Need Help Die-cutting labels and stickers

[sinclairgraphics1]

We do thousands of die-cut stickers on our Graphtec FC8600. And I mean hundreds of thousands a year of stickers for retail stores and t-shirt shops all over the country. We run our Graphtec all day everyday and yes, we have a tried and true method to doing the die-cuts so that they are barely holding on the 54" roll and then we punch them out. If we are running the same design, we can stack 4-5 sheets of them over each other to pop out at the same time. As long as you have it cut really clean, you can do this method. You can do complex shapes as well, when you dial in your settings and methods, you can do this and make a profit with selling stickers. We have been doing this for years with great success and it is a staple in our shop along with large format printing, this is our bread and butter work doing stickers.

 

[Goatshaver]

We do thousands of die-cut stickers on our Graphtec FC8600. And I mean hundreds of thousands a year of stickers for retail stores and t-shirt shops all over the country. We run our Graphtec all day everyday and yes, we have a tried and true method to doing the die-cuts so that they are barely holding on the 54" roll and then we punch them out. If we are running the same design, we can stack 4-5 sheets of them over each other to pop out at the same time. As long as you have it cut really clean, you can do this method. You can do complex shapes as well, when you dial in your settings and methods, you can do this and make a profit with selling stickers. We have been doing this for years with great success and it is a staple in our shop along with large format printing, this is our bread and butter work doing stickers.

Care to enlighten on your method of cutting? It seems everyone has a different way of doing it. I'm interested to hear!

Some people, do the contour cut then perf cut the stickers, some do a single cut and they pop out, others, like myself, do a two-pass deep contour cut.

 

[martinow]

I've done around 200 000 stickers die-cut on the summa S one. It's great when it works, but the s one has a lof of bugs that the S2 series would not have, and summa is not quick to solve them.

 

[sinclairgraphics1]

Care to enlighten on your method of cutting? It seems everyone has a different way of doing it. I'm interested to hear!

Some people, do the contour cut then perf cut the stickers, some do a single cut and they pop out, others, like myself, do a two-pass deep contour cut.

Yes, we do a full cut through, single pass, just deep enough that the vinyl still holds on the sheet without falling out. Runs through the machine super quick. We also do stickers that have barcodes and hangers so do a kiss cut, hole cut(for pegs)and then full cut through. They are sold in a large nationwide retail chain so they have to be perfect. Here they are coming out of our shop on a HP latex printer and graphtec cutter, all produced here in the US(the stickers that is,lol)!

 

[PatriotWorks]

Don't judge the artwork... I just do the printing, no design work

I soiled my nickers. ROTFLMAO.
I purchased a brand new Roland 54" cutter. Waited 6 months. The fourth in the nation, I'm told. I wanted a simple learning curve ... and it was. The machine kissed cut fine. Problem is I bought it for Flex cutting. During the wait my supplier even suggested I buy a Graphtec to shorten the wait time. I liked the idea of the slot but I'm told the slot went away in the new models. I got about 2 hours time on it trying to get it to Perfcut but even I could figger out there was something wrong from the factory and getting worse with each attempt.
I like the tangential feature and rollers right around the cutter in the Summa. I don't think I need the speed and I'm not interested in the POS feature.
What features do you like about the Graphtec?

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

The perf cutting slot is still there on the FC9000.

 

[PatriotWorks]

The perf cutting slot is still there on the FC9000.

I got the information from my dealer and not first hand experience.
What is your Perfcutting experience?

 

[ikarasu]

I soiled my nickers. ROTFLMAO.
I purchased a brand new Roland 54" cutter. Waited 6 months. The fourth in the nation, I'm told. I wanted a simple learning curve ... and it was. The machine kissed cut fine. Problem is I bought it for Flex cutting. During the wait my supplier even suggested I buy a Graphtec to shorten the wait time. I liked the idea of the slot but I'm told the slot went away in the new models. I got about 2 hours time on it trying to get it to Perfcut but even I could figger out there was something wrong from the factory and getting worse with each attempt.
I like the tangential feature and rollers right around the cutter in the Summa. I don't think I need the speed and I'm not interested in the POS feature.
What features do you like about the Graphtec?

