jh36 and I seem to at least annually wish we had a vinyl cutter. Then we inevitably head to the local sign company because a cutter and materials are more expensive than ordering from the nice guys at the shop. But we've been down this road so many times I have to assume there are some savings to be had to cut our own.
Any recommendations on a good budget vinyl cutter? Any tips on particular features to look for? Is this a dumb idea?
Ideally we'd be able to cut vinyl a couple feet wide.
I needed a bunch of decals for my new race car a few months ago. I splurged and bought a Cricut Maker 3, which is not really a budget machine but I was in the same boat you were in- seems like every few months I needed a new decal, and at some point it will pay for itself. In short it's awesome, the experience with it has been 100% positive. It can only cut up to 13" wide but can cut rolls of material up to 12 feet long. Now that I own it I've used it for about 20 things I never considered before I bought it.
I like the looks of that! And really like the fact that it's more versatile than just vinyl. I wonder if they have a slightly larger version....
We have the 28-inch model of this cutter from US Cutter. It pretty much paid for itself with the 2nd or 3rd run of decals we did. The software is fairly simple, and you get a feel for how to prep images to be cuttable in a 2d environment pretty quickly. I prep logos in Photoshop then use the US Cutter software to trace them and it always seems to work out fairly well.
Awesome. Thanks. I see they have different software packages and different blade angles. Would you happen to know what changing the angle of the blade does?
In reply to Ed Higginbotham :
A 30 is for very thin film. 45 for most common, 60 for very thick. 45 is what you want.
are there cutters that will do vinyl signs and also cut paper gaskets ?
My wife has a Cricut cutter that supposedly cuts vinyl, but I haven't tried it and the rolls are only 15 or 18" wide, I think. The machine was $150 at the local fabric store.
In reply to californiamilleghia :
I know my Cricut would have no problem with that. It cuts leather, wood, etc. Just have to get the right cutting tool and design the layout in CAD or something.
Look into Cricut's recent attempt to charge customers to use their machines before signing up.
We have a Roland Stika 15 at work. It's been a workhorse for over a decade and paid for itself years ago. Heck, I did the big signs on the side of the building with it. A bit spendy for a home workshop but if you open an Etsy store you'll get your investment back :) I don't think it would do cork.
This is a great adventure. I am ready to leap! I appreciate all the guidance.
Cricut stopped software support of my 1st gen CREX 001
they then sued a 3rd party software company who made a program to make it work !
so if anyone has figured that out let me know,
and if anyone local (LAX) wants one to hack , I have an extra for free
Yes, Cricut does require that you use their software to run the machine. It's an obvious ploy to charge you for stuff. That said, I haven't paid a penny for anything but materials yet, everything I've bought has been high-quality and dummyproof, and the software and machine are dead simple to use. After teaching myself 3d printing for the last couple years, it's nice to have a device that you just turn on and use without drama. I'm at the point in my life where I don't want to have to figure out a new programming language or spend hours setting crap up to just do simple jobs.
About the Cricut licensing, if you want one, get it before the end of the year: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/03/cricut-retroactively-adds-subscription-fee-to-millions-of-devices/. I'm not saying "don't get one", but you are paying for a device that is dependent on someone else in order to operate, and that is not always a situation that works in the long run. So go in with your eyes open.
Vinyl cutters are dramatically easier to use than 3D printers. About the only thing you have to do is occasionally change the blade depth if you change materials. The software is easy (basically just vector based drawing) because, well, it's just 2D lines. No messing around with a third dimension or nozzle temperatures or drying your material or supports or bed leveling.
This is the US Cutter we bought 5 or 6 years ago. Works great. I wanted to save money on race car stuff and my wife uses it to make signs and Christmas presents.
Yes that's my pitbull wearing sunglasses in the picture behind it.
Thank you very much for the recommendations and info everyone. I think we're going to put in an order for one of those US Cutter units. I like the Cricut and we'd probably use it for more projects, but is slightly smaller and I'd hate to possibly have to pay a subscription to use it. Thank you all!
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