Roland CX-24 Advice please?

[John Parfit]

CX 24, good starter machine… seen them go from as little as £250 (wish I’d kept an eye on that one) to around £800 second user.

John

[Roy Roberts]

Hi Wayne,
I have a CX 24 sits in my office still use it, had it from new, years old and still goes well. Had new grip rollers fitted 3 years ago & cutting strips when needed. Very robust machine.
Use versacam daily and the CX now and again for heavy media.

Regards

Roy

[John Parfit]

oops, my fault, confused the CX and the much newer GX; CX still a good machine and should be obtainable £200 if lucky – £450.

John

[Wayne Swift]

The package ive been offered is for the cutter, 100 metres of various coloured vinyl, and a dell PC with Flexi 8.1 on it £700? Good deal?

[John Parfit]

Hi Wayne

Getting out of my depth here (have been researching plotters over last month or so but not set-ups).

Asked the boss and boss says it’s likely not a bargain, but also not a rip-off, you’re paying about £400 on top of the plotter for a pc when a £50 pc on windows 95 can run a plotter easily, buying vinyl in colours you might not use and flexisign is most codecracked piece of signmaking software out there, you’re average eleven year old could get a copy plus flexisign is not new user friendly really.

So if it’s a cx24, fairly modern pc, flexisign disc with a dongle and the vinyl is not all pinks and beiges and not the cheapest horrible stuff then it might not be a bad price.

Difficult decision possibly, good luck.

John

[Warren Beard]

I agree with what John said above,

unless it is 2 rolls of popular coloured good quality (4-5 year minimum vinyl), a decent spec pc (just to make it slightly more worth it) and original flexi with dongle then I would offer about £500 max.

Vinyl is really cheap and so are old pc’s so not much value in those really, good quality legit software is expensive and a good quality looked after machine is of value so only take those 2 things in to account, if either of those 2 items fail then walk away from the deal and look elsewhere.

cheers

Warren

[Wayne Swift]

Agghhh! Thats thrown a spanner in the works! I do appreciate the advice though 😛

I think that i was also thinking along the lines of ease of set up. If i buy a system all together that i can bring home and plug in and use straight away, then perhaps thats why i should pay i bit over the top? Im worried that if i pick up a plotter for £400, then shop around for a PC, then compatible software, and then make sure i have drivers for the ports, im liable to find that i encounter problems with compatibility? Id be the first to admit that im not technically minded at all!!!!!

[Warren Beard]

as long as you buy a quality brand cutter you will have support for it, here and direct with the manufacturers who can point you to the correct drivers etc but usually comes on the disc with the cutter etc.

if it was a really good deal then I would say sounds about right but why waste money when a 5 minute phone call and 5 minutes loading is all you need to do "IF" you have any problems.

I have a Summa and it was pretty much plug and play.

good luck

cheers

Warren

[Wayne Swift]

So, my dilemma is- do I buy the Roland with PC, vinyl, and Flexi? Or a Summa D60 with Winplot and no PC, but £100 cheaper? £700 for Roland package, or £600 for Summa which is in excellent condition?

[Warren Beard]

winplot that comes with the Summa is just a basic cutting program and can’t be used for designing etc and you will still need CoralDraw or Illustrator or a signmaking software to design the graphics in before cutting.

what do you have now and what’s your budget? this will limit you to what to get.

[Peter Normington]

Wayne. I know we all have to start somewhere, and just having read your introduction post, you look serious about getting in to signage. my thoughts are, you will struggle to l get a decent second hand setup, cutter, design/cutting software etc for your indicated budget. What software did you use for your HND?

Peter

[Wayne Swift]

I don’t have anything at the moment. I’m just getting back into signs after a 3 year break. My budget is about £700, so need to get a quality used plotter with decent software. I have Illustrator on my home PC but wouldn’t know how to use it for cutting? Is illustrator enough to use as a stand alone design and cutting program?

[Wayne Swift]

quote Peter Normington:

Wayne. I know we all have to start somewhere, and just having read your introduction post, you look serious about getting in to signage. my thoughts are, you will struggle to l get a decent second hand setup, cutter, design/cutting software etc for your indicated budget. What software did you use for your HND?

Peter

Hi Peter,

I used Photoshop CS2 and Illustrator, but I had problems with Photoshop on my PC so I don’t have it anymore. I still have Illustrator though.

