Investing in a Wide Format Printer & Plotter For My Small Business! | Plannerface 

Thank you so much!! I am glad it came together haha!

Thank you!! Yesss 100% it’s been such a turbulent few weeks 😂🥲

Thank you so much Heather!!

Thank you! I'm glad I can share it with you all!

Thank you so much!

Thank you! Hahaha it's gonna be so weird not seeing the Silhouettes anymore but I am excited!! :D

Hahaha we underestimated it so much 😂

I'm glad you enjoyed! It's so intimidating isn't it, let me know how you get on if you go that route! XX

Thank you! 🤗

Thanks Liselotte!!

Oooh good idea I will get some footage of it going! :D

right?! I didn't really realise how big it actually is til I edited the clips of me stood in front of it hahaha I know I am short but it's huuuuge

With lots of junk in the trunk 😂

Thank you!!

Thank you for watching! I'm so glad you found it helpful - the printer is amazing!

Haha I was quite ruthless 😂 I’m really impressed with the removability!! Hahaha aren’t they!!

Figured I would update here for other people surfing for a cutter/printer combo. I am in the process of returning my 24" wide Graphtec due to tension issues of the media between the lonely 2 rollers. Even chatted with Anna to see if maybe her settings would get me closer but nothing I can do seems to work. The new printer (newer version to what she bought) however is a dreamboat and I'm excited to work more with it in the coming months!!

Ahhh thank you so much! I love your channel - so informative!

Thank you so much!! I’ll time it for you and update in this weeks vlog. You have a lot more speed options to pick on the graphtec but I am actually still cutting reasonably slowly so I have accurate sharp corners etc. Will explain more in the vlog!

They do! Once you start looking for wide format media there's sooo many options and you can also have custom rolls manufactured. I found an off the shelf one I love but am going to look into the custom rolls too. Search for wide format roll media, stuff like that should come up!

Thank you. Just on Google - if you search something like "matt white self adhesive media on rolls" or whatever describes what you need you'll find some stuff! Be careful with what kind of printer they are for though - mine is aqueous and I had to weed through a lot of results that were for solvent or latex printers which won't work for me. I would recommend just asking suppliers directly if you're stuck!

@@Plannerface thank you so much I am adding all this to my vision board so one day I will get to your level. Thanks for the advice.

Thanks Katherine! So I actually don't use the machines featured in this video anymore (mainly because I couldn't get the cutter to reliably cut the teeny tiny stickers I make with the accuracy I expected) but the cost of the consumables was definitely something I naively assumed I would be able to absorb without much problem. It was significantly more expensive to produce stickers with the wide format kit, ink being the worst part but the roll vinyl was considerably more expensive. When I did my back of an envelope calculations prior to the investment, I hadn't fully considered how much ink/vinyl is wasted due to cleanings (which can be minimised), margins and just human error (of which I had plenty 😅) so my expectations of cost were pretty far off what ended up being the reality. I think if you were producing something like fine art prints (what the printer is really made for), you could stomach the cost/increase prices accordingly as it's a higher ticket item. I ended up selling the machines (not really at a monetary loss thanks to covid supply issues - def at a sanity loss 🤪) and after some time to regroup I went with a Graphtec F-Mark 2 - their automatic feeding cutter. I show it in my more recent videos (I got it in Feb 2023) but I'm able to use it with A4 media (it takes up to SRA3) so I kept my original printers/paper/ink etc. I should probably do a summary video on this, as this video is one of my most popular but it's not clear that I'm no longer using them. Hope this helps a bit, if you'd like to chat more feel free to pop me an email or DM on instagram or something :)

@Plannerface yes I binged a few vids and saw you went to the F-mark 2, and now I need to find more info on that machine. It loading the pages is amazing. That makes sense about the cost of material and inks. I have 2 plotters. I always buy used, because it often comes with extra ink and printheads, whatever the person had left. But you have to test the machine before buying for sure. But by doing that i can often find ink cheaper on eBay on older machines. Both are HP though i dont recommend HP for smaller home office machines. I was going sheet by sheet to print as you can't load a stack, but discovered 1, it's super slow. And 2. Even laminated the prints aren't waterproof. So I switched to laser which even if not laminated are waterproof. I still laminate. So the larger graphtec you found doesn't cut detail as well as your silhouette? That's interesting. There's like a $2100 difference in price I thought it would do amazing. I'm going to head over to insta and follow you. The Ink Shop maybe message regarding a question or two down the line about the f-mark 2 if that's cool? First I'll watch a bunch of videos on it, which may answer any questions that come up.

I would think so! I never tried it but I know it's used in professional settings so I would suspect it would do that no problem!

I purchased from a variety of places and it actually was always the same product lol it was "Xativa Removable Self Adhesive Outdoor Vinyl". In the end I think I stuck with TCS CAD & BIM Solutions. I did set up an account with Sedo Ltd who were able to offer me a discount on a small bulk order but at this time I had moved away from using my wide format printer so didn't proceed! Hope this helps.

I'm not sure, sorry! I would advise looking for wide format forums or groups on Facebook and asking there!

Hi! Yes I am sure they both can, the plotter might need multiple passes but 300GSM would be fine for the printer. :)

@@Plannerface thanks!

of course! I ended up purchasing graphicdesignsupplies.co.uk/product/xativa-removable-self-adhesive-vinyl-roll-80-micron-24-inch-610mm-x-30mt-xrsaov80-24-30/ because I really wanted a removable adhesive option and this was literally the only one I could find, without getting them custom made! I'm in the UK, but if you're overseas there may be more options available!

I have only used self adhesive vinyl so I'm not sure, but I would think it could do invites!

Hello! I don't have it anymore, but when I did