Discuss the various aspects of heat pressed vinyl transfers. Popular and new types of vinyl media, suppliers, vinyl cutters /plotters, press times, quality, how to instructions and more can be found in this heat press sub forum.
For my small side business, I print t-shirts via heat transfer with either logos I designed or premade logos designed by customers. I use my inkjet printer and cut out the design from inkjet transfer paper and then press them on using my heat press. The only time-consuming part of the process is the cutting part. It was simple at first but now it is coming to a point where my orders involve higher quantities and a lot of text and lettering in the design. I would like to know for my level of business at the moment, is the Craft Robo Desktop Cutter suitable for me or should I consider the Roland GX24 instead?
To give you an idea of my level of business, my orders are usually in small quantities. Recently, I worked on an order for 84 t-shirts which is my biggest yet and I may soon have an order for 300.
Roland GX-24 is probably the most popular one out there. There is a ton of information on this forum about this one.
The Graphtec version of the Roland GX-24 (I don't remember the name off the top of my head) does basically the same thing using a different set of registration marks from what I have been told. The different marks are suppose to allow you to do wider print-cut transfers. The Graphtec also has a little bit of more down force pressure (350) compared to the GX-24 (240 or 250). Because Graphtec is not as well known, it is also a little bit cheaper and comes with a stand.
I would probably stay away from any cutter that does not have an optical eye registration system. I have not really heard many positive things about the manual registration ones. I believe the Robo Craft and Stikas are manual registration cutters.
As someone that has used a Roland (on loan to my brother) and have a Craft Robo Pro (I've yet to use in over a year because of software issues and lack of time)...
I'd like to say "Get the Roland". It's sturdy and you will not have to play guessing games with software that cames with the machine. You want something that will work dependably and the Roland will do that.
Sure the craft robo is a good buy but you will be better served with the Roland.
Thanks for the suggestions
I have been doing some more research and I find that the Roland STIKA Series is probably more appropriate for me since they are smaller and affordable. I don't think I need a cutter the size of the Roland GX24 at this point.
The GX24 was just the first cutter I found info on and I thought the Craft Robo was just the smaller and cheaper alternative. Turns out the Roland STIKA series are just that but work better than the Robo, am I right?
Look at the .pdf with the specs. I just bought one and am enjoying playing around with it. But still learning.
I would only go with at least the Craft Robo Pro (not the smaller one.)Graphtec also has a bigger one that may be in your price range too . . . CE5000-60.
Last edited by swannn32; January 22nd, 2008 at 04:20 PM.
The Roland stika is in the hobby class of cutters, it won't cut a full 15", now the better machine for about $150.00 more would be the Graphtec ce5000-40 it will take a 19" roll of material and cut almost a full 15", its a better choice, graphtec enjoys a world wide reputation and is one of the standards in the industry. Hope this helps.
It's an old post now, but it's been brought up again, so for more newbies' sake, I'd like to throw my hat in for the Graphtecs.
The CraftROBO Pro is in a different league as the Roland Stika's (Professional vs Hobby), accepts larger media, had more downforce, has a better motor (servo vs stepper), and from everything I can tell, is better built.
With the larger 24" plotters, the Graphtec CE5000-60 and the Roland GX-24 are capable of pretty much the same things. I've cut INCREDIBLE detail on my Graphtec CE5000-60. The main difference is that the GX-24, when you buy a stand for it, costs $500 more than the Graphtec CE5000-60, which includes a stand. I do recommend a stand. The GX-24 is $200 more than the CE5000-60 if you don't buy a stand for the Roland (but still, the Graphtec comes with one).
I can't honestly say which one is BETTER, because I've never run a GX-24, so I don't know what it's capable of, butI do know that several sign sites have done comparisons and have rated the Graphtec higher than the Roland.
I also know that our Graphtec is capable of anything that I'll ever want it to do.
Craft Robo Desktop Cutter 
