# Ordering my GCC Expert 24



## [email protected] (Dec 26, 2010)

After a lot of thought on what entry level vinyl cutter to get, we decided on the GCC Expert 24 from heatpressvinyl.com. Roger was very nice on the phone and email, plus the opinions of other forum members, made us feel comfortable. I also notice Roger posting a lot of helpful tips on the GCC in past posts. I know this is not a high performance cutter, but we are a small business with simple needs and just dont have the capital for a Roland... Yet.

I look forward to posting here and sharing my experience with the cutter. Hopfully this might help somone else in the same situation we start this in.

Thank you to everyone on the forum for sharing what you know. Being in business is not easy, and knowing I can go here takes a lot off my mind.

Mike


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## nitewalker (Jan 27, 2010)

Mike, I probably would have went with the expert 24 LX for the contour cutting option for t-shirts and printed decals. If all you're doing is sign and t-shirt vinyl though, the vanilla expert 24 should work just fine. Congrats!
From what I've read around the forums, GCC is a good company.


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## DivineBling (Sep 14, 2010)

Congratulations, Mike!
I also bought my cutter from Roger and he gives just a great support afterward as he does before!

I hope you get a ton of business!!!


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## Nick Horvath (Feb 26, 2010)

The GCC Expert 24 is a good cutter. You will really like it.


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## Twanabee (Sep 14, 2009)

Great cutter....Great support. You can't beat that!!


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## charles95405 (Feb 1, 2007)

For what it is worth, I have bought 2 GCC Puma III cutters and one GCC Jaguar cutter from Roger. When I first bought I did not know Roger from the jolly green giant. Since then I have met him...he lives about 120miles from me..but if anyone knows me, if the product did not work, I certainly would not have bought two more...regardless of a friendship....Between Roger and GCC LaserPro Laser Engraver, Vinyl Cutter and Printer I have done rather well


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## [email protected] (Dec 26, 2010)

So far I am very impressed with Roger. My order was delayed at the port, and Roger has either called or email us when ever something has changed. I couldnt ask for anything more. Cant wait for the cutter to get here - crossing my fingers for this Monday.

Thanks Roger,
Mike

Nitewalker, I thought about that, but with what we want to do (vinyl decorated shirts and bags) the standard Expert 24 should do fine. We looked at doing inkjet applications, but did not like some of the design limitations and decided that the vinyl will give us more of what we want. We've already gotten some interest in the product from our embroidery customers, so I think this will be a good fit for us.


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## [email protected] (Dec 26, 2010)

Got the GCC cutter today. It was delivered standing up, even though the package says in big letters to keep it laying flat. Took some pictures just in case it was damaged. Roger already told me that if it was D.O.A. that it can be replaced. I hope that wont be needed, but its nice to know that Roger is there in our corner. Roger also directed me to some videos to review.

Hope I will have time to hook 'er up tonight and test it out. It's like a Monday today with stuff flying apart.

Mike


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## [email protected] (Dec 26, 2010)

ok, I think I finally have it working. still have to play some with the print outs. I will post pics as soon as i can

Thanks


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## nitewalker (Jan 27, 2010)

Sounds good. 
Can't wait to see what you come up with.


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## [email protected] (Dec 26, 2010)

Ok. Honest opinions please. These are our first attempts at vinyl heat press on shirts. I think I still have some software issues and will try to load to another computer, but the cutter cut great. Roger was a great help and got me in contact with the right person at GCC and they got my issue patched. For some reason, Corel is not picking up the right media size. It is reading 11" and not the 15" I have loaded. I wasted a couple feet of vinyl - by being tired and not paying attention.

Now I hope I can get the pics up.


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## plan b (Feb 21, 2007)

You guy's are blowing my mind!! For first time cutting it looks as if you have been doing it for years,, very great work!! Congrats,,,

Oh one more thing,, that expert 24 cuts really well on those small fonts,, you have it dialed in really good..


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## nitewalker (Jan 27, 2010)

Nice work!
That looks really good.


