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Recon. Gerber edge II. Price opinions
Hi again.
I’ve just been offered a reconditioned Gerber Edge II (not fx) along with the 15" plotter and software (composer I think). The total package is £6995 +vat. This is with 3 months warranty and is direct from Gerber via Spandex.
I can get and Ecojet from the same place brand new for £8995 + vat.
I’d appreciate peoples opinions on the price of the Gerber. I’m not sure I could warrant getting an Inkjet due to the nature of the majority of my work and if I was, I would be more inclined to go Mimaki as there is a white cartridge available for it now.
Any thoughts appreciated.
Kenny 😀
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30 Replies
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Overpriced!
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yep, there is a white for the mimaki, but dont let that distract you, other options like print and cut need to be considered.
All I am however an ex Gerber Edge 1 owner and now have a mimaki JV3-160S, need I say more!
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quote Mike Grant:Overpriced!I’ll second that,
Peter
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Just as an add in, the mimaki white is not to be compared with gerber white. it is not opaque, so cannot be used as a block on clear stickers like the gerber white.
Peter
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I paid $10K for a reconditioned 1986 Gerber 4B, GA 6.2, LMK module, a Dell PC, a scanner, monitor and printer in 1998 and felt that I was royally screwed up the butt with no lube.
I bought my used 1989 4E in 2003 for $400, and thought it was a great deal.
Gerber plotters are real dinosaurs but also good workhorses.
It’s getting harder to get the parts for these, I just had to replace my theta belt. But as I am a sign painter as well, these two plotters do what I need.
Be careful who you buy from.
love….Jill -
Overpriced. Last Christmas I purchased an Edge 1 and GS 15 plotter, I drove to Switzerland to collect them, the following month I purchased Omega 2.5 from Spandex and still had a little change from £2,500.
The equipment has been excellent, requiring no attention, the only problems have been from my own inexperience in operation. -
Overpriced!
A brand new FX with an Envision 375 (much, much faster than the old plotters) and the latest Omega was £12.5k a few months ago, deal also included 20 foils & 10 caddies.
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Overpriced then seems to be the consensus.
The quote breaks down as £4395 + vat for the printer and software and £1995 + vat for the plotter which is new.
Used Gerbers seem hard to come by unfortunately but I really don’t think we’re ready for an inkjet
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Kenny, just me being stupid, but why are you not ready for an inkjet? They handle volumes from a little something once a week, to 8 hours solid printing per day. Cheaper to run and maintain as well. Even in our overpriced 3rd world country, a NEW VersaCamm is not that that much more than the used Gerber you mention. Does this model use the sprocketed vinyl? That has been off the market here for ages!!
Buy new, get a guarantee (if only for the pleasure of a catastrophic failure 2 weeks after the guarantee ended!) and enjoy the benefits of newer generation and more versatile equipment. -
Hi Kenny,
Not sure whether you’re aware or not, but Spandex are doing brand new FX’s with GSX plotter, Omega software and 15 foils/caddies for £9K + VAT at the moment.
Phil -
We still have our Gerber Edge along with our new VersaCamm. I can not honestly remember the last time I turned on the Gerber. Only use it for the odd spot color or printing clings with a white background.
Someone recently sold their edge for $1000 here in the states after getting an inkjet. This should tell us something.
-Marek -
Thing is though, at the minute I am more likely to make spot colour stickers and items with the white primer rather than full colour prints. I suppose if I had the inkjet I could chase that type of work but my personal opinion of myself and my business is that I’m not ready to take that step. Thats probably hard for a lot of you to understand 😳
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thought u could get a Uniform Cadet for that sort of money… i haven#t checked recently but there is an advert in the top right hand corner here.
Also, look at Grafi advertising a Mimaki Print with cutter solutions on the right in there website http://www.grafityp.co.uk
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Some on here are too quick to knock the edge! Ours paid for itself producing items not possible on even the best ink jet in less than 6 months. It continues to coin in on markets the "inkies" only dream about. There is little to touch it for decals, stickers and labels, so for occasional use in a confined space the no-clogging, no-smelling, no-aggro benefits easily outweigh any advantages of a wider format solvent type inkjet.
Price – well if it gets you in and allows you to sleep at night then it’s fair. Buying on ebay etc could land you with 2K bills if the head goes next week. Spandex will honour their guarantee so see if you can coax a year out of them.
You need to know your market and buy accordingly. No machine is going to do everything but an edge is a good way to get an introduction into digital printing without many of the pitfalls.
Colin
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I totally agree with colin on this, the other benefit over inkjets is that graphics are immediately useable. I can print, straight away laminate and then apply to vehicle if needed. Our edge 1 lasted for 4 years with no problems (apart from dongle), weve had our edge 2 for two years and are still running the originar plotter. For safety signs and spot colours the edge is brilliant. Resolution and registration are th main problems with the edge. Ours runs for ten hours a day non stop.
