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Besides the Roland GX-24 is there another brand that is really good at cutting Tackle Twill? I've spent about $2,500 in applique last year and want to cut my own so I don't have to meet the minimums set by the applique company.
Can someone recommend a good cutter/plotter? Also software does it come with it?
I have photoshop (and illustrator but I've not had time to play with it yet).
Welcome to the forums, Carrie. A laser cutter/engraver, and an ioline (shown here: Hardware: Ioline 300 for applique cutting) could do the applique jobs better. Both are quite pricey though.
Hi Carrie,
Do you mean you have $2500 of appliqué you need to cut? Or that you spent that last year and will be buying more appliqué for a vinyl cutter? The reason I ask is because you can't cut just any material in a vinyl cutter. It must have the carrier backing stuck to it in order to cut it with a cutter.
I made a costly mistake by buying about $100 worth of tackle twill expecting to be able to cut it in my cutter, but it did not come with the carrier backing, so I have to cut everything about by hand. Just a heads up.
we cut twill and felts with our laser... the laser also seals the edge on the twill and prevents fraying that usually required vinyl or sewing to nail down!
"Do you mean you have $2500 of appliqué you need to cut" No, I have spent about that much in applique at just Stahl's. I have spent another $400-500 through someone that can cut fabric choices. So I really need to get an applique cutter.
Care to elaborate more on this, Josh? Because I'm thinking that there are materials (fabrics, etc) that an Ioline 300 can cut, that a GX-24 can't.
There are definitely fabrics that the Ioline 300 can cut that the GX can't.
The most commonly used material for applique is twill. The GX-24 can cut twill as well as the Ioline 300, however with the GX-24 it needs to be mounted to a carrier sheet in order to make it two ply as well as have the rigidity to feed through properly. There are some twills available that are premounted to the carrier sheet - these are usually classified as pressure sensitive twill.
With the Ioline, there is no need to make the fabric you want to cut pressure sensitive. Just lay the fabric down and cut. Also, you can cut some materials that the GX can't do effectively such as felt and wool.
The negatives of the Ioline 300 are that it is a flat bed cutter. This means that you have to load individual sheets or pieces into the cutter to cut. With the GX-24 being a roll style cutter, you can load a whole roll of Pressure sensitive twill and press go. This roll style is also a benefit if you will be cutting films and vinyls as I don't think the Ioline 300 would be great for this.
Finally, another selling point of the GX is the optic eye for trimming around transfer paper and preprinted designs. The Ioline 300 does not have this capability.
So I think the Ioline 300 is highly targeted towards applique specifically whereas the GX-24 is more of an all purpose unit with some applique restrictions.
I don't think the GX-24 (or even the ioline300) has the ability to create a "sew disk". What you usually do is use a vector segment to cut the applique, then use that same vector segment and convert to applique/satin stitches on an embroidery digitizing software (Wilcom, Pulse, etc.)
I have the Ioline 300 and it was a great investment for us, and yes it does create a sew disc. We too were spending alot of money on applique's so we brought it in-house. It makes it possible to do the 1 and 2 piece orders we had to turn down in the past As stated above it is also nice because you can kiss-cut the twill instead of having a placement stitch for each layer.
This is a discussion about Best for Tackle Twill & Occasional Vinyl that was posted in the Vinyl Cutters (Plotters) and Transfers section of the forums.
Best for Tackle Twill & Occasional Vinyl 
Re: Best for Tackle Twill & Occasional Vinyl 
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