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## [email protected] (Dec 26, 2010)

Thanks guys. I appreciate the comments. I was worried about our home made zebra pattern not working for us, and it needs some tweaking, but it really worked out better than I though. The border on the back that is framing the layered text was supposed to be tight, but we did not figure on the shirt stretching like it did - but as it turns out, we think it looks better the way it turned out with the fabric showing through a bit. Plus we had to cut our white layer into three pieces to get it to align where it should, but we will learn. The process of digitizing this, to me, is very similar to digitizing for embroidery, which we've been doing for around 10 years. Plus I've worked on different graphics softwares for over 20 years, so we had a bit of a head start on this.

My wife did a great job with the logo. She is very talented with that kind of thing - I just traced it in Corel. I wish the colors translated better on the computer. In person it looks quite different.

Roger, thank you again for all the help. Ruth was able to talk me around the auto recognition issue and override the size. She was very knowledgeable and fixed the issue I had in a couple of minutes. I still want to find out why it's doing that and will load the software to another computer to see if that helps, but that's down on the list. Because the VLCD read the media right, I think the issue might be with either GreatCut or, like you said, Corel. Now we need to get some orders, and one of our embroidery customers is first in line, I just need to digitize his logo and cut. 

I am *very* satisfied with how well the GCC Expert 24 cut. Very smooth and extremely accurate cuts. I cant say enough about Roger. He's made this purchase go smooth and has been more than helpful from ordering to setup to cutting. I can see how the optic eye would be a nice thing to have, but for us just starting out, this will do fine.

Mike


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## Nick Horvath (Feb 26, 2010)

Those pics look great!


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## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

I would love to set a few 400.00 cutters side by side and do some comparison cuts....Using the same artwork and materials and see how their finished products compare....I am very happy with my Expert 24 and will be getting another GCC cutter very soon....


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## [email protected] (Dec 26, 2010)

Oh, one big thing that confused me at first. In Corel, as I design with a 15" tall x whatever width view I have, the cutter rotates what I see on my screen 90 degrees. I was not used to this and it took some time for me to wrap my head around. Basically, what you see in Corel will output on the GCC from right to left. I had to use an empty roll set up to the right of my screen to remind me how the cutter spits out. I know, this sounds dumb, but I'm new to this vinyl stuff.

Hope this helps someone.


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## Jason's_Place (Nov 1, 2009)

Your shirts looked great!!! I have had my expert 24 for a couple of months now and just haven't had time to play with it much. Would you mind telling me where I could find those videos?


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## [email protected] (Dec 26, 2010)

Stahls.com has some educational videos that they share if you sign up to their website. I think it's very nice of them to do this, and I plan on doing business with them on other things in the future.

Thanks for the comments. Our customers seem to like our new product, and with my wife's design sense, I know we will do fine. I use Corel Draw with my GCC Ex24 and I have to make a check list for my wife to use as a guide. Once I get my checklist documented and worked out I will post it here. 

Mike


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## Jason's_Place (Nov 1, 2009)

That would be awesome, because part of my learning is using corel x5 too. I have alot of quality machinery now, just not enough time to learn it all.


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## Nick Horvath (Feb 26, 2010)

lisa[USER=21705 said:


> @sewon[/USER]lisa;833450]Oh, one big thing that confused me at first. In Corel, as I design with a 15" tall x whatever width view I have, the cutter rotates what I see on my screen 90 degrees. I was not used to this and it took some time for me to wrap my head around. Basically, what you see in Corel will output on the GCC from right to left. I had to use an empty roll set up to the right of my screen to remind me how the cutter spits out. I know, this sounds dumb, but I'm new to this vinyl stuff.
> 
> Hope this helps someone.


Here's a good tip:
First make sure that you select your cutter under print setup. Next click on the shadow line on the right side of the page on your Corel screen. You now want to click on Get Page Size From Printer.

This will set up your screen according to your material width that was detected by your cutter.

You may still need to adjust your page length, but at least this will get you set up for the material width you have to work within.

Best Regards.


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## [email protected] (Dec 26, 2010)

Ok, here are some of the cheat sheets I did for us. We use the GCC Expert 24 and Corel X3. These steps are what works for us. They may not be technically correct, so it wont hurt my feelings if someone corrects me.

Basic GCC cutting rules prior to cutting.

