carastas

Hi everybody, got some quick questions and I'm sure this is the right place to ask them.

First of all, a little introduction, we're a small web devel shop in Romania, we opened a t-shirt store about 4 years ago, didn't go very well, probably mostly because we were using silk-screening and couldn't get enough volume to justify the quantities needed to silkscreen, so it didn't go anywhere. Now we're thinking of reopening with more models and use a vinyl cutter and heat-press to do it, the models will be simple 2-3 full color stuff so we won't have problems with that at first.

Now, the questions:
1. what is the cheapest use-able cutter-plotter out there?

2. can we use a chinese cheap brand? like "rabbit" or "copam", i know that they are cheap and worth every penny, but we don't have that much volume and, for starters, i'm not keen to sink more money into it.

3. can we outsource this to other companies that have the cutter plotter? do you have experience with that? we'd have the heatpress and do the work, they'd just cut our designs.

In return, if anyone has a web devel question, i'll be happy to answer, I'll keep an eye on that section while I'll "absorb" the huge quantity of information here!

Dan

 

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Rodney

Hi Dan, I've moved your thread to the vinyl cutter section of the forum where you'll find more relevant answers. I've also edited the topic title from "General business questions", to something more specific that should help people with answers find your thread more easily

While you're waiting for answers in this thread, if you browse this section of the forum (or search for copcam, rabbit, uscutter, craftrobo), you'll find lots of threads that talk about inexpensive cutters

Vinyl Cutters (Plotters) and Transfers - T-Shirt Forums

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COEDS

The answer is yes you can use a in expensive vinyl cutter to get started.i have heard that the us cutter brand is a very good cutter and suggest you look at them. i have heard they are great and the cost is much less than some of the other brands. Good luck. .....JB

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carastas

Thanks, I see they also have copam, which is avaialble here as well (we're located in romania) and all these tools are expensive, a second hand heatpress can go as high as 2000$ (don't know why, don't know much about them).

I think I'll go to the lower end first, to see if the ideas are sound.

Thanks,
Dan

 

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cmyk

Hi, Dan!

I believe you can go with a cheaper cutter, as long as you need it for t-shirts only.
One of the problems with those budget models is their tracking abilities for big vinyl signs are not so good, but i believe it would be ok for heat pressed vinyl
Good luck!

 

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carastas

Thanks!

I see that i have a shop for cheap cutters just down the street

So the choice is now between a Copam CP-2500 and a Rabbit HX-720.

I read on this forum and others that they're hard to setup but they will actually work decently afterwards, specs are a bit hazy and so am I.

Does anyone know which one is the lesser evil?

Thanks,
Dan

 

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cmyk

Copam is a more precise machine and can automaticly detect the dimensions of the sheet, whic is a usefull feature.
It is built for intensive use, but is more expensive and it cand cut no wider than 21,6 inches.
I know because i own one.

The Rabbit is intended for less work, this meaning that it will probably not be able to properly run a full 8 hour shift, but i dont know for sure.

If you intend to move on to signage, Copam is a better choice.
If not, i would go with the Rabbit, BUT i don't know hot it handles the small details.

Perhaps you should go to that shop and ask them to demonstrate how each machine works with heat pressed vinyl.

 

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carastas

Yeah, thanks, I will do just that, the thing is that here, a Copam 2500 is about 900e, and for 1200e i can get a Roland gx-24 second hand... so there's no reason for me to and get one. I'm only interested in t-shirts and have no intention in going into that business (it's difficult enough dealing with customers in web development). So I'll go and see how the rabbit works for t-shirts, good idea.

Thanks.
dan

 

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