Mart. -
I do recall that registration was a problem with the gerber I worked with in my time employed in the sector. At the minute I think a gerber would be of more use to me than inkjet.
Can I also ask, what type of work, other than vehicle graphics would you look for with an inkjet?
Also, would anyone know how much a decent PC60 would be worth (used)
Thanks for the input folks 😀
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We have found that the registration problems can be improved/eliminated most of the time by not using the cheapest vinyl/foils you can find.
As for products,
There is a large market for short runs of vinyl labels which keeps our machine busy for a lot of the time. Often used to personalise products where screen printing isn’t viable.
Self cling and reverse printed clear vinyl for window displays – often flood coated with white.
Safety signage, warnings and evacuation details – personalised for specific companies.
To name but a few.
Its true the cost of running an edge may be more expensive than solvent printers (although few take into account cleaning costs) so its better to concentrate on markets that can’t be satisfied by the cheaper methods. Mirror chromes, metallic golds and (proper) white printing make up a lot of what the edge does for us and this usually commands a premium price.
Colin
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Kenny,
Dont touch the PC 60. It’s horrible, in my view (had one) Slow, expensive to run , ribbons breaking, slow, so-so quality, …oh, did I mention it is slow and exensive to operate?
If any help, when I bought mine abbout 4 years ago (it was 2 years old, but with less than 30 running metres under it’s belt), I forked out ONE FIFTH of a new one’s price!! Only found out later why. Roland makes some seriously good stuff, but also know how to "spin doctor" a dog to look acceptable!
If you really have to print thermal transfer, the Edge has got more than it’s name to beat the Roland 60 / 600 !!
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quote Colin@BECC:We have found that the registration problems can be improved/eliminated most of the time by not using the cheapest vinyl/foils you can find.I use Oracle 651 and Gerber ribbons but have terrible trouble over 1m length. I have tried to compensate manually but the results are not the best, so end up doing shorter runs.
Any advice would be great Colin
Dave
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Dave
Are your problems registering the various spot colours, aligning CMYK or registration on the contour cuts. Also, what software are you using?
Feel free to pm or email me on this if you don’t want to hijack this thread.Colin
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Dave
what problems are you having??
I run avery 700 with gerber and duracoat foils over 2-4 metres no problem
Omega software,20 year old 4b plotter!! and 10year old edge 1
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wow wish I could do that. Running Signlab 7.1 with GSX15+. Basically the cutter cuts further down and further along, as you go along the vinyl (its actually the reverse ‘cos it starts at the end 😕
Dave
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quote DaveBruce:wow wish I could do that. Running Signlab 7.1 with GSX15+. Basically the cutter cuts further down and further along, as you go along the vinyl (its actually the reverse ‘cos it starts at the end 😕
Dave
Dave, have you got the GSX manual? you can do test cuts and it tells you how to reset it all.
Nick
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Must be lucky that all our machines and s/ware are spandex/gerber orientated
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Dave
I was experiencing a similar problem with early versions of 7.1 particularly when using decal mode. You will need to ensure you are running the latest update of 7.1 which has cured this problem. You should be able to download this from their site. They are now on build 7 of 7.1 which has sorted virtually all gripes. If you have any problems speak to Cadlink who still have the best customer support team of any software of I have owned.
Colin
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Most registration problems can be overcome using bleeds and overprints if possible, sometimes printing as cmyk instead of spot colours can help.
My preferred combination is Signfoils and Oracle vinyls, I havn’t found any other combination works that much better or worse.
When I say registration is the main problem I really don’t think it is that bad when you know how to work around it, resolution has been much more of a problem, but now we also have a versacamm wich is brilliant.
I don’t ever see a situation where our edge will become redundant, it is such a good workhorse and perfect for 95% of our jobs and the versacamm could never replace that.
Mart. -
quote Nick Minall:quote DaveBruce:wow wish I could do that. Running Signlab 7.1 with GSX15+. Basically the cutter cuts further down and further along, as you go along the vinyl (its actually the reverse ‘cos it starts at the end 😕
Dave
Dave, have you got the GSX manual? you can do test cuts and it tells you how to reset it all.
Nick
Yer I did that Nick, maybe that the plotter needs a recon, but I will update Signlab first andd see what happens.
Thanks for the advice guys.
Dave
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Dave, if you can send me a file that’s bad if you like and I can try it with Omega and SL 7.2 to see if it makes a deference
Nick.
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I think the update will sort the problem but let us know how you get on Dave.
Colin
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Hi there,
On the subject of Gerber Edges, can anyone advise me as to how much I should pay for a 12 month old Edge FX. Just the machine itself with manuals cables etc. a few rolls of media and a few foils and caddies thrown in.
Regards,
Phil
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