what are peoples opinions on the roland cm-500 good or bad?

[Peter Shaw]

We use a CX500 which we’ve had for a couple of years.

Does everything it’s supposed to. No faults experienced.

Peter

[J. Hulme]

Roland make the best plotters on the market mate, well worth every penny new.

[Robert Lambie]

i have one… 48inch machine.
ive been a roland man many years now, 24 inch cutter, 48 inch cutter, pc60 print and cutter & now our grenedier which is a modified roland soljet.
although i rate them as good machines, im afraid i acnt say the same about after sales. never been happy with the companies the send out, never been keen on the attitude given to someone thats spent so much on “thier” kit! (sorry roland, but this is true, you need to rattle a few cages i think 😕 :lol1: )

about 2 months ago, my control panel case buttons popped. causing indentation on the replacable thin nylon toah pad, to the point it cracked due to so brittle. andway, no big deal, call for new cover and new touch pad cover.

rob: hello, ide like to order cover and touch pad cover for my 48inch roland etc

tech support: ok, it will be 6 weeks for the cover, as we have discontinued that models parts. the touch pad cover? sorry, we have none and nor does japan.

rob: your kidding? so what can i do…. is there anything else i can use.

tech support: no.

rob: i mean is that it then? because of a bit of plastic goes brittle and splits over time. something that would cost about £15 my machine is now knackered?

tech support: pause……………. it will be 6 weeks for the cover, as we have discontinued that models parts. the touch pad cover? sorry, we have none and nor does japan. would you like to place an order and wait for delivery?

rob: yes, doesnt look like i have an option now does it?

(all done in his best Carlton the door man, from roda voice :lol1: )

this sounded like a bloody recording to me, no sympathy no nothing….
no, i understand how you must feel sir but we had to stop that range for the arrival of this range, i could ask someone in the store if there is any lying around blah blah blah… ok i know, what can they do if they dont have the part. but do you see where i am coming from?

this type of support and far worse from contracted technicians of roland uk was the reason i shopped elsewere when i ended up moving to graphtec and bought a 54inch wide cutter. best move i have honestly made…

so having said all that, steer clear of second hand models mate, not worth the hassle…

[Roy Roffey]

sorry to hear your probs rob!!

i agree, the aftercare is worth its weight in gold – therefore i guess its good that Roland machines are well reliable otherwise there would be a lot of Roland doorstops around!!

roffs

[Steve Broughton]

With regard to Robs reply:- remember this post from a while back? http://www.uksignboards.com/viewtopic.p … highlight=
well I got the parts from Roland Japan and as you say Rob it took 6 weeks to arrive, well was talking to another bloke the other day and he has had same probs as I did with the same part Roland again told him 6 week delivery but then told him they were discontinuing parts for that model of plotter i.e pnc 1000-1100-1200 etc. etc. imagine if you bought a car new 1995 it goes wrong and you are told “sorry we stopped making the parts for that model” 🙄

[Bill Dewison]

quote Steve Broughton:

imagine if you bought a car new 1995 it goes wrong and you are told “sorry we stopped making the parts for that model” 🙄

You’re obviously not the proud owner of a Lada then Steve 😀 Trying to get parts for oldish Ladas is akin to asking Nasa if they can supply you with a fuse from the Apollo 13 landing pads! I have a customer unfortunate enough to own such a car (a Lada, not an Apollo 13 landing pad 😮 ) and despite searching every scrapyard in a 25 mile radius, his car is still sitting on his driveway, looking depressed and unloved 🙁 In fairness, its a Lada, it was never loved 🙄

Anyway, I’m no help at all, my Roland is behaving like a spoilt brat at the moment, spitting every other day and causing me headaches when I look at it. For some reason, the rollers that hold the vinyl keep deciding not to hold the vinyl, which is wonderful. The roll drops to the floor and pulls the cut/print straight out of the plotter. Usually not a problem, but considering this happened when I was doing a 4 ft print for a banner, I wasn’t best pleased. Can a PC60 keep on track over a metre? Um, no is the short answer. Can a PC60 give you a warm glow inside? Unless you’re holding a bare wire that hanging out of the back after you’ve beaten it to within an inch of its life with the vinyl roll it just spat out, um, no. 👿

