New printer/cutter recommendations

[Stormyj]

Hi all,
Been a while since Ive been on here. Moved from Indiana to Maryland and have sold my 54" Roland SC540. Im in the market for a new printer cutter but not sure what to get. I think I want to go smaller, maybe 30 something inches. I still want a print cut machine. I know theres latex and solvent. Either would be fine. I just want recommendations on what people are using now. Will be used mostly for smaller jobs, maybe 48" width at the most, but can align up separate prints. Will do mostly decals, smaller ones so contour cuts along with perf cuts is preferred. what do you guys recommend. Newer printers/older used printers are fine. The reason I want a smaller printer is I do this at home and space is limited. Thanks for all the feedback.

 

[Pauly]

if you can. i wouldnt go smaller than 54" because most stock comes in 54" wide. you can get shorter, but costs more usually. and less options.

Other than that, my opinion is useless.

 

[Attila Nagy]

I would not recommend any Printer/Cutter. Have separate machines.

 

[MarkSnelling]

There might be a few SG300 printers from Roland laying around. It has been discontinued (but will still be supported) and they dropped the price big time all the way down to $9,995 (plus ink, shipping, etc). It has room for CMYK and it also cuts. Nice machine.

Agree with the comment about getting a 54" machine as most distributors don't carry a lot of 30" stocked media and that can be more difficult to get if you don't plan ahead. We all stock tons of 54" goods.

I'd happily provide a quote for you if you have the interest.

 

[PHILJOHNSON]

I agree that a 54" would be the way to go as most print vinyl is 54" wide. The Roland VG3-540 would be a good option and is on sale right now($12,495 before ink and shipping are added and before discounts are applied). That is the 8-color option and you can add white as well. You could also get a separate printer, laminator, and cutter as others have suggested but that would take up much more space and you mentioned you're tight on space and want to keep the cost down, so that may not be the best option given your circumstances.

Feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss the VG3-540 in more detail and get pricing, and I would be happy to help.

Best regards,

Phil Johnson
Airmark Corporation
(800)527-7778, ext. 112
philj@airmark.com

 

[JBurton]

Since space is limited, you may want to invest in a miter saw for cutting down rolls to fit a smaller printer like you want...

 

[Zoogee World]

We only have 30" Printer / cutters and I haven't had any issues getting media, typically I just get the supplier to slit the 54" rolls in half and you have 2 shorter about 27" rolls for the price of a 54" roll, usually saves a few buck even with the small slitting fee. However, it all depends on your supplier. Up here in Canada, the ones I've used have never had any issues doing this for us, but it might be different down there in the US.

 

[Stormyj]

I agree that a 54" would be the way to go as most print vinyl is 54" wide. The Roland VG3-540 would be a good option and is on sale right now($12,495 before ink and shipping are added and before discounts are applied). That is the 8-color option and you can add white as well. You could also get a separate printer, laminator, and cutter as others have suggested but that would take up much more space and you mentioned you're tight on space and want to keep the cost down, so that may not be the best option given your circumstances.

Feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss the VG3-540 in more detail and get pricing, and I would be happy to help.

Best regards,

Phil Johnson
Airmark Corporation
(800)527-7778, ext. 112
philj@airmark.com

How long is the vg3 540 and what type of ink does it use. Does the machine come with an ink dryer or is it even necessary. had one with my sc540 with solvent inks. thanks

 

[Jumpshoutmedia]

I just bought a new Roland VG3-540 and for the most part, I love it! It's got some annoying things about it compared to my old XC-540, but as far as print quality, speed, and cost goes, I'm happy with my purchase. They just dropped the prices of the VG3 a LOT to make way for the newer model! So I got this brand new machine for a fraction of what others paid just a few months prior!

One thing that irritates me about this new printer is.. my old XC-540 never had a SINGLE problem recognizing the crop/cut marks in the 15 years that I used it. But the brand new VG3, even with it's newer style, bright, led/optical reader.. about 10% of the time it won't recognize the marks!

Or.. it will pick up the first 3 marks, but completely fail to find the last mark.. and it'll just freak out and do it's stupid sweep and scan dance, looking for the mark.. completely skipping over the damn thing 5 different times before it finally gives up and says, "nope, can't see it!"

I've done all of the recommended calibrations, cleaned the sensor, etc, but it just comes down to the stupid LED lightwaves bouncing off the combination of media/lamination I'm using, and it just becomes "blind" to the mark! I've actually figured out that if I keep a fine Scotch Brite pad next to the printer if it starts wigging out on a certain print I just lightly "buff" the surface on top of the marks knocking the glossiness off the surface of the laminate ever so slightly, it suddenly picks up the mark like magic.

The part that pisses me off is the old printer, using the old technology (a red led or laser I believe) it worked PERFECTLY 100% of the time! But they had to go ahead and "improve" it by using a bright white LED light and an optical sensor, and it only works 90% of the time. Some "improvement".

Another thing that pissed me off after I bought the new printer is that once I found out that the new led/camera sensor is able to read barcodes I thought, wow that's great! That means I should be able to print barcodes directly onto rolls of media that the machine can read so it can automatically know what type of media I'm using and even keep track of how much is left on the roll? Well.. not unless I PAY Roland $5 a month to "access" the feature that my printer is already capable of. No thanks! Adobe and Microsoft are already occupying all available space in and around my SSH**e! I don't need ANOTHER corporation trying to get a piece of me every month.

 

[JBurton]

Well.. not unless I PAY Roland $5 a month to "access" the feature that my printer is already capable of.

F*ck you very much roland. Right up there with BMW's seat belts that won't work without the beamer tax subscription.