Learn me: Vinyl cutters. (Who's got one? What do I need to know?)

I've been thinking about a new toy.  Thought about 3D printers but I think they aren't mainstream enough for me yet, and I don't know how much use I would get from one.

BUT, a vinyl cutter I know would get much use.  Between the car stuff, the Star Wars stuff, always looking on eBay and Amazon for different ideas & a local racing friend for small stuff, this would be a wise purchase.  And if I bought a large enough one, say something that could print a car door-sized item, so much the better!

I joined a Facebook group for people with cars that have a Star Wars theme I heard about at Celebration last month.  Someone has been posting many updates to his car (A Fiat 500X like SWMBO's actually, then traded for his son's Abarth!) and he mentioned he had a MH871 MK2.  I did some searching, found USCutter.com and this:

Link

34" MH 871 Vinyl Cutter Value Kit w/ VinylMaster Design & Cut Software for $350

Seems like a decent deal, hell I remember paying about that for an Epson photo printer in the early 2000s.

What else should I look for?  34" seems good, they offer a 50" as well.  This looked like a good bundle deal.  What say the hive?

The physical cutters are basically a commodity at this point. The hard parts are software and application. Much of what you want to cut isn't just sitting out there for download, you need to trace/draw it on the screen. There is free software and expensive software. Weeding out the unwanted bits of vinyl and applying it well is difficult. Quality of vinyl matters. 

I do basically all my cutting on a 12 inch hobby level machine. Anything that cuts bigger than that is a pain to apply. The real magic currently is the plotters for vinyl, they give you a lot of design options that you don't have with straight cutters. 

If you’re up this way i have that one, Jerry, and you’re welcome to check it out.  I’m still a novice with the software

I had that same exact cutter.

The only issue I had with it was probably user error. I had to recalibrate all the time, and their calibration method didn't work. But once I figured out the pressures, speed, and offset it worked well. Connection was also an issue. I didnt leave it plugged in, so whenever I plugged it in the computer froze and required a restart. It would lose connection pretty often as well. Also probably user error. I never spent time updating drivers to fix everything. 

34" is rather huge. I never cut anything beyond 18" wide, so it was a bit of a waste of space. 

I started typing out a bunch but its probably easier to just say +1 to everything Mazdeuce said.

In reply to lnlogauge :

Had?  did you upgrade or just stop using it?

In reply to Jerry :

Bought it for work. Used it for 4 years, but moved to a different company. 

I bought from signwarehouse.com - a model that generically looks very similar to that photo.  Good vinyl makes life a lot easier.  The software, and your patience to devote the time to learn to a high skill level is the difference maker.  I use mine for pretty simple stuff.  20 years ago with less commitments I would have spent a lot more time than I do now.  Finding good, cheap high res files is the biggest challenge.

I have a Roland Stika SV-12

Still use it here n there for odds and ends.  Used to do tons and tons of decals with it, way more stuff than you would think is reasonable.

I do wish it was a little bigger from time to time, an SV15 would have been a nice choice because some vinyl is tough to get under 15" wide.   

Mine is probably 15 years old at this point and still going strong.  I blow out the tracks once in a while and put a new knife in it and off she goes.  

What's the best software to use ?

Does it use a weird file format or an industry standard ?

Can you use an old version of Adobe Illustrator  to make the file  ?

I would rather find an older copy of Adobe illustrator and learn that so you can use it for other things....

I've used Photoshop since version 4 so I'm probably good with the tracing aspect.  If there's a better cutter out there or place to shop, I'm all ears/eyes.

Was also looking for advice like what accessories are critical, what are bullE36 M3?  That kind of thing.

The shop that does my signs uses Illustrator , 

At one time the early version was free on Adobe website , can not find it now , and now Adobe wants you to buy it month to month !  So I am looking for an older version.

But I am sure Photoshop works just as good.

A variety of razors/exacto knives

Good transfer tape

A squeegee for bigger stuff/stuff with critical alignment

A cutting mat

Illustrator is vector based so is much better for this type of thing.  Most of the cutting softwares will read it, but they won't always cut in the correct order necessarily.  I find it best to export an illustrator graphic as black and white and just have the software trace it.  Its dumb.

In reply to ProDarwin :

My old CS2 suite has Illustrator so I can probably get up to speed quickly.

Looking at USCutter's website I see another model that seems one step up, and offers "contour cutting feature".  SC2?

Linky

With some minor add-on's around $500

My US cutter just arrived today and is still in the box. I got the 14" small one.

I did buy a bunch of accessories and vinyl with it to get started. I have inkscape and know how to use it.

Part of the reason I got it was to let the kids possibly learn something and stay off their devices  (To play with a computer, ha).

In reply to Jerry :

Get a set of dental picks for weeding the vinyl. A good set of tweezers will be useful sometimes as well.

damnit, you people arent helping me hold onto my cash loaf. 

The best software I’ve used is Flexi, since it is designed for use with plotters it is great because all the paths are made with the design. Files can be exported to illustrator if needed or if printing high quality. For design work and simple plotting Flexi is awesome; not cheap though.

I was probably up and running within 10 minutes setting up the US Cutter.

Software is simple but it works and is intutitive.

My daughter made a sticker start to finish pretty easily, and weeded it out, put the transfer paper on, etc.

It has a ball point pen holder and I drew some drawings I pulled off the net....pretty neat.

I bought the "sign shop in a box" accessory kit and there is probably a bunch in there I won't need but much of what I do.  (Sharp tweezers and dental pick mentioned above, as well as a cutting mat.)

Dragging this thread back up instead of starting a new one, and because it's newer than my old one. 

I have this transfer paper currently. It's ummm not great. You really need to work the decals to get them to transfer onto this stuff, so while it looks useful with the grid lines and everything, Ive been told I need something better. 

I'm looking for something better, or maybe some tips for better results. Is the soft papery stuff any better than this? Should I just scale down to 6" tape and use multiple pieces for larger stickers?

In reply to RevRico :

I've had good luck with Oracal transfer tape