Cheers, Dewi

[Steve Broughton]

not a great analogy Dewi :lol1: I bet Roland don’t see themselves as the Lada of plotter manufacturers more like the Roll Royce or Bentley, it makes me wonder how long the expected life of a plotter is? mines 10 years old, do you think they design them for a certain life, they’re not going to sell many if they last 30 years are they? makes me wonder on the quality of new ones?????

PS had the 60’s predecessor the 50 and wouldn’t wish one on my worst eney 🙁

[Bill Dewison]

The way I look at it, a plotter isn’t going to last forever. I’ve already started saving for my next plotter (which will be another Graphtec because I love em) as I accept I can only hammer the one I have for a couple of years.

Everything you buy these days doesn’t seem to last five minutes. Buy a fancy kettle and you’re lucky if it lasts 12 months (or maybe its the way I use it 🙄 ), buy a vacuum cleaner, again 12 months, and although a plotter is a considerably more expensive item than either of these, I can’t see they will last beyond the 5 year point. Just as we all have to spend inordinate amounts of cash on upgrading our computers to make sure we can stay up to date, it would seem its swinging that way with other equipment as well 😕

Btw Steve, has Craig managed to get the part fixed on his plotter now? 6 weeks is alot of downtime for anyone, I’m surprised he hasn’t bobbed in for some vinyl, if not with me, there’s a couple of guys over the bridge with a spangley new plotter, they both came in for a chat and a brew, offering me a backup if ever I needed to get some vinyl cut in a hurry. Nice blokes as well, thought they would have been on here by now 😕

Cheers, Dewi

[Steve Broughton]

quote Dewi:

Btw Steve, has Craig managed to get the part fixed on his plotter now? 6 weeks is alot of downtime for anyone

Dunno mate he rang last week asking if I knew where to get it as I’ve had exactly the same part break, and it was him that was told by Roland that they are discontinuing “older” machines parts.

[Bill Dewison]

quote Steve Broughton:

Dunno mate he rang last week asking if I knew where to get it as I’ve had exactly the same part break, and it was him that was told by Roland that they are discontinuing “older” machines parts.

So its a common fault on that model, or do you have different models? I understand now what you mean, it would effectively make that model of plotter obselete if they discontinued parts 🙁 Completely misses that point earlier, having one of those days 🙄

Cheers, Dewi

[Steve Broughton]

not same model but same seies 950-1000-1100-1200 etc.

[Alan Drury]

Reading Rob’s post it was totally different when I wanted a lcd for my Graphtec 3100 (dropped vinyl role on old one – doh) Graphtec were very very helpful, part in stock and delivered next day and told me how to fit it over the phone. Just had my 6 year old one serviced, engineer told me probably good for another 6 years at least. Can’t fault the plotter, can’t fault the service.
Alan

[Roy Roffey]

great comments coming through

i used a graftec 4`cutter with the last company i worked for and to be honest it was a good cutter but always on the blink, you would cut something more than 1mtr and it would roll off quite a bit,

with the smaller Roland cm-24 i don’t have half as much roll off, thats one of the reasons for going for one

how much would you guys expect to pay for a used cm-500 then.
.
.
.
quid??

[Robert Lambie]

when you say roll off mate, do you mean run out of track?

if so then i know what you mean by the smaller cutter tracking better.
smaller cutters are much easier to load than a wide one, its really all down to how well its manually loaded.
now that said, when we switched from the roland 48inch cutter (we still have that) to the graphtec 53inch cutter. we found a new type of vinyl alignment bar was on the front of the machine. not only did it make loading the vinyl a doddle. it also made tracking excellent.
i dont want to quote what we run through it day to day as i cant remember, if andrew reads this post im sure he will tell us…