# Printer/Cutter or Printer AND Cutter?



## Chani (Jun 18, 2007)

What would you do? Buy a printer/cutter combo unit (Roland VersaCAMM, etc...) or buy a seperate printer and cutter (with contour cutting)?

I like the idea of doing everything in one unit, but I've heard cautionary tales of buying a combo unit because of the life of printers being so much shorter than cutters.

Also, as far as I can see, it's cheaper to buy seperate units.

My other concern is that I'd like a printer for far more uses than just printing on vinyl. Will a VersaCAMM print on regular rolls of paper?

Thanks!


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## vctradingcubao (Nov 15, 2006)

Hi, Chani. If you're not going for the versacamm, what's the printer that you have in mind?


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## Chani (Jun 18, 2007)

To be honest, I don't know. 

I haven't really looked into printers, but I saw someone post here a while ago that they suggested not getting a combo unit because the life of printers is so much shorter than cutters. I don't remember the exact post, but I was assuming from that one that there was an alternative to a combo unit for printing on vinyl.

Are there any stand-alone solvent printers?


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## vctradingcubao (Nov 15, 2006)

Yes, there are, but usually, the stand alones are the bigger/wider ones. What kind of jobs do you plan on doing with the printer/cutter combo or separate? What is your market?


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## Chani (Jun 18, 2007)

It would mostly be signs, but I'd like to do some t-shirts and stickers, too.

We won't be able to afford to anything like this for quite a while yet, tho...


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## vctradingcubao (Nov 15, 2006)

For stickers (& for t-shirt transfers), a print&cut machine is really the way to go. The versacamm or even the faster Soljet should be able to do the job. I have the SP300V, and a wider 7 feet solvent ink printer. I'm using my versacamm more often, and I wish I bought the 54" insted of the 30". It will be very difficult and time consuming if you do the smaller stickers on a separate machine. Lastly, the bigger machines usually prints in lower resolution than the versacamm.


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## Chani (Jun 18, 2007)

That's good to know! Especially about reslution.

Yeah, we'd prolly go with a VersaCamm if/when we do get one, and I'd like to get the 54", but we may start with the 30" only because of costs.


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## vctradingcubao (Nov 15, 2006)

One advantage of the bigger solvent printers though is that it usually uses the less expensive inks than the roland. They also usually prints faster.


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## Chani (Jun 18, 2007)

So it's really a trade-off.

We're still more likely to get a print/cut combo unit, but I guess we'll need to think about it. We have time.


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## vctradingcubao (Nov 15, 2006)

While waiting, maybe you can save some more so you can get the 54" versacamm. I can even tell you to "trust me on this one".


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## Chani (Jun 18, 2007)

LOL!

Maybe you're right.


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## mystysue (Aug 27, 2006)

I have the versacamm that is the 54 inch one and never regreted it. The thing to remember in the sizes especially if you are gonna use it for banners or signs is if you get the 30 inch one.. your printing space is gonna be a couple inches narrower than that.. and when you think of banners.. most people as a rule like 3 feet wide banners.. which you cant do on the smaller unit.. If you have the bigger one you can do 3 foot for 4 foot banners no problem and that is a real plus. Just remmber that they are big so you need space to put them.. lol. my machine takes up like 9 ft of wall space..

I dont as a rule use it just to cut vinyl altho it can.. But in the sign shop the printer is in use every day. and our machine cost us about 18,000 when we bought it.. and paid for itself in less than half a year..

THe ink cost are approx. 50.oo a cartridge but I am always amazed at just how long they last.. It really has alot of ink in each one..
seems i spend more in ink for my fax machine than i do in my roland..lol..
I just did a job for the city here.. that was 20 double sided banners in solid purple.. the job including install was a bit over 10,ooo and we used about 250-300 in ink for the whole thing..not bad..


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## vctradingcubao (Nov 15, 2006)

There you go Chani. Coming from our resident expert, the 54" is really the way to go if you want to also print banners. Thanks Susan!


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## queenVee (Aug 16, 2007)

vctradingcubao said:


> For stickers (& for t-shirt transfers), a print&cut machine is really the way to go. The versacamm or even the faster Soljet should be able to do the job. I have the SP300V, and a wider 7 feet solvent ink printer. I'm using my versacamm more often, and I wish I bought the 54" insted of the 30". It will be very difficult and time consuming if you do the smaller stickers on a separate machine. Lastly, the bigger machines usually prints in lower resolution than the versacamm.


hi,
what makes you wish you bought the bigger one 54"???


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## vctradingcubao (Nov 15, 2006)

queenVee said:


> hi,
> what makes you wish you bought the bigger one 54"???


Hi Vee,

1) because the banners usually ordered by customers have a width of more than 29 inches. Usually, 36 and 48 inches wide.

2) the sign materials usually available in the market comes in rolls of more than 30" wide, so if you only have the 30" printer, you're also limited to the materials you can order (& use).

Trust me, save some more for the 54 incher, because the Versacamm is really a versatile machine, you'll want to have the capability of using all the materials available in the market. You can even do full vehicle wraps with the 54" versacamm. I have bought the SP540V, 3 months after I made the mistake of buying the SP300V. So now I have 2, but I'm finding use for both of them anyway.


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## 2STRONG (Oct 17, 2007)

vctradingcubao said:


> Hi Vee,
> 
> 1) because the banners usually ordered by customers have a width of more than 29 inches. Usually, 36 and 48 inches wide.
> 
> ...


 What was your final decision in making that big of a purchase. did you already have clients or did you but it then market. i seen it in action at the great garmet seminar last month and thought it was pretty awsome. do you use it to make shirts. also how's the learning curve on the machine.


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## vctradingcubao (Nov 15, 2006)

We have an embroidery shop, initially, then we added heat transfer printing. We then decided to make it an all-in-one shop by adding a wide format printer, so that we could print stickers and banners. We mainly use our CLC for shirt shirt printing, but for oversized designs, we can use the versacamm also. I would say that the versacamm is very user friendly, i.e. the versaworks software that comes with it is very easy to learn.


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## DRM (Apr 28, 2008)

I'm currently choosing between going with a printer/cutter or separate units. My concern is the same as a previous poster on the life of the combo unit. My question is has anyone used the versacam for cutting vinyl and thermoflex aside from printing and decals. I mean more complex designs than just an oval or square for decals. I would like to use it for t-shirts as well as large format printing, but if too much cutting on the machine will cause more wear and tear, I'd like to know. 

Would it be better to just get separate units if I plan on doing alot of cutting as well as printing, or can the roland handle both printing and cutting just as well as a separate dedicated unit.

Lastly, what units do you recommend for separate printing and cutting. Thanks for the input!


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