# GX-24 or Graphtec 5000



## antevante (Aug 13, 2007)

Well, this is my first post on this forum.
Im a swedish guy whos planning to buy my first vinyl cutter and was about to order a Roland GX-24 when I talked to a guy who sales Graphtec and he told me alot of things that was better on the Graphtec than on the GX-24 (ofcourse since he only sells graphtec).
As far as I get it the Graphtec is a bit cheaper and it comes with a stand and the cutting software Signcut X2 and the GX-24 is a bit more expensive and comes with rolands cutting software.
So, wich one of those would you guys chose?

My mainly work would be stickers and t-shirts

Sorry for my bad english
/Ante


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## charles95405 (Feb 1, 2007)

not sure which is best, but I will let my wallet do the talking....I was at Long Beach and bought the GX24..both machines were at the show, but I went with the Roland..a couple buck more...but the reputation seems a bit higher.. don't deflate my ego...but that is what I bought


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## hernandomiguel (Aug 13, 2007)

Hi friend
A GX-24 is a very good machine, dont trust in chep products, Roland machines are horsework.


best regards.

Hernandomiguel






antevante said:


> Well, this is my first post on this forum.
> Im a swedish guy whos planning to buy my first vinyl cutter and was about to order a Roland GX-24 when I talked to a guy who sales Graphtec and he told me alot of things that was better on the Graphtec than on the GX-24 (ofcourse since he only sells graphtec).
> As far as I get it the Graphtec is a bit cheaper and it comes with a stand and the cutting software Signcut X2 and the GX-24 is a bit more expensive and comes with rolands cutting software.
> So, wich one of those would you guys chose?
> ...


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## antevante (Aug 13, 2007)

It seems that everybody is satisfied with their GX-24.
How Is the cutting software that comes with the roland?
Does it do the job great or do I have to calculate to buy another software in the near future?


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## mazinger (May 17, 2007)

antevante said:


> Well, this is my first post on this forum.
> Im a swedish guy whos planning to buy my first vinyl cutter and was about to order a Roland GX-24 when I talked to a guy who sales Graphtec and he told me alot of things that was better on the Graphtec than on the GX-24 (ofcourse since he only sells graphtec).
> As far as I get it the Graphtec is a bit cheaper and it comes with a stand and the cutting software Signcut X2 and the GX-24 is a bit more expensive and comes with rolands cutting software.
> So, wich one of those would you guys chose?
> ...


 

 hi im new like you i do a little research finally i decide for gx 24....when you are going to invest your money... have to look one thing
how serius are you for this... remember one thing ....you may start slow in this ...but if you are good.... you may need a workhorse


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## antevante (Aug 13, 2007)

Well the difference in the price is so low so It doesnt matter if the cutter is a bit more expensive (I don´t want to have to change the cutter In a year or so because it´s to slow).
The sad part is that the price here in sweden for cutters are really expensive.
For the Roland GX-24 (without stand, vinyl and so on) I will have to pay 2690 USD.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

Hi Ante, read here for some good information: http://www.t-shirtforums.com/vinyl-cutters-plotters-transfers/t21647.html


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## Chani (Jun 18, 2007)

I'm not going to say one is better than the other, but the Graphtec is a workhorse, too, and will last you many, many years.

We went with a Graphtec and we didn't look back.

You'll find more support here for the Roland, and that might be important to you, especially if you haven't used a plotter before.

In this case, just because something is cheaper (less expensive) it doesn't mean that it's lower quality.

As a side note, we find the stand that came with our cutter to be EXTREMELY useful as we're in a small apartment with almost no surfaces. It's also good to have it for rolls of vinyl.

I don't know if the Roland has anywhere to put your vinyl rolls or if you just put them on your table, but if that's the case, you'll be chasing wild rolls all the time and you'll need to get good at re-rolling vinyl.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> I don't know if the Roland has anywhere to put your vinyl rolls or if you just put them on your table,


You c an get a stand for the Roland as well


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## hernandomiguel (Aug 13, 2007)

Hi friend you can check here Roland GX-24 CAMM-1 Servo Vinyl Sign Cutter (Cutting Plotter) CAMM1 GX24 and the information for the stand Roland CAMM-1 Vinyl Cutter Stand from Beacon Graphics

see you
hernandomiguel


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## Moo Spot Prints (Jul 16, 2006)

Ante -- look for 2 things:

1. What's the support where you are like for both cutters? Can get get parts or service quickly? Does your local dealer have a loaner policy?

