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.
Hi,
I am looking to buy a vinyl cutter but dont know which one to buy.
Im looking at spending about $700
and will be doing heat transfer, also if i can get help in australia,
thanks
Jut bought one on ebay in Sydney for under $500 - a Kingcut pro which is essentially a PCUT 630. Not bad - so far for any basic work. As everyone here will tell you, it's the software that matters. You need to ask more specific questions, such as what type of transfers/cutting you are doing. If you're in Sydney you can talk to Graphic Art Mart or better all around OZ = Australian Graphic Supplies -www.ags.com.au
But these guys are great on this forum. Just ask specific questions about heat transfers, rigs, etc. and leave out the Oz bit until later.
Jut bought one on ebay in Sydney for under $500 - a Kingcut pro which is essentially a PCUT 630. Not bad - so far for any basic work. As everyone here will tell you, it's the software that matters. You need to ask more specific questions, such as what type of transfers/cutting you are doing. If you're in Sydney you can talk to Graphic Art Mart or better all around OZ = Australian Graphic Supplies -www.ags.com.au
But these guys are great on this forum. Just ask specific questions about heat transfers, rigs, etc. and leave out the Oz bit until later.
Hi,
Does this cutter have an optic eye for aligning registration for contour cutting?
Thanks guys, just another qerry what does the optic eye do and is good to buy a cutter with it?
Hi,
The optic eye is a feature that helps to align an image that has been printed from a colour printer. Additional registration marks are printed with this image and the vinyl cutter senses these rego marks and contour cuts the desired outline.
If your gonna be pressing Heat transfers by printing in house with HT Paper and gonna be cutting around these designs, then I strongly suggest considering a vinyl cutter with an optic eye. Roland GX-24 / Graphtec. etc. This will help you heaps with contour cutting, unless you wanna cut these out by hand! Which is what I am currently doing!!
It is time consuming, but I don't seem to have a choice at the moment! nor a budget to purchase one just yet!... lol..
Check out the USCutter, this cutter has an alignment feature to contour cut. It's priced reasonably but I don't have much info on this. Ii won't cost as much as a GX-24 purchased from AU, but we also have to consider the warranty and power supply. However I would definitely get one of these to begin with.
I bought a Refine MH 751 from ebay - all up the cost and postage was a little under $900. So far the machien has been great - I can't seem to get it to work on USB too well, but serial is no problem at all. It came with all cables, stand and cover. Also came with Artcut, which is apparently pretty bad to use as a cutting program if you want to do custom stuff later on. It's good for text, but that's about it.
I'm still using my first blade that came with the cutter, and havn't had any issues mechanically. Any problems I've had where purely from user error
In saying this: Only thing I'll gripe about is the software discs and manual it comes with. It's written in Chinese or something like that and if I wasn't a PC Tech, I woulda thrown it all out the window. However, the manual did have pictures to go along with the instructions, so it wasn't all so bad.
In follow up, I bought a program called Signcut X2 - I bought the dongle version so the licence never runs out and it's damn excellent. Using Inkscape and Illustrator to make my designs then cutting it all with Signcut makes my life easy.
Signcut cost me about $400AUD after the conversion, but that was when our dollar was strong around 96USc. It took a few weeks for the dongle to arrive from the supplier, but you can use a temp licence they set you up with. Now, remember, this cutting program is my personal preference cause I like it so much
Material wise, I've used the Respect stuff that is sold on Ebay. This stuff is good for doing stuff for your mates - car stickers, funny logos and the such. They certainly don't have any decent outdoor protection on them - I cut a pink sticker and 3 weeks later it was fading on the edges. So, it's ok for indoors stuff - outdoors = bad. On a good side, I made up a white sticker for a mate and he tried to blast it off with a water gun at a car cleaning joint. Wouldn't move an inch - VERY high tack.
Other stuff I've used is Arlon MacTach 9800 series vinyl. This stuff is ultra thin, very flexible and is designed for car applications. It's got a 10 year outdoor life however, I didn't really find it very adhesive when I was testing it on my fingers. I buy this from Supply1 - Home This material also cuts very easy - extremely easy to weed.
Hi,
I am looking to buy a vinyl cutter but dont know which one to buy.
Im looking at spending about $700
and will be doing heat transfer, also if i can get help in australia,
thanks
I like the service at Roxcell, even better they're located in Melbourne!
I too Mixtah would give them a call, see if they can give you a good deal on their vinyl cutters, I'm pretty sure they will. I bought my press from them and I got a good deal.
They've got a few vinyl cutters there: CT's, Bengal and sable.
I may be a little late in replying however I think teh perfect investment is with a Roland GX 24 which I was able to snare for $2400 ex GST here in Melbourne. As Tizz will testify I like to get value for money.
I have enquired about the Roxcell cutters but the savings of $800 is not worth it between the unit Roxcell sell for $1600 ex tax and the Roland GX 24 because you get the optic eye plus the GX 24 is made in Taiwan not china and is proven to cut delicate material such as heat vinyl.
The GX 24 is an awesome piece of equipment and works quietly, brilliantly and flawlessly with a comprehensive manual in English.
The GX also includes Cut Studio has no issues connecting via USB and works perfectly with Illustrator as every cut gets sent to Art Cut then you can send it to the cutter from there. I have been designing websites for 10 years and with what I have and what I have seen this software combo can do at this stage I see no point in updating the software. I use Illustrator Version 9 for this setup.
Just becarefull if you decide to use a pcut for delicate heat vinyl cutting becuase it may just end up ripping the vinyl and at $20 a metre this will become an expensive excercise. This is the advice that was given to me.
For those tight on cash you can pick up the Roland CX model which is the model before the GX I think for anywhere between $800 to $1300 on ebay which in itself is a great investment and I do see one pop up for sale every 3 to 4 weeks.
For the $1300 you may spend in a chinese cutter and updated software you may be able to snare a decent Roland cutter off ebay that has proven cutting performance.
This is a discussion about vinyl cutter/plotter suppliers in australia that was posted in the Vinyl Cutters (Plotters) and Transfers section of the forums.
vinyl cutter/plotter suppliers in australia 
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