Duplo vs Aerocut vs Graphic Wizard 

Thank you for doing this. I am getting a massive education from what you are posting.

I would avoid anything bottom-feed like a Rosback (they’re fast, but double feeds are a big issue, and forget about scoring anything you print digitally on it). We also had a Graphic Wizard creaser/perfer (no cutting) some years ago…it was pretty versatile, but was bottom-fed and we struggled keeping it running. It looks like the Graphic Wizard you’re looking at feeds from the top of the stack, so hopefully it would run better. I think I agree with you that the Duplo would be the way to go as it’s a known quantity for you. Personally, we replaced our Wizard with a duplo creaser/perfer, which is basically the toyota corolla of that kind of machine. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of other machines, but boy does it run, and is much faster than the versions with added cutting/slitting capabilities. We pair it with a nice programmable guillotine cutter, so hence we didn’t really need the cutting/slitting. From the best I can tell, we do a lot more paper-based stuff than you do, though, so we need something fairly versatile that can really get through a high volume of paper. However, have you thought about just getting a creaser and pairing that with a nice programmable guillotine? Boggs equipment often has some pretty good used ones that come up, and that would be a fraction of the cost you’re looking at. Just make sure you get side tables with it and that it has good clamping pressure if you go that route. Hope this long-winded post is of some help. :)

Great review of equipment that’s often compared. Good job at staying objective, as usual.

I keep looking at the cutter/slitter/scorer contraptions and the price of them always stops me before I get too far along that thought train (we are small … growing, but still very small). Scoring, cutting, perfing … all services that we don't charge a ton for (probably barely covering costs, but they help us sell things that do have a higher profit margin) and, based only on the charge-per-service front, it would take a 10+ years to recoup the cost of the machine. We have a 50 year old guillotine and a manual scorer … both functional, but time consuming. Paying an employee to do all those things is EXPENSIVE (minimum wage here is $16.28) and wages add up (my single does many other things - but a finishing bottleneck causes us to miss jobs due to capacity, so considering adding a part-timer). What I'm hoping for is not an answer to this one issue but guidance (books? videos? podcasts? words of wisdom? mountain top retreats? mystical gurus?) on how to work through this type of business decision. It is definitely a place my printer shop-fu is lacking.

I'd also take a look at the MBM 5560 hydraulic cutter. We got it about 6 months ago and it is absolutely awesome! The price is much better too at around 21k. It is programmable and also has a software called VR CUT, that I don't use, that is helpful for new people. Ps I saw you at the show, but you were filming, so I didn't want to interrupt 😊

service is huge - these bigger better machines will go down.