2. What software do you intend to use and is it supported by your plotter of choice.

That's it. If the price different is minimal those are the only two things I would consider. Both are solid plotters made by reputable companies. You will find a Roland bias on this board but that's all it is, a bias. There is good support *here* for the roland by the sponsors and it shows.

With the weak dollar, it might be cheaper to buy the plotter directly from the US, no?

Don't apologize, your english is fine.


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## antevante (Aug 13, 2007)

Moo Spot Prints said:


> Ante -- look for 2 things:
> 
> 1. What's the support where you are like for both cutters? Can get get parts or service quickly? Does your local dealer have a loaner policy?
> 
> ...


Hi again!
Sadly the "local" dealer for cutters are in the other side of the country, both for graphtec and roland so hopefully will I get one that never crank up.
It seems like I will get myself a GX-24 mostly because everybody seems to talk good about the machine (and in my opinion it looks nicer).
Thanks alot for your help, I probably will post alot of more Q´s because Im new to this


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## Cathybun (Dec 7, 2006)

Hi, I sent you a pm yesterday about this. Today we got a visit from a very kind person in a local company who we never bought anything off, but who we called to see if we could get some help/advice/training. I told him my problems with our Graphtec, he did his best to help and told us that he would make sure we got it working. He supplies both Graphtec and Roland products. I told him that I was so fed up with our Graphtec that I felt like selling it and then buying a Roland instead. He told us that, while the support is there for the Roland, the Graphtec is a more sturdy machine that will last longer. However, it will definitely last longer for us, since we can't even get it to cut larger than A4!! Just passing on the info, but at the end of the day, I still wish I bought Roland! But that's a novice's opinion. Best of luck


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## Chani (Jun 18, 2007)

Catherine,

I'm so sorry you're having all these troubles with your Graphtec.  I can totally understand why you're ready to trade it in.

Are you sure you don't have a bad unit? It happens sometimes.

We haven't had any troubles with ours at all, and I think I just figured out contour-cutting today, tho I haven't had a chance to test it yet because I don't have any Magic Mask yet. I'd like to order some tomorrow so I can finally test contour-cutting and transfer paper. I'm definitely doing rigorous tests before I try to sell any to customers.

I do hope you get things figured out, because this really is a good machine.


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## Cathybun (Dec 7, 2006)

Hi Chani,

I think there is hope yet. There is an expert coming to us on Tuesday to look at our machine. We will finally know if it is us or the machine that's causing all the headaches.


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## Chani (Jun 18, 2007)

I have an idea that MAY be the problem you're having...

What software did you say you're using again? Illy? X3?

In the Cutting Master 2 plugin for X3, anyway, there's a little button with a questionmark on it next to the media size. Once you load your media, click that little button and it will read the area that your machine has to work with.

I don't know how it is in Illy, but in X3 DON'T "PRINT" your design to your Graphtec. There's a little button with a spaceship in X3 on the main toolbar at the top. If you click on that, it will give you the option to print/cut. Use that.

Again, you may already know all of this, but I thought I'd just point those two things out, in case you didn't know...

Good luck with the expert!


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## Moo Spot Prints (Jul 16, 2006)

Cathybun said:


> we can't even get it to cut larger than A4!!


Zero in on that. It sounds like a paper setting mismatch somewhere.


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## Cathybun (Dec 7, 2006)

Hi guys,

FINALLY, we have it all sorted. The two main problems we were having was cutting larger than A4 and reading reg marks. Now everything is ok. The machine was supplied to us with a preset that is very unusual according to our expert. The page length was set to only 500 mm, but it should be set to 50,000 mm. It's so simple, but if you don't know what you're looking for it can be so painful! As for the reg marks, the problem was with the templates we were using from Robo Master software. We now have new templates with four reg marks and they work perfectly. Really accurate. I'm so happy, maybe Graphtec isn't so bad afterall! Thanks everyone for your suggestions, hopefully I can help you out one day too.


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## Chani (Jun 18, 2007)

Okay, I was way off base. 

Either way, I'm really happy you got it working! Maybe now you can finally ENJOY working with your wonderful Graphtec!


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## antevante (Aug 13, 2007)

Now I have decided, I just put an order on the GX-24 and hopefully I will be more than satisfied.
Thanks for all the help


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## videorov (Aug 26, 2007)

Support is most important!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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