Roland PC-600 Question

[cw products]

Hi Mr Bruce, fire-away it’s a printing machine

[Mr Bruce]

quote cw products:

Hi Mr Bruce, fire-away

Thanks,

I’m about to purchase a used PC-600 and would be looking to use it as a secondary machine to work in conjunction with a Water Jet cutter I’m buying (along with a tumbling polisher and a sandblaster)

The majority of the work for the machine will be vinyl cutting (basic stickers and sand blast masks) but I like the idea of having the added flexibility of printing full colour stickers too.

I’ve had a long read through the forums and seem to come to the conclusion that these machines are better for small repetitive jobs rather than big format jobs.

This sounds like it might be the sort of machine for me – I have no intention of using the print function for big jobs.

Please could anyone confirm if this is correct?

Also – I’d be grateful if anyone could answer the following questions?

Does the PC-600 have similar vinyl cutting specs to the Camm1 CX-24? (I’m pretty competent at using these!)

What sort of speed will it cut at?

Does the blade have enough pressure to cut through some of the thicker vinyls like brushed aluminium?

Can I print colour vinyls directly from Corel?

Do I need special vinyls to print on (special white/clear) or can it print on pretty much any vinyl?

I assume wax is for paper, resin for vinyl?

Do I need to look at some kind of protective coating for external use?(small vehicle stickers) If so – what does this involve? (I’ve only ever cut vinyl – never done clour print vinyl)

I’m paying £700 for a PC-600 with LOADS of spare ribbons/cartridges and blades – does this sound OK?

Roughly how much are print heads?

Is there somewhere I can get ‘alternative’ ribbons/cartridges rather than using Roland ones?

I’ve always bought vinyl from Spandex – is this the best place or are there good alternatives (cheaper ideally!)

Like I said – SO many questions!! Sorry to bombard you with all this!

Any advice GREATLY accpeted! 😀 😉

Thanks,

Bruce.

[cw products]

Alright Bruce, I will give it a go at answering your questions.
I use a pc-600 and they are a good machine for the price you can get them for now, just a bit slow and expensive for ribbons. I use printone for cheaper ribbons and use normal 5 year vinyl to print on from graphityp. The heads do go pretty often and cost £175 + the dreaded. They cut pretty slow I think it’s 30cm a second but will cut thick vinyls. I don’t know about Corel as I use signlab.
As for the price £700 is dirt cheap.
Hope this helps you out abit, I’m sure you will get loads of advice form everyone here.
chalk

[Jason Bagladi]

(mod-edit) admin@uksignboards.com

Thanks

[Nicola McIntosh]

quote cw products:

They cut pretty slow I think it’s 30cm a second

glad someone else has pointed out the same thing……my one used to cut at 20cm (max) a second on corel draw……it cut like a tank.. 😮 and only one person has agreed with me so far that it did…… :lol1: you will not have any bother with heads…if you stick…to the rules of cleaning before printing.. 😀

nik

[Robert Lambie]

quote :

I’m paying £700 for a PC-600 with LOADS of spare ribbons/cartridges and blades – does this sound OK?

sorry, but if you are getting at £700 the person is desperate or its a duffer.
used for their purpose they are good machines. outwith that, then expensive to run.
I’m guessing its a PC60? not 600…. good blades from the likes of print-one will cost you £8 each NEW at most… so having a batch of those thrown in isn’t much. ribbons? if you have loads, then the head the machine comes with is about to be bin material, or already knackered.

I’m not slating this machine, i had one for many years and done us proud, but these days, unless you have a specific market, then they have too high a running cost.
as for pressure on blade and accuracy, they have limited tracking to about 3.5 – 4ft then run off. this is fine for printing but not if you want it as a vinyl cutter. PC-600 maybe better though, not sure,..
cutting speed very slow, but again, PC600 maybe better as its a better machine.

there is a bit on the side of machine to give a reading on the amount of mileage the head has done, ask seller for that and why, after all this time he still has the spent ribbon carts?

[Mr Bruce]

Hi and thanks for all the info.

The model is deffo a PC-600 – but I am still waiting to see it before I part with my hard earned! 😉

As you say Robert, it seems too good a deal, hence why I’m not buying it unless I can see it running.

I seem to remember that the PC-600 is a more powerful model than the PC-60, hence my question about the speed. I’m not after anything super quick, but I don’t want a snail either! If it is comparible to the Roland CX-24 then I’ll be happy 😀 .

As mentioned, I will be mainly using it for vinyl cutting, but would like the print option for doing extra bits…..and seeing as I won’t be doing any large format work (only small stickers) then I was asking whether this machine is suited to small runs of medium to small high(ish) definition stickers?

I guess the best thing to do is get over to see it for myself……I just wanted to see if I could get some background info on the machine before I travel for 2.5 hrs to see it??

Thanks again folks,

Bruce.

P.S. I have some pics of the machine that they sent me, but I guess image linking is disabled in this forum? If I wanted to show some photos, how do I do it?? 😕