Graphtecs awesome. The roll to roll option and barcode reader is great. I've saved hours of time just using the barcode reader and I'd never buy another cutter without one... I haven't tested summas barcodes but I hear they're great.

90% of what I do is perf cutting... The graphtec excels at that. I can cut any shape in pretty much any size and there's never an issue.

Summa cuts over the strip... To me that's a no go. Ive done a few hundred rolls and the only maintenance on my graphtec is new blades... Which I buy for $1 each on eBay. No need to swap the cutting strip.

I was leaning towards summa for the barcode reader and take up. Now that graphtec has it, I think they surpassed summa. The only reason to get a summa to me, would be tangential... Which imo if you need tangential you should get a flatbed cutter. And if I were to get a flatbed it'd be the summa.

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

I got the information from my dealer and not first hand experience.
What is your Perfcutting experience?

We have an FC8600 with the perf cutting channel. It works very well and doesn't destroy cutting strips like our old Roland used to.

You can see the FC9000 cutting channel here:

 

[PatriotWorks]

We have an FC8600 with the perf cutting channel. It works very well and doesn't destroy cutting strips like our old Roland used to.

You can see the FC9000 cutting channel here:

I can't argue with the happy Graphtec customers. As a Mac user I get the platform wars. (Joke) One thing that piqued my interest was the rip program, Cutting Master 4, was it? Install as a plugin in Illustrator? And the Graphtec has the ability to run a job off a flash drive? Is Cutting Master 4 included with a machine?
The set up seems ginormous to me perhaps because it's different than everything thing I already know. I bought the Roland cutter as it was basically drag and drop .... and it is! That was so nice!
My need is for Perfcut so I will be taking a closer look. Thanks!

 

[PatriotWorks]

Summa cuts over the strip... To me that's a no go.

My experience is limited but I have to agree. Yet others say the slot limits the material you can perf cut...or that it trashes the work in difficult spots. I use mostly Arlon 6100, Arlon 510, Arlon 220 & 221 And Arlon 3220 overlam.
Ima need to get up close to one of these things and give it a sniff.
I live in the Boondocks with a capitol B. ;-)

 

[ikarasu]

I can't argue with the happy Graphtec customers. As a Mac user I get the platform wars. (Joke) One thing that piqued my interest was the rip program, Cutting Master 4, was it? Install as a plugin in Illustrator? And the Graphtec has the ability to run a job off a flash drive? Is Cutting Master 4 included with a machine?
The set up seems ginormous to me perhaps because it's different than everything thing I already know. I bought the Roland cutter as it was basically drag and drop .... and it is! That was so nice!
My need is for Perfcut so I will be taking a closer look. Thanks!

Cm4 comes with graphtec. It also includes its own rip program... Though I've never used it. Cm4 isnnicenif you sub to illustrator.

Yes... You can select files off the usb stick to cut, and you can put barcode saves on the usb so it'll auto re-read the files if you set them up with barcodes for print and cut.

 

[ikarasu]

My experience is limited but I have to agree. Yet others say the slot limits the material you can perf cut...or that it trashes the work in difficult spots. I use mostly Arlon 6100, Arlon 510, Arlon 220 & 221 And Arlon 3220 overlam.
Ima need to get up close to one of these things and give it a sniff.
I live in the Boondocks with a capitol B. ;-)

Stickers are my "Passion". I work for a big sign company that does XX million a year in sales. Most of what we do is vehicle wraps, interior decoration, and signage... But I got into the business because I like stickers. So I bought my own equipment... after lots of testing and playing with machines I could only dream of owning... I settled on the graphtec. I've played with 100k Flatbed cutters (Yes, they work nice!) Summas (Not often) A roland print and cut (Wouldnt even consider it) And like 5 diff versions of graphtecs. The graphtec can perf cut small enough that I wouldn't sell stickers that thin because they'd just rip. It can do nice detail.... and I havent found a material it cant cut. Diamond grade / really thick reflectives... Yeah, I hate those and I've never been able to properly do a print and cut on those even though graphtec releases videos of it.