I’m surprised you think that £700-£800 isn’t enough to get something decent to get back into it? Perhaps I could get a Summa for example for £500 and spend £300 on original software?

[Peter Normington]

Ok, forget pshop for cut vinyl, Illustrator is fine though, and most cutters will include a basic cutting interface that you will be able to use.
but if you are serious, you do need to start off with kit that will do the job, and for a reasonable time, to get you a return to invest in better equipment.
Say for instance you get a "cheap but branded plotter" and all looks well,
your first job comes along, its a transit sized van, and you quote £200 for the job.
you start cutting the day before the van arrives, all good so far. but half way through, the plotter packs up… what do you do?
How do you deal with the customer?
So my advice, if you want to start a business, its not just spending £700 on a plotter, and if that is your budget, then the best of luck, I do hope you succeed, its a hard word out there at the moment,

Peter

[Nigel Pugh]

A used cutter that is still good for a few years and a decent software package that your needs won’t outgrow in six months then for a budget of £700 and this is including the vat is pushing it very hard, I wouldn’t even know what to offer or where to start.

Then again some have set up with a cheap Chinese machine and software and muddled through……..after weeks of asking on here about how to get the pc to talk to the cutter.
Personally set your budget if you can between £1,000 and £2,000 min all in and you will get a package that will see you through several years before hopefully you can expand.

Nigel

[Wayne Swift]

Just to add to my confusion, ive now been offered a Graphtec JX 1060 print and cut. Any advice? Please!

[Graham Shand]

quote Wayne Swift:

Just to add to my confusion, ive now been offered a Graphtec JX 1060 print and cut. Any advice? Please!

LOL yes I offered you it, buy it, it a great cutter, wider than the GX24, (which I have two) anyway as this offer was made outside this forum, I guess this post is ok.
Regards
Graham

[Neil Speirs]

quote Graham Shand:

quote Wayne Swift:

Just to add to my confusion, ive now been offered a Graphtec JX 1060 print and cut. Any advice? Please!

LOL yes I offered you it, buy it, it a great cutter, wider than the GX24, (which I have two) anyway as this offer was made outside this forum, I guess this post is ok.
Regards
Graham

lol, if it’s that great why u selling it & keeping the 2 Rolands… I would have kept quiet Graham 😉

[Graham Shand]

quote Neil Speirs:

quote Graham Shand:

quote Wayne Swift:

Just to add to my confusion, ive now been offered a Graphtec JX 1060 print and cut. Any advice? Please!

LOL yes I offered you it, buy it, it a great cutter, wider than the GX24, (which I have two) anyway as this offer was made outside this forum, I guess this post is ok.
Regards
Graham

lol, if it’s that great why u selling it & keeping the 2 Rolands… I would have kept quiet Graham 😉

I think having a wife, who is on a mission to have a massive clear out was the motivation, I could aslo mention the 7 foot Toy solider that is also on offfer or the 2.5 m high cast iron Statue of Liberty and the list goes on and on, graham

[Denise Goodfellow]

quote Peter Normington:

Ok, forget pshop for cut vinyl, Illustrator is fine though, and most cutters will include a basic cutting interface that you will be able to use.
but if you are serious, you do need to start off with kit that will do the job, and for a reasonable time, to get you a return to invest in better equipment.
Say for instance you get a “cheap but branded plotter” and all looks well,
your first job comes along, its a transit sized van, and you quote £200 for the job.
you start cutting the day before the van arrives, all good so far. but half way through, the plotter packs up… what do you do?
How do you deal with the customer?
So my advice, if you want to start a business, its not just spending £700 on a plotter, and if that is your budget, then the best of luck, I do hope you succeed, its a hard word out there at the moment,

Peter

I agree with peter.

I`d opt for a personal load and buy new, you`ll be up and running in half the time it`ll take buying 2nd hand, especially when you don`t know a great deal about software and cutters. buy both some the same supplier and I`l sure you could ask them to install the software and set the machine up, so you know what you`re doing.

You`ll have peace of mind that if thing’s do go wrong the answer will only be phone call away.

[Wayne Swift]

Right, i opted for the Roland. Ive got it set up, and it is cutting but it keeps pausing every 5 seconds or so? This cant be normal as its taking ages to cut what i need! Im using the "show me" button on Flexi before i send to cut to make sure there is enough vinyl. Is this anything to do with it? Any ideas please?