Roland GX-24 Digital Cutter

[levelbest]

Hey All:

Anyone have any experience with this cutter? It seems pretty reasonably priced from Imprintables Warehouse and looks to do most everything we want to do - Twill Aplique, Letters/Numbers for Heatpress and apparently even sign vinyl.

Looking for any input anyone has or even alternatives that might be priced as favorably.

[Steve]

It's too bad you weren't looking 2 years ago, I could have sold you mine. I thought it was well built and didn't have any problems with it. I didn't run it much which is why I sold it. I wasn't making any money with it.
Roland would be a good resource though since he uses his much more than I used mine.

[levelbest]

Roland has a Roland?

[Russell Silva]

I was considering buying a GX24 but I don't think you can do kiss cut tackle twill with it, if you do a lot of twill you might want to look into a flatbed cutter like the Ioline 300.

[levelbest]

Russell

Saw them both this weekend - the Ioline was about $6500, the Roland was about $2000.

What is Kiss cut? Still learning this stuff. They showed us how you can cut tackle twill and create sew discs on the roland.

[levelbest]

Eh, repeat to myself - google is your friend - google is your friend.

The kiss-cut system.

Using custom designs or in-house designs (which, of course, are essentially "do-it-yourself" custom designs), embroiderers can create multicolor twill appliqué in one step using the "kiss-cut" system.

Sheets of twill are stacked, and each color/layer is cut with a precise system that judges the depth of each twill layer. (The term "kiss" refers to the light touch the cutting equipment uses on layers so that a variety of depths can be cut. The embroiderer peels away unneeded parts to reveal one multilevel, fused appliqué.)

The result is a two- or three-color appliqué that's already fused together, meaning the embroiderer has only one piece of appliqué to handle during production. This type of lettering application costs slightly more than stock lettering, but it saves a number of steps at the embroidery machine.

[Russell Silva]

Kiss cut,

The top layers are cut in pressure sensitive twill right on top of the background layer, the way it works is you cut the first layer(background)then you put the pressure sensitive layer on top of that and then cut the forground layer.

[Russell Silva]

John,

How did they make the sew disk with the roland system?

[levelbest]

There is an add on program that apparently works with it - I was in such a rush to get out of the ISS Show today that I didn't get to see it done but the rep told me there was the capability to do it. So... I have emailed and asked for more details. Saw an extended demo of the Ioline and was impressed, but the price is a little hard to justify for our business level right now. Thought this might be a better point of entry for where we are right now.

[Dorothy Compton]

I bought one from Paper Ranch (I wanted a refurbished one but none were available...I wish I had then purchased from signwarehouse, they seem to have a great starter kit). Anyway, it comes with a 45 degree blade for up to 6mm material thickness. I have ordered a 60 degree blade (for 6mm and up) and a "twill" blade from stahls as well as 2 additional blade holders (for convenience). I ordered some twill too. I'll let you know more once all this stuff comes. I'm about 2k in now.

Dorothy

[Digital Stitchz / LaserWorkz]

If you have Design Shop Plus, (not sure Design Shop has it), you have the capability of creating applique sew files by taking your vector file from the Roland cutter into DS+. It requires a few steps, but it costs you nothing.

[levelbest]

Originally posted by Digital Stitchz / LaserWorkz:
If you have Design Shop Plus, (not sure Design Shop has it), you have the capability of creating applique sew files by taking your vector file from the Roland cutter into DS+. It requires a few steps, but it costs you nothing.

That is cool to know - many thanks. I am guessing that you have actually done it then. Is it a simple process?

[levelbest]

Just talked to the folks and the software is called Twill Stitch Pro. It's a might bit expensive at $600 (show price) - so if design shop can do this, it would certainly save money.

On Kiss, it can do it - he explained it to me. The process is not as straightforward as the Ioline but it can be done.

Also, he pointed out an advantage of the Roland is that you can do rolled vinyl etc instead of sheet fed (though of course you can do sheets too).

The package price is $1695 with starter materials and a 4 Year Warranty. They double the manufacturers warranty. Also comes with a video for training.

Lastly, the portable cart if you don't want it on a table top or desktop runs $300.

http://www.imprintableswarehouse.com...D/0/index.html is the page for the package. If you contact them, ask for Josh and tell him AMAYAUSERS sent you

[Russell Silva]

Hi John,

Can you give us the contact info for the company or individual that has this deal?

[levelbest]

Yeah, sorry Russell, I went back and posted it to my last post - but when you do that it doesn't send the edit to the list.

Imprintables Warehouse - Ask for Josh
Tell him that AMAYAUSERS.com sent you there

http://www.imprintableswarehouse.com...D/0/index.html

He was a good guy and took the time to answer my questions on the phone today - plus he has a blog online that show it in use.

You can see that at:
http://joshellsworth.com/tag/vinyl-c.../roland-gx-24/

Also, he suggested for info on cutting vinyl for signs and auto graphics, to visit the Signs101.com forums