But Reflective, holographic, metalic... Thick MX graphics, No issues at all.


NSFW Link - This link is NSFW. An Instagram model bought some stickers... these are 2" Tall. Its hard to tell because of the close up, but compare it to the cut lines on the table. If you need to perf cut smaller than that, I think material would be your issue before a machine is!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/JvhmcJNG5QX9fvgAA And a link to a few of the stickers I've done over the years (Most of these are non big brand / non identifying ones...some still NSFW!)

I've done a few thousand different designs, and never ran into an issue with the graphtec. I'm not saying Summas are bad... I havent played with one long enough to decide if theyre better or worst than Graphtec. I grew up in the whole Mac VS PC Thing too... I'm sure some people feel the same. Personally, I love new equipment... Graphtec may be better this year, summa next... who knows! But you cant go wrong with either, IMO.

 

[DonutSlinger]

A few things to add that weren't mentioned.

1. We have found the Graphtec FC900 needs more spacing between each sticker compared to the summa S3 TC we have.
(We also have a flat bed and well, those edges are perfect every time without need to dial it in. We can get down to .05-.1" spacing between cuts)
Summa is 0.1"-0.15" spacing between cuts (not graphics). Graphtec 0.2"-0.3".
When cutting thousands of stickers each day this small savings in materials add up, plus a little added output in printer.

2. The Summa was much easier to dial in for die-cutting vs the Graphtec. We found the Graphtec to be very specific in a variety of variable. The summa not so much. Summa is a little more forgiving.
Summa cuts corners and detailed die-cuts much cleaner, and they also remove easier.

3. Mark reading: The summa S3 TC is mind blowing fast and more accurate than the Graphtec. Barcode reading is much faster, and pulling the job from the que too. Graphtec feels like a turtle here (yes we have adjusted the mark read speed).

4. Graphtec speed vs Summa speed with die-cuts: It's very comparable. Kiss-cut it's summa no question.

5. Software: Graphtec by a mile. Summa software sucks, even the new GoSign is really lacking some basic functionality and requires creative work arounds. The cutting unit is limited to 8 profiles and there isn't a way to select those in the software. Their software only allows for pressure adjustments on kiss cuts, velocity, overcut and flexcut on or off.

GoSign also won't sheet cut after the jobs, but using cutter control does.

6. Flexcut or thru-cut on Summa does seem to be for rectangles, square, circles and ovals. Otherwise don't use it. Put it in flex cut mode on the profile (which is different than sending a job with a flexcut path) or just cut clean through without perf cutting.

7. Blades: 60 degree blades are hit and miss on laminated material that are 5mil+, recommend a 45 degree. This is true on the Graphic and Summa.

 

[martinow]

Things have changed for us. We now daily around 20 000 stickers running 4 summa's, 2x drag and 2x tangential

 

[print321]

Ij35 and signmax, I also use 8048 and 8508. For perf cutting I've found the vinyl matters the most... And it's not so much the vinyl, but the backing paper.

I've tried 3M, Avery, cheap stuff .. so far 3M has been a perfect cut with no rough edges. Avery cuts ok as well, but sometimes the backing rips... It doesn't affect the sticker, but still doesn't look as professional. The cheap $80 a roll crap is just a nightmare.

Works on complex shapes, rectangles, pretty much anything. I used to kiss cut then perf cut around because it left a rough edge... But ever since I started using only 3m, I can get away with either since it's so smooth.

Don't judge the artwork... I just do the printing, no design work

great for improve our knowledge!