to find out if my Roland cutter has an optical sensor then for the registration marks.
I very much take what you are saying on board about the question of buying new versus buying used and I think I agree, new would be better.
The problem, of course, is cash. Tempting to whack it on a credit card or something though 🙂
I’ve seen the odd dodgie looking printer on ebay that can do vinyl printing for under £1000… the idiot in me says have a punt, you might be lucky.
Now you know why I gave up Russian Roulette.
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quote Gordon Connelly:It sounds like I need to find out if my Roland cutter has an optical sensor then for the registration marks.
which exact model do you have?
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I have a PNC-1860 Roland cutter…
I’ve been offered a Roland Print cutter SP-540i for £4500. It apparently has had very little use, comes with all original packaging, and has an automatic take-up roller.
Is that a good deal, assuming it’s in good working order? he says he bought it in March 2011 for a project that didn’t come to fruition. (that’s as much as I know about the guy selling it and the printer)
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Gordon you are buying this as an add on to your existing business so my first question would be how much cut vinyl work do you do & what would the printers main job be.
As others have already said a print & cut machine can only do one thing or the other at a time. If you were mainly looking at banners & roller banner type items that didn’t need contour cutting then just a printer may be suitable but if you are looking at a wide range like printed stickers, vehicle graphics which would need to be contour cut how much time will that use on your present machine & can you afford to lose that time from your cut vinyl work?I am guessing if you had the space then you would be better keeping your existing plotter & adding a print & cut machine would be the best option. Gives you a back up plotter as well which could be handy if you get large jobs that just involve cut vinyl.
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Hi Martin,
Thanks for the response…
As of right now I haven’t done any commercial work in any of the various fields of sign-making, garment printing, van graphics etc.
It’s something we are intending to ease into over the next few months.. I’ve been doing quite a lot of learning though and have my first t-shirt job (25 t-shirts with just 2 colour vinyl).
We aren’t short of space really so having a new printer / cutter is appealing.
Looking at the market and interest shown so far, we expect to pick up business doing vehicle graphics, garment printing, window graphics and occasionally sign boards such as foamex type stuff.
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