Need Help Summa Dc5sx Vs Hp 110 And Laminator

[Nanci]

New here....I'm expanding to print this spring, tired of outsourcing and cutting what should be printed. I am considering buying a new Summa 30" plotter for a workhorse, but for the printing, I seem to be drawn to the Summa DC5sx, because I can skip the laminator, and I like the idea of being able to print on metallic vinyl, I use that so much in my small business, which is mostly vehicle and boat graphics. I've been doing this for over 30 years, I suppose it's about time to branch out.
So....I've had all of 2 days to cram info into my brain about printers, since my old plotter kicked the bucket on Friday. I'm leaning towards just replacing the plotter now, and buying a printer later, just to keep going in this busy season. It seems foolish to have two machines that will both cut, but when you factor in the laminator, why not? Everyone seems to be pushing for the HP latex printers, with a laminator, and a separate plotter. They are also pushing 54", and I'm not sure I have the need for that.

Does anybody here have the Summa DC5sx? Do you like it?

 

[Joe House]

Nanci, if you are doing mostly vehicle and boat graphics, you'll want to laminate no matter what printer you use.
Get a plotter first and go 54 inch. You can always get smaller vinyl in it. It doesn't work the other way around. Make sure it can read crop marks. Summary or graphtec both make good ones. Roland's new GR plotter is worth checking out as well.
Then do more research. Compare cost for output. Compare print quality of files that you provide. Ask for the time to print your files.
Finally, you can get metallic vinyl that is ink jet printable, so don't worry about that.
Good luck and let us know what you end up doing.

 

[Nanci]

Nanci, if you are doing mostly vehicle and boat graphics, you'll want to laminate no matter what printer you use.
Get a plotter first and go 54 inch. You can always get smaller vinyl in it. It doesn't work the other way around. Make sure it can read crop marks. Summary or graphtec both make good ones. Roland's new GR plotter is worth checking out as well.
Then do more research. Compare cost for output. Compare print quality of files that you provide. Ask for the time to print your files.
Finally, you can get metallic vinyl that is ink jet printable, so don't worry about that.
Good luck and let us know what you end up doing.

Thank you, Joe. I appreciate the response. And it is what I've been thinking in the back of my mind, that I am not giving it enough thought, sometimes when a piece of equipment breaks, we rush into things. I was watching youtube videos of the Summa last night (far later than I should have been up), and I was getting flashbacks of the Roland PC600 that I bought years ago when they first came out. I don't want to make another mistake like that! I'll take your advice, and concentrate on a plotter. I was going to get a 30", but the more I think about it, that does not make sense. Thanks again for your advice.

 

[PHILJOHNSON]

Hi Nanci,

I definitely agree starting with the plotter would be a great way to go like I mentioned yesterday. I will send you some pricing for both the 30" and 54" cutters that we discussed yesterday. Feel free to reach out if you want to chat about the different options.

Best regards,

Phil Johnson
Summa Inc.

 

[CanuckSigns]

The price difference between a 30" plotter and a 54" one won't be much, but keep in mind that a well made plotter (summa or graphtec come to mind) will outlast your printing equipment by a long shot, so even if you don't have a 54" printer right now, you most likley will in the future and it would suck to have to buy a larger plotter than.

 

[TDFcustomSL]

Just to throw in my .02....I just got a summa cutter from Phil and couldnt be happier with it. I fought my old Vinyl Express (Graphtec) for almost 5 years, the night I got the summa set up I was zipping through jobs faster than I ever could have with the Vinyl Express and much more accurate. I also just upgraded to a Latex 110 over my old mutoh 1204 and couldnt be happier with that either! Talk to Matt at Advantage Sign and Graphic Solutions, he helped me out with my 110. Gans Digital has also been a huge help with any questions I may have had.

 

[Billct2]

In the meantime outsource those jobs that really need to be printed,if you already aren't.

 

[XtremeXccessories]

Like everyone else said, a 30" vs 54" isn't a huge price difference and you can put smaller material in the 54" machine, but can't cram 54" material in the 30".

As for DC5 vs HP 110 I would strongly recommend the HP.

The DC5 has it's uses (it's best suited for smaller decals, especially if you need a lot of spot colors), but I would strongly argue against it for wraps/partial wraps/large graphics. Several years ago we were convinced at a trade show that the DC4 would best fit our needs but found out rather quickly that wasn't the case. It does spot colors well (very minor pass lines if you look closely), but CMYK printing was very sub-par (low DPI, banding that was virtually impossible to get rid of, each bitmap looked best on different settings..) The test prints they send look virtually perfect, of course, because they've spent who knows how long dialing in the perfect settings for that specific image. In real life we don't have the time or money to spend an hour dialing the perfect settings for each image (Ellipse 35, Double Dot 50, Rhomboid 25, Square 20.....). The resin cracks and discolors if stretched too much and can't be fixed by heating up the film (the Scratch Guard resin will crack and flake off if you even think about stretching the film). Not to mention the cost of consumables...about $1.78 per square foot for CMYK printing vs maybe $0.30 for the HP. Hell, you can factor in the cost of a decent print material, lam, AND ink for less than the cost of just ink on the DC5. The print material has to be nearly perfect to get a good print; if there's even slight mottling of the film then you'll have little white splotches where the resin didn't transfer..

Of course the HP has its downsides as well. Heat, need 220v outlet, can definitely get some banding at lower passes, some don't include RIP software so that's another 3k (but I believe the 110 does?, not sure), can't print & cut...but all things considered I would definitely recommend the HP.

Summa cutters on the other hand... Now that we have a couple I don't want to use anything else. I've used Roland, Graphtec, DGI, Jaguar....Summa stomps them all.

 

[Nanci]

Thanks for all of the advice! Yes, I'm outsourcing the prints, but I still find myself doing ridiculous things with cut vinyl. Should be printing them. Many years ago, I bought the Roland ColorCamm PC 600, it was a thermal ribbon printer, pretty much a total disaster for anything larger than a foot or so. Thanks for pointing out that the Summa is pretty much the same with a larger 'ribbon'.