What kind of plotter should I buy?

[Nelson Newbie]

Hi. I was wondering what kind of plotter I should buy?

[alanzhao]

ROLAND

http://www.rolanddga.com/

[Flame]

Depends on how much you want to spend. Graphtecs are my favorite, and are usually a good price. As a rule, I like to stay away from plotters named after animals or a guy in china. Summa and Roland are great machines as well.

[Cadmn]

I got older roland & it has been great if you look here you will find posts stating No Animals.

[bullcrew]

summa or graphtec

[WVB]

You truely get what you pay for when it comes to plotters. If you can not afford a name brand plotter - Save your pennies up until you can. You will not regret it one bit. Stay with name brands Roland, Graphtec, Summa, Iolines and Allen Datagraph etc..

Also stay with at least a 24" plotter. I too started out with a Roland Stika SX-12 and out grew it in one month's time. Thinking that should be fine for what I will be doing etc. One thing lead to another and I am a full time sign shop now.

Also besides just what type of plotter to purchase try getting some experince first before the large investment. Such as working part time at a local sign company FastSigns etc. Even take some basic college classes at your local community college for applications such as Adobe products and CorelDraw. They will help out tremendously!

[gerald]

Who is Nelson Newbie? He's got file problems, been ripped off on a plotter on ebay got a cracked Flexi for $200.00 and has a post about advise on buying plotters now. Oh, and theres a post on the difference in vinyl. He's had a heck of a day.

[Fred Weiss]

It's not easy being a troll. http://www.allcompu.com/myicons/bulgingeyedmonster.gif

[Cadmn]

Laughing at Gerald LOL & above all He still wants to Make signs LOL:beer:beer:beerGluton for punishment I guess :biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::bigg rin::biggrin::biggrin:

[Jackpine]

Graphtec is a good cutter for the money...Ce3000Mk2 or 7000 series if you have more money.

[Checkers]

I don't think you shoud buy a plotter until you work a minimum of 10 years in the sign business learning about the all the different plotters, software and materials available to you.
Also, during your 10 year training program, you must read all the books available in the Signcraft library and memorize "Mastering Layout" by Mike Stevens.
In your 9tyh year of training you'll need to buy the books "The E Myth" and "The E Myth Revisited" by Michael Gerber and memorize them too.

On completion of your 10th year, you should be prepared for the quiz and ready to buy a plotter - assuming you pass :)

Havin' fun,

Checkers

[misterdamian]

i like my summa. i bought it on ebay and it was giving a problem where it would randomly not cut parts of letters. i called up summa tech support and they gave me quite a few solutions, one of which worked.

[Arlo Kalon]

Be like Arlo... Arlo feels he has made right decision on plotters! Since he has an Edge printer he wouldn't trade for , uh... not, not HER, mebbe my fav truck? - he has a 15 inch Gerber. They'r bulletproof and run unattended thru a whole roll of vinyl. OP's comments also made Arlo work thru the issues to incorporate a 24" Roland cutter too, & he thinks it rocks. There are lots of used Rolands avail w/low "time" on 'em, & seems ya can't go wrong gettin' one. In fact, if everything else was to be sold, Arlo would keep the Roland cuz it don't owe him a dime!

[moonwater]

Where can I find a used Roland in good condition? I have checked ebay and craigslist, found 2 - 24" plotters. Is there somewhere better that I could be looking? I am working with a Graphtec cutter and a Roland printer, both are great! Now I need something for my own business.

[Jackpine]

Where can I find a used Roland in good condition? I have checked ebay and craigslist, found 2 - 24" plotters. Is there somewhere better that I could be looking? I am working with a Graphtec cutter and a Roland printer, both are great! Now I need something for my own business.

I have 2 Roland PNC 1000 ( 20 inch cutter cuts 18.5") built like tanks for sale with cables and original manuals and disks. $500 each OBO.

[Andrea]

The type of plotter you buy should reflect what you want to be able to do with it. Before you make a decision, figure out what you will need your plotter to do. The main considerations will be- do you want a sprocketed plotter (Gerber) or a friction-fed (Most other brands). What size vinyl rolls do you want to be able to cut? 15"? 24? 30? What thickness of material do you want to cut? For example, are you cutting vinyl only or sandblast stencil and diamond-grade reflective vinyl? Also consider the speed you will need. Different vinyl plotters run at different speeds. There's also a lot to be said for OPOS - offered on the Graphtec plotters.

[technowolf]

Buy the cheapest most big plotter and run it like hell till warranty is over than sell it and get a new one.........:)

[Cadmn]

I know of a PNC 960 for $1200

good condition works great run right from Corel