I'm looking for a vinyl cutter

[Coops]

I've not upgraded as of yet. As my budget is fairly small I'm still trying to look for a budget cutter. I've seen a few and have been reading reviews on them, it's just taking the gamble on it. One of these I found is sold through Amazon, I was thinking of taking a chance and getting it & if it's poo I could be cheeky and return it.

[webtrekker]

I've not upgraded as of yet. As my budget is fairly small I'm still trying to look for a budget cutter. I've seen a few and have been reading reviews on them, it's just taking the gamble on it. One of these I found is sold through Amazon, I was thinking of taking a chance and getting it & if it's poo I could be cheeky and return it.

It's horses for courses really. If you want a cutter just to handle vinyl or printed stickers etc, them I suppose a Cameo or something similar will be all you'll need.

However, if you want to explore other areas of contour cutting, then you you may need something much more robust and accurate. Even the Graphtec cutters, although good at their job, are expensive and not as versatile, having a cutting force of only 450g (admittedly better than the Cameo).

I bought a Silver Bullet for two main reasons -

1. My Cameo was poor at print & cut and produced a lot of expensive and time-wasting scrap.

2. The Cameo couldn't handle heavier materials (I cut a lot of magnetic sheet) and I needed something with more cutting force. The SB is fast and has a cutting force of over 1kg.

I'm not joking here, but that SB paid for itself in eBay profits within the first 2 months. I've had it almost 2 years now, use it nearly every day, and it's as good as the day I bought it.

So, rather than keep taking chances on budget cutters that don't do what you want, it might be a better idea to save up some cash and take the plunge with a more professional piece of kit. Do plenty of research first though, don't just ask in here. Most forum members are only interested in VINYL cutting and will naturally pass on their experiences regarding these machines, but if it's a more versatile machine you're after which may open up opportunities in many other areas, then have a good look at at all the reviews on the net for various cutters before buying.

[kinyo]

I recently upgraded to Graphtec CE6000-60 Vinyl Cutter due to the same reasons. But during the transition period, I learnt a few things. I will just talk about the main one. The main key to vinyl is getting a nice clean cut that goes all the way through the vinyl barely leaving a mark of the cut on the backing film or carrier. This is controlled manually by how you set the blade depth and how much force you tell the cutter to use. Before cutting a new style of vinyl and when you are setting up the cutter, take your time to set the blade depth and test different cutting forces..