[JDoAT]

Ok, just a couple of quick questions. I am looking to start my business designing and printing vinyl decals, banners, maybe small vehicle wraps(think gocart), I will also be runnning masking material and such. I have done quite a bit of research and feel the GX-24 is the best starting point for me. I am working with about a 10k startup fund. my questions are as follows

-Is the GX-24 the right choice here?
-What about cheaper models such as GCC or STIKA?
-How will the feature reduction/cost reduction ratio look?
-Do you feel it is better to start with a solid startup kit or to piece it all together?

I also have some question regarding inkjet printers, Will i be able to print on vinyl and then cut that print on the cutter with a run of the mill gravity-feed inkjet printer bought at office max for a couple hundred bucks?

I plan on operating this out of a vending trailer at swap meets/flea markets/cart races/etc. I would like to expand as much as I see fit and will obtain a heat press as well.

Thanks

-J.D.

 

[Corel Whisperer]

Ok, just a couple of quick questions. I am looking to start my business designing and printing vinyl decals, banners, maybe small vehicle wraps(think gocart), I will also be runnning masking material and such. I have done quite a bit of research and feel the GX-24 is the best starting point for me. I am working with about a 10k startup fund. my questions are as follows

-Is the GX-24 the right choice here?
-What about cheaper models such as GCC or STIKA?
-How will the feature reduction/cost reduction ratio look?
-Do you feel it is better to start with a solid startup kit or to piece it all together?

I also have some question regarding inkjet printers, Will i be able to print on vinyl and then cut that print on the cutter with a run of the mill gravity-feed inkjet printer bought at office max for a couple hundred bucks?

I plan on operating this out of a vending trailer at swap meets/flea markets/cart races/etc. I would like to expand as much as I see fit and will obtain a heat press as well.

Thanks

-J.D.

You say you are looking to "Print" the GX24 only cuts. If you are looking to "Print" banners and vehicle wraps you will need a Printer/Cutter, not srue how well one will travel in a trailer.
If you are just looking to cut designs both cutter are a good investment.
CW

 

[JDoAT]

You say you are looking to "Print" the GX24 only cuts. If you are looking to "Print" banners and vehicle wraps you will need a Printer/Cutter, not srue how well one will travel in a trailer.
If you are just looking to cut designs both cutter are a good investment.
CW

Thanks for the reply!

I was under the impression that i could print on a seperate printer and cut on the GX-24 since it has contour cutting? I do understand that I would need to purchase a cold lamintator as well.

-J.D.

 

[Corel Whisperer]

Thanks for the reply!

I was under the impression that i could print on a seperate printer and cut on the GX-24 since it has contour cutting? I do understand that I would need to purchase a cold lamintator as well.

-J.D.

Yes you can print on one printer and cut on the GX-24, sorry I wasn't clear on what you wanted to do. Depending on what you want and the size you need to print and cut the Roland BN20 migth be a better all in one machine for you. There are a few posts on it here in the forum.

 

[JDoAT]

I appreciate that, going to check it out right now.

Anyone else with any input? I know this is a little off topic my subject line but after some research I feel the Epson WF 1100 with complete C.I.S. setup is the way to go for the time being, and even a little further off topic can I expect this printer to print high quality business cards with the right paper stock? Any thoughts?

-J.D.

 

[Fenrir]

Strangely, while I support the use of smaller Epsons with pigment to do decal printing without having to invest in a 5-figure solvent printer, I don't think that inkjet printers work well for business cards. Brochures, menus (laminated), flyers, etc, yes. But a business card takes a lot of abuse sitting in wallets or just in a pocket and the "coating" for inkjet printing can rub off. I would outsource large runs of business cards, and if the client "needs some right now", take a matte photo print of the design to a copy shop and have them run a few sheets off on a color copier on the heaviest card stock they have.

Also a well designed monochrome or duochrome heavily embossed card looks a thousand times more professional than most full color flat printed cards.

I have had some fun making "waterproof" business cards by printing on vinyl, laminating it, and sticking it to a plastic report cover for comb binding, then cutting it up. Not cost effective but I could stick a business card holder to my car or outside the building and not worry about them getting wet.

 

[JDoAT]

Well thats a bummer, lol, I was not really looking to get into printing business cards but I figured if I had the equipment to do it I might aswell print my own instead of paying someone else but all in all not a big deal. Another question, I was looking at some of the more expensive($500) epson inkjets with more colors. My budeget would allow for it but would I really benefit from the extra features it offers compared to the price or would my money be better spent in better areas? I am to the point of purchasing my equipment and want to make sure i am making the right choices here I need to get the best product for the most reasonable price and that also allows me to grow.

Oh and the Roland GN 20 looks like an awesome little device Im just not sure it is what I want to base my business off of, but as an add on down the road I would give it heavy consideration.

-J.D.

 

[StitchShoppe]

Be aware that your RolandGX24 will print crop marks in this mode. There is a lot of wasted media as a 8.5 X 11" sheet of media will only yield about a 6 X 8" design. The rest of the sheet is scrap for the pinch rollers to use to hold/move the sheet.

 

[rturner381]

Well thats a bummer, lol, I was not really looking to get into printing business cards but I figured if I had the equipment to do it I might aswell print my own instead of paying someone else but all in all not a big deal. Another question, I was looking at some of the more expensive($500) epson inkjets with more colors. My budeget would allow for it but would I really benefit from the extra features it offers compared to the price or would my money be better spent in better areas? I am to the point of purchasing my equipment and want to make sure i am making the right choices here I need to get the best product for the most reasonable price and that also allows me to grow.

Oh and the Roland GN 20 looks like an awesome little device Im just not sure it is what I want to base my business off of, but as an add on down the road I would give it heavy consideration.

-J.D.

Go ahead and buy the Roland GX24 at the best price you can find. Decide which design software you will use, ILLUSTRATOR or CorelDraw. For your supplies, I would suggest eBay. Finally, go out, grab some work/customers and start making money. Beware! You WILL make mistakes and you WILL redo jobs. But, it is the price you pay. Check out this website Trade Shows | National Business Media, Inc. and attend the NBM show nearest you. You will learn a ton!

 

[JDoAT]

Be aware that your RolandGX24 will print crop marks in this mode. There is a lot of wasted media as a 8.5 X 11" sheet of media will only yield about a 6 X 8" design. The rest of the sheet is scrap for the pinch rollers to use to hold/move the sheet.

Ok so what your saying is don't expect to be able to cut the entire printing area? So if i run an 11x17 print on my 1100 I will not be able to cut the entire image on my GX-24 because it has to able to 'grab' onto something? Just making sure Im picking up what your putting down

-J.D.

 

[rturner381]

Ok so what your saying is don't expect to be able to cut the entire printing area? So if i run an 11x17 print on my 1100 I will not be able to cut the entire image on my GX-24 because it has to able to 'grab' onto something? Just making sure Im picking up what your putting down

-J.D.

More simply, the cutting head operates BETWEEN the media clamps/hold downs, rather than beyond the media clamps.

 

[Fenrir]

Small craft cutters come with a carrier mat, depending on the cutter you could probably cut down to 1/2" x 1/2" pieces or less. Could you not do this with a big cutter? Craft mats are a lot thicker than vinyl so I don't know if that would be bad for the rollers. Maybe sacrifice a 24" x 48" sheet of vinyl (I have seen someone in the past mention using just the backing sheet, but I think the slickness of it would make the rollers misfeed so I'd want to use the vinyl unpeeled) and tape the smaller piece to it?

 

[StitchShoppe]

GX24 print & cut procedure
1) design art in graphics program
2) save art as .BMP so cut studio Knows what to print (write down/save size data)
3) import .BMP into cutstudio & resize to dimension from step 2
4) select print & cut from file menu
5) set up printer/select paper size
6) cut studio will assign cropmarks relitive to paper size
7) create cut vectors in cut studio or import them from your graphics program
8) click print remove printed media from printer
9) Spray tack plastic carrier sheet to back of printed media
I use left over Thermo flex carrier
10) load media into GX24
11) Click cut, the optical eye in The Roland will scan the crops & place your vector cuts into relative X/Y coordinates
In answer to your question I have gotton a 8.25" wide X 12.4" high out of 11" X 17" media.

 

[dcurtisroland]

GX24 print & cut procedure
1) design art in graphics program
2) save art as .BMP so cut studio Knows what to print (write down/save size data)
3) import .BMP into cutstudio & resize to dimension from step 2
4) select print & cut from file menu
5) set up printer/select paper size
6) cut studio will assign cropmarks relitive to paper size
7) create cut vectors in cut studio or import them from your graphics program
8) click print remove printed media from printer
9) Spray tack plastic carrier sheet to back of printed media
I use left over Thermo flex carrier
10) load media into GX24
11) Click cut, the optical eye in The Roland will scan the crops & place your vector cuts into relative X/Y coordinates
In answer to your question I have gotton a 8.25" wide X 12.4" high out of 11" X 17" media.

Export as 96 dpi and step 3 becomes easier. Also made a video about it:
Basic CutStudio Workflow - YouTube

-Dana

 

[StitchShoppe]

Export as 96 dpi and step 3 becomes easier.

Thanks for the info & video, I wish they would have had this kinda stuff back in 2007 when I bought mine. The manual I got with the cutter was not really clear on the procedure.
I will continue to export at 300DPI & resize, as my customers expect better quality than 96DPI.
It seems kinda strange that a commercial grade cutter w/ an optical eye would default to such low image quality. Do your cutter/printer combinations do the same?

 

[scuba_steve2699]

It seems kinda strange that a commercial grade cutter w/ an optical eye would default to such low image quality. Do your cutter/printer combinations do the same?

The printer / cutter machines such as the Versacamm do not. I have printed very high resolution (over 300 PPI) graphics with them on a regular basis.

 

[hcohen22]

Are the Roland GX 24 good vinyl cutters to use to start a tshirt transfer business?

 

[Corel Whisperer]

are the roland gx 24 good vinyl cutters to use to start a tshirt transfer business?

YES! (I had to type more or it wouldn't let me save the responce!)

 

[hcohen22]

YES! (I had to type more or it wouldn't let me save the responce!)

Are they tough to learn how to use?

 

[Corel Whisperer]

Are they tough to learn how to use?

All cutter work about the same way. The learning of the program that you need to create the design is the harder part.
CW