Vinyl mask cutter

[ASKay]

Has anybody had a play with one of these????are they any good????

http://www.graphicair.co.uk/products...-software.html

Thinking I could have some fun with one, but relutant to make the spend without hearing they are any good first...

[eyeayen]

I've got a Roland Sticka STX-7 which cost me a small fortune about 10 years ago, my mate picked one of these Craft Robo's up for about £150, a lot less than I paid for mine, it works just fine, you couldn't tell any difference in the mask I've cut to the mask he's cut.

You can get them a lot cheaper than this though so I'd look around but yes, worth having, probably the most useful thing I ever bought for my business !

[ASKay]

http://www.graphtecgb.com/cutters/cr...-cc300-21.html

just found this, its pink, but a heck of alot cheaper...

[gingapaint]

really curious to hear peoples opinions on these... was looking at similar a few months back, but was told that i should be spending £800 or not bother.... for all i want to do with it, i was sure they'd be grand, but first hand experiences would be great!!

[LRP]

craft robo are a very good cutter. i have a few friends who use 1
ive got a roland stx which is also a great cutter , i dnt think u could go wrong with any, the softwere has to be as good as the cutter too

[eyeayen]

If you want to do logo's and work out designs like flames, slime, any repeatable graphic then a cutter is the way to go. It's an arse applying masking film into stuff but you can work around it.

Loads of my mates drive theirs through Coral Draw but Inkscape is completely free and if you're on a PC you can get a plug in to drive the cutters, no expensive software and for that cheap one you found you really can't go wrong ! £65 is an absolute bargain.

You will have to learn the software though, generally the stuff it comes with isn't up to much. Proper sign packages are too expensive for what we're doing but Corel Draw is good IF you do really want to buy something. Inkscape is perfectly capable, I just didn't get along with it's interface...

You really don't need to spend that much on a cutter these days, these cut A4 size sheets ( well 200mm wide or there abouts ) absolutely fine, as I said above I spent £450 on a Roland as that's what I was advised to get 10 years ago, these weren't about then. My mate got one of these about 2 years ago, it's turned things around for him and there is no difference in cut quality to mine and his cost about a quarter of the price. Being so cheap you really can't go wrong.

[mark christopher]

Originally Posted by eyeayen

I've got a Roland Sticka STX-7 which cost me a small fortune about 10 years ago, my mate picked one of these Craft Robo's up for about £150, a lot less than I paid for mine, it works just fine, you couldn't tell any difference in the mask I've cut to the mask he's cut.

You can get them a lot cheaper than this though so I'd look around but yes, worth having, probably the most useful thing I ever bought for my business !

i have the stx15 and am using the cutstudiio software, what do you use?

[jonmiller]

I would recommend using illustartor with the cutstudio plugin because if you fancy/need upgrading the machine later and don't get a roland then you are stuck with a load of cutstudio files that you cannot use in other programs. unless the newer cutstudio versions have an export function?
that's why i would use illy and export using the plugin to cutstudio. that way you will have all yer files in ai or eps whis are more or less standard formats.

[stoff]

Good stuff guys!