# questions abt puma and graphtec et al



## sportzcrazy (Aug 1, 2013)

I'm about to invest in a new cutter in the 15-24 inch size. I've done quite a bit of research and ruled out a Roland GX24 because it will not print over the rollers.

I've been using cut vinyl for different projects for a year now while using a silhouette. That little machine has paid for itself so many times I can't imagine why I was not doing vinyl sooner.

I've recently added tshirts to my product line and my first week, I've sold over 40 units over 4 different designs. Realizing I'm going to spend the better part of a work day sitting here loading one piece of vinyl after another into this little machine has convinced me it's time to move to much better equipment. 

However, I have one major concern about this purchase.

Many of my products use a design that i cut on a piece of 6"x2" vinyl. Of course this is no big deal for a silhouette due to the mat, it's just a matter of swapping out different colors of vinyl on the mat when I can't gang several together. It is just a slow process. Last Holiday season, I had to gang one design onto a 12x12 peice of vinyl and cut it over 50 times. There were TONS on nodes on this and it took the SIL almost 22 minutes to cut each sheet. TOO MANY man hours!

Can these cutters that I'm considering even load and cut a piece of vinyl in a 6"x2" size? I've been really good about utilizing my vinyl and not having tons of waste so far. Is a new cutter going to cause my vinyl waste to soar? 

I considered using both cutters and sending the small jobs to the silhouette, but I'd really rather not do this - I'm hoping to speed up my process with this new cutter because one thing I've learned is this silhouette is SLOW.

One thing I saw on the puma (i think it was the puma) is a cutoff blade built into the machine that allows you to remove your cut design from the plotter without unloading the vinyl? I think this would be a very beneficial feature for me, esp cutting the small designs that I often do.

In the back of my head, I'm also thinking about the knk zing as I really have no need for much width over 15" (but would probably buy a 24" for flexibility). My business is very niche and signage is not something I see us moving into. However, the zing doesn't not offer some of the features of a better cutter but I believe it does give me considerable more speed.

I've never actually seen any of these machines in person, as I'm in Athens, GA and don't believe we have any retailers here in town. I would drive to Atlanta if anyone knows of a place there.

Thank you for reading and hopefully responding to what I realize is a rather lengthy post.


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## djque (Feb 5, 2013)

i would go graphtec or roland. Both will cut a 6x2 peice vinyl. The media sensor and media width scan is the best. You can disable it to cut beyond the rollers but i have a graphtec and leave it on. I like that it reads the width of it. Also they have a slot on the cutter that you can cut off the vinyl. But the ce6000-60 have a feature built in to do that i read. Once you go up in size of a cutter you will be using 15" to 20" vinyl.

On a last note my son is 3 and i have scraps left over from different designs. Most are 6" or 7" and i now make him shirts with it. I hade a value cutter and hated that thing. It would cut to the end and hit the reset button making me waste vinyl basically that whole design would be trash.


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