1.	Select all – Arrange – Convert to Curves.
2.	All outlines must be set to .001. While selected, Left Side Bar third up from the bottom, Outline Tool – First Icon (Outline Pen Dialogue F12) – set Width to .001 – OK
3.	When printing…
a.	Make sure there are no issues in the Pre Flight box on the top right of the print dialogue box.
b.	Select Center Left 15 preset at the bottom. (I made a preset for our shop and saved it as Center Left 15)
c.	Check your layout to make sure it is center left of the preview.
d.	Load the vinyl and turn on the cutter. Make sure the rollers are in the “marked” locations on the cutter and as far to the edges as you can go and still have the rollers fully on the vinyl.
e.	Perform a test cut. Change the pressure if needed in the VLCD.
f.	Return the cutter blade to the correct cutting location and reset the origin point. Return the cutter to On Line.
g.	Verify that there are no “lumps” in the vinyl. Sometimes I need to lift one roller or the other so I can flatten the vinyl.
h.	Verify the vinyl is loaded correctly and the Origin Point is set at the far right of the vinyl and the vinyl is positioned in the cutter right.


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## [email protected] (Dec 26, 2010)

This was developed from watching a youtube video on text.


OBJECT OUTLINES

1.	OVERLAP WITH BOTH CUT
a.	Create text/object
b.	Select all
c.	Arrange – Convert To Curves
d.	Select and resize if needed
e.	Select and center – Arrange – Align/Dist – Center Vertically
f.	Select all – Arrange – Group
g.	Outline – Effects – Contour – Outside - .125 or 1/8” (varies)
h.	Arrange – Break Apart
i.	Effects – Select original – Contour – Inside - .08 (varies)
j.	View – Wireframe
k.	Take out mid cut and this will be your overlay color.

2.	SIMPLE OVERLAP
a.	Create text/object
b.	Select all
c.	Arrange – Convert To Curves
d.	Select and resize if needed
e.	Select and center – Arrange – Align/Dist – Center Vertically
f.	Select all – Arrange – Group
g.	Outline – Effects – Contour – Outside - .125 or 1/8” (varies)
h.	Arrange – Break Apart
i.	Move and separate background from foreground
j.	Break Apart background and delete unwanted cuts so you have a solid background.


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## [email protected] (Dec 26, 2010)

We use this one for rounded monograms.


Text Creation for monograms.

1.	Create text. 150 – 200 – 150
2.	While selected, Left Side Bar third up from the bottom, Outline Tool – First Icon (Outline Pen Dialogue F12) – set Width to .001 – OK
3.	While selected, Right Side Bar – remove the fill (top X box). This will leave you with an outline.
4.	While selected, Top Pull Down – Arrange – Convert to Curves – Arrange – Break Curve Apart.
5.	Select middle text and move to desired position.
6.	Select all objects – Arrange – Group
7.	Envelope (should be on the right side in a tab, if not Left Side Bar, fifth from the bottom, Interactive Envelope Tool and it will show up on the right side). Add New – Single Arc – Apply. Drag the top and bottom arc as desired. This can be adjusted later if you need to by selecting the text again then select the Shape Tool (or F10 key). Shape Tool is just under the Select Arrow in the Left Side Bar on top.
8.	Resize as needed by eye, or by number just below the Top Pull Downs. Just make sure you “lock” it so your ratio remains constant.


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## TshirtsRus1 (Jan 16, 2013)

Please who is Roger? And where do we order the GCC?
Thank you


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## Jason's_Place (Nov 1, 2009)

I got mine from Imprintables Warehouse. I think they were running a special when I did but it has been so long I can't remember.


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## gonzofast (Nov 17, 2010)

I have been using a gcc ex24 for a few years now..it works non stop...Had a few operator issues over the years, but nothing really machine related. 
Keep a sharp blade and your pressure right..and you will have no issues.

My only complaint is tracking..if your roll isn't perfectly aligned underneath it tends to pull regardless of the pinch rollers holding it down.. I don't cut anything over 4' long without issues it seems.


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## valleyboy_1 (Jan 23, 2010)

I just placed my order last night for the expert 24. I wanted to go for the pro, but things couldn't work out. Anything besides what's listed I show know or expect before it arrives??


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## valleyboy_1 (Jan 23, 2010)

Got everything set up on my cutter, however I can't get pass the test cut, it's cutting hru the material. I have siser Easyweed loaded. I brought these vinyl sheets for test purposes anyhow so I'm not tripping, but I would really like to get pass this step, how far should I have the blade extended and what's the recommended downforce and blade offset??


Blood, Sweat, and Vinyl Cutters!


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