Opinions on Digital Die-Cutters

[Ynot_UK]

Implant Media provides quality stickers, with variety of types like, single cut, shape cut, die cut, etc. in melbourne, Australia.

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Really? How much would you charge for 40k-60k of the label as shown on the tin below? Every month.

 

[PrintDisc]

Could you clarify what you mean by digital die cutter? I’d consider a digital die cutter something for very short runs something like the Duplo DPC-600 or the DPC-2024. The DPC-2024 is really just a GCC cutting plotter with creasing that Duplo put their logo on. Since dies aren’t required for these machines short run jobs or samples can be turned very quickly. These digital die cutters can certainly be useful for the right jobs.

The rotary die cutters like the hand fed UD-M300 or the UD-310 require dies to be made. So you’ll have the cost and the wait to have a magnetic die made. If you had a job for 2,500 4 up door hangers there’s no way I would want to wait for a digital die cutter to finish the job. Even the hand fed die cutter would have the job done quicker than any of the digital die cutters.

Is there a possibility that the owner of the shop down the road would consider selling? Just a thought since many of us in this business are getting up there in age.

Run from the Duplo 310. I feel ripped off with mine. Never installed right, never supported properly, took 100+ hours to figure out how to make it run the jobs they said it could (and it can't without many jury rigs and bypassing safety's/removing covers), sold me a $10,000 conveyor that can't work for my jobs and they want me to pay thousands of dollars to have someone fly up here to maybe make it work right. Worst decision of my life. I get better support on the things I buy direct from China.

 

[TJPrinter]

Run from the Duplo 310. I feel ripped off with mine. Never installed right, never supported properly, took 100+ hours to figure out how to make it run the jobs they said it could (and it can't without many jury rigs and bypassing safety's/removing covers), sold me a $10,000 conveyor that can't work for my jobs and they want me to pay thousands of dollars to have someone fly up here to maybe make it work right. Worst decision of my life. I get better support on the things I buy direct from China.

Yikes! That's a surprise for a Duplo product. Good to know.

 

[bcr]

I know responses have been mixed on it in this thread, but honestly I love our Intec SC5000. It's priced right for its application and has very much opened up project opportunities that wouldn't have existed for us six months ago. I did a pretty lengthy write-up on it on Reddit awhile back and since then my opinions of it haven't changed all too much. When you recognize its strengths and weaknesses, you can easily die cut most cardstock and kiss cut most label goods with it. As I mention in that Reddit topic though, its creasing tool is not particularly good if you're trying to do paperboard boxes and whatnot. It's also nowhere near as fast as a traditional die cutting machine, so while it can pretty much be left unattended, it's going to take at least 30 seconds per press sheet for it to do its thing, and with anything complex, that'll be more like 60 - 90 seconds per press sheet.

If we had the space, I'd probably go with one of the flatbed models offered by Intec, Duplo, Graphic Whizard, etc., since as another user mentioned, it holds down press sheets with a vacuum which prevents some of the issues found on the SC5000. No matter which style you choose though, these machines have matured a lot and they're ridiculously accurate and convenient for shorter runs of shaped goods.

have you tried cutting business cards on it?

at some point we intend to get a cutter to do business cards in-house, but we're not talking big volume so I'd also like to have some flexibility to try out other short run cutting tasks.

this machine is not much more RRP than some of the dedicated business card cutters that i was looking at, but appears to have a lot more flexibility to try out other tasks.

 

[criccidisk]

have you tried cutting business cards on it?

at some point we intend to get a cutter to do business cards in-house, but we're not talking big volume so I'd also like to have some flexibility to try out other short run cutting tasks.

this machine is not much more RRP than some of the dedicated business card cutters that i was looking at, but appears to have a lot more flexibility to try out other tasks.

Hi @bcr , if you're aiming to do primarily square or rectangle cards, then I think a dedicated business card slitting system would be the way to go (or a used Challenge or Baum guillotine). You can definitely cut business cards on it, but you'll most likely find that the edges will be a tad rough compared to a traditional guillotine blade or slitter since it's using a dragging knife to perform its tasks. It'll also be notably slower. With my model (the SC5000, now the SC6000), you'd most likely need to have generous gutters around the press sheet as well so the machine rollers don't compromise the stability of the press sheet as more items are cut out of it. In that instance, a flatbed model such as Intec's FB9000 or Duplo/Graphic Whizard's equivalents would probably be the way to go since a vacuum holds the sheet in place without the need for feed/exit rollers stirring up the press sheet.

I definitely don't mean for that to sound doom-and-gloom though--it's still a great machine. In fact, we just purchased a second one. We just happen to have the benefit of having a guillotine cutter, drill, and corner rounding machine that we can pair with this device to get creative in best-use-case-scenarios.

 

[bcr]

Hi @bcr , if you're aiming to do primarily square or rectangle cards, then I think a dedicated business card slitting system would be the way to go (or a used Challenge or Baum guillotine). You can definitely cut business cards on it, but you'll most likely find that the edges will be a tad rough compared to a traditional guillotine blade or slitter since it's using a dragging knife to perform its tasks. It'll also be notably slower. With my model (the SC5000, now the SC6000), you'd most likely need to have generous gutters around the press sheet as well so the machine rollers don't compromise the stability of the press sheet as more items are cut out of it. In that instance, a flatbed model such as Intec's FB9000 or Duplo/Graphic Whizard's equivalents would probably be the way to go since a vacuum holds the sheet in place without the need for feed/exit rollers stirring up the press sheet.

I definitely don't mean for that to sound doom-and-gloom though--it's still a great machine. In fact, we just purchased a second one. We just happen to have the benefit of having a guillotine cutter, drill, and corner rounding machine that we can pair with this device to get creative in best-use-case-scenarios.

good to know, thanks for the feedback. we have a fairly basic Ideal Guillotine, but i have zero interest in manually cutting the cards on a guillotine.

Will give a dedicated business card cutter a go at some point and might try to also get a die cutter at the same time for experimentation.

 

[jwheeler]

good to know, thanks for the feedback. we have a fairly basic Ideal Guillotine, but i have zero interest in manually cutting the cards on a guillotine.

Will give a dedicated business card cutter a go at some point and might try to also get a die cutter at the same time for experimentation.

I would recommend a slitter/cutter/creaser/perfer instead of just a business card cutter. It won't cost too much more, and you'll be able to do a lot more with it. A popular one is the Duplo 618. This will chew through cutting business cards all day. You can run your jobs 24up on a 12x18 to save on clicks. The beauty of these machines is they can also perf and/or crease while cutting at the same time and run virtually unattended. Other models to consider would be the MBM AeroCut X or the Graphic Whizard Line. The Graphic Whizard are more of the budget line but will still do the trick.

One thing to be aware of with these sheet fed cutters is they don't work well with lighter weight stocks. We have found that 100# Gloss text is about the lightest media that will run without wrapping up in the rollers.

 

[bcr]

I would recommend a slitter/cutter/creaser/perfer instead of just a business card cutter. It won't cost too much more, and you'll be able to do a lot more with it. A popular one is the Duplo 618. This will chew through cutting business cards all day. You can run your jobs 24up on a 12x18 to save on clicks. The beauty of these machines is they can also perf and/or crease while cutting at the same time and run virtually unattended. Other models to consider would be the MBM AeroCut X or the Graphic Whizard Line. The Graphic Whizard are more of the budget line but will still do the trick.

One thing to be aware of with these sheet fed cutters is they don't work well with lighter weight stocks. We have found that 100# Gloss text is about the lightest media that will run without wrapping up in the rollers.

thanks for the feedback, jwheeler, that's very helpful, i'll bear that in mind.