what are peoples views on the Roland Printer/Cutters?

[Hugh Potter]

welcome to the board julie,

i guess the first thing is how much you are prepared to spend, print and cut machines of the rowland quality are big money (well they are to me anyway, outta my league at present !), hence, i dont use them, others here do, so i guess they’ll be better to answer,

[Gordon Forbes]

SP 300 print and cut eco solvent Cadet same machine converted to use solvent inks more resistance to abraision than above.
There are others which I don’t know much about Mimaki etc etc just do your homework and make your choice but if you are getting a worthwile print cutter 30″ is minimum I would say for all vehicle graphics and I would sat stickers in arcades laminate them (need a laminator) then you are looking at 20K startup for all the above including software and being new you will find it easier with dedicated sing software its just a lot easier to use. No dougt other have different opinions and they will express theirs.
but certainly between 15 – 20 K including a laminator.
Oh and its a steep learning curve as well jump in and you are neck deep in it straight away.
As for job satisfaction not a lot comes close as far as I am concerned.

Goop

[Peter Normington]

Looking at recent posts, and the price of digi print, and with the resourses offered on the boards, I would sub out the work before buying your own machine, once you have a customer base, then you may consider investing in your own equipment.
Unless you have some sort of print or art background, do not buy any digital printer without first getting the basic education in how it works.
You will not be able to just “press a button” and it happens,
there is a learning curve, and not all can follow it.
peter

[Alan Drury]

I agree with Peter, sub it out and let others have the maintenance costs if the machine is under used. If everything you do is to be laminated I still don’t get the advantage of full solvent, one thing for sure regardless of if you buy or sub out make sure you are up to speed on how to set up the files. A sub contractor will either love you if the files are ready to go or curse you every time you show up if your files need loads of work before print either that or the results will be disappointing

[julie purdie]

thanks…will take it all on board. I dont have a 15-20k budget unfortunately..no way near that.

I will have to start small and get an idea of this business first before i purchase anything major.

I have seen a roland pc50 for sale for around £650 would this be a good little buy to start me off? as.. like i said ..I am looking to do displays inside my arcade machines anyway..and usually pay for someone else to design and print those …i can at least save a bit of money there.

If i buy the roland and corel draw would that be a sensible first step?

thanks a lot.

[julie purdie]

are all the bits and pieces needed to replace parts for this machine easily available? ??

[Clive Darbon]

Hi Julie

Just come across your post as I don’t visit everyday! Beware of the Roland PC50. I speak from experience and it is not a great printer/cutter. I was a little bit duped into buying mine, I was shown only the things it could print well in demo’s! It was a lot of money for me at the time and I ended up using it only as a cutter which is a shame!

I’m afraid it is cheap because it doesn’t produce prints of a good enough quality. It only has a maximum output of around 320dpi – nowhere near good enough commercially speaking. You need a machine that can print out at least 1200dpi. Sorry to be so gloomy on this but I paid out full money for the same machine and now it sits in a cupboard as a backup cutter only! The others are right, much better to sub out digital printing
Regards, Spooky.

PS If you only want to do single colour or small simple decals, then the machine is OK for that. It is the only work I use it for now.

[mark jones]

please note julie that the pc50 is no longer supported by roland. and i know for a fact that there are NO replacement heads available for this machine …ever again..

save your money and look for possibly a pc60 or pc600.

[julie purdie]

thanks for your comments :lol1: