I am still new to the t shirt business (less than 3 months). I have created three designs and have used two companies to have custom transfers made. I want to know whether it would be more cost effective to buy a printer or vinyl cutter and the necessary accessories (ink, paper or vinyl, etc.) rather than continuing to purchase custom transfers. Which would you purchase first: an inkjet printer or a vinyl cutter? Brand recommendations would be appreciated too. Thanks in advance for sharing your wisdom and experience.
Which would you purchase first: inkjet printer or vinyl cutter?
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Vinyl cutter. I brought both, but quickly realized that if your not printing everyday on the inkjet printers with a CIS system, it will clog. So now I just do vinyl transfers, and outsource to a plastisol transfer company for large orders. Vinyl is so awesome...
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I have an expert 24 From GCC. 24inch cutter would be all you need if your just doing t shirts. I'm about to upgrade to a GCC expert pro. And yes you can do multiple colors but I wouldn't go past 3. Most users don't go past 2. I'm the king of 1 color shirt designs. 😬
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I would recommend a vinyl cutter. I know I bought a USCutter MH-871 vinyl cutter bundle first...and it was off ebay for around $350.00. But I would really recommend you to make sure to get one that does contour cutting...I know mine doesn't and I wish I knew to get a contour cutting one first.
The reason I say get a vinyl cutter is because you can do so much with them. You can do decals for cars, t-shirt transfers and also if you have a pen you can draw out images on paper and make coloring pages for your kids. Well that's if you have any kids. I use the plotting feature to show my customers what the decal will look like before I cut. Hope this info helps you out.
The reason I say get a vinyl cutter is because you can do so much with them. You can do decals for cars, t-shirt transfers and also if you have a pen you can draw out images on paper and make coloring pages for your kids. Well that's if you have any kids. I use the plotting feature to show my customers what the decal will look like before I cut. Hope this info helps you out.
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You need design software to create you designs. I have Coreldraw and illustrator. I also have Serif Drawplus, Inkscape, all wish are vector software tools. Great cut is the software that comes with the plotter for cutting.
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You would want a vinyl cutter first. Saga CNC or GCC possibly are good starter cutter. Saga cutters are trade-upable so as you grow, you can trade them in for a servo or ARMS system. They also don't need drivers which is nice.
The reason you would want a vinyl cutter is because it is a much smaller investment and unless you are going to be able to keep the printer busy a good percentage of the time, the payback in time won't be there. Most people get the cutter and farm out the printing until they reach a point where they have the volume to support a high percent utilization.
As far as software, you can run cutters on Corel or Illustrator although cutting software helps out a lot. DragonCut, VinylMaster, SignCut, Flexi are all good packages with various pros and cons.
The reason you would want a vinyl cutter is because it is a much smaller investment and unless you are going to be able to keep the printer busy a good percentage of the time, the payback in time won't be there. Most people get the cutter and farm out the printing until they reach a point where they have the volume to support a high percent utilization.
As far as software, you can run cutters on Corel or Illustrator although cutting software helps out a lot. DragonCut, VinylMaster, SignCut, Flexi are all good packages with various pros and cons.
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I also agree with the others about getting a cutter first. I also have a comment - I am not in business - just too busy here at home with raising grandson who has autism. I started out with Epson inkjet printer and finally went with a OKI laser printer - you don't have to worry about ink clogging and plus you have a workhorse printer for your other needs! More than enough for my small jobs selling in local shows in my area... I have switched to OEM toners with no problems.
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I agree with the others. I started with outsourcing to plastisol (Transfer Express, Semo, and Seay are my personal favorites) but they can get expensive for small orders.
I bought a cutter (GCC Expert 24 LX) and love it. I use it for tees (orders up to 30-35), banners and window stickers.
In terms of software, the Expert 24 comes with Great Cut but I don't use it. I prefer CADworx Live from Stahls (http://www.cadworxlive.com/index.cfm?). It is very easy to use, has a bunch of templates and clip art, and it is free.
I also design using Corel Draw X5 but could do it all within CADworx.
Joe
I bought a cutter (GCC Expert 24 LX) and love it. I use it for tees (orders up to 30-35), banners and window stickers.
In terms of software, the Expert 24 comes with Great Cut but I don't use it. I prefer CADworx Live from Stahls (http://www.cadworxlive.com/index.cfm?). It is very easy to use, has a bunch of templates and clip art, and it is free.
I also design using Corel Draw X5 but could do it all within CADworx.
Joe
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I'm wanting to get the gcc 24 cutter n I do use cadworx live, what can I do with that?
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You can do just about anything within CADworx Live. You can:
- design from scratch within their Design Studio
- use their templates and modify to fit your needs
- use their clipart and design from almost-scratch
- design with Corel Draw or other graphics software and then import it (CADworx has a Vectorize button)
- use their Easy Teams function to do names and numbers
- email your design to your customer -- displaying your design on a t-shirt image with a magnify button (very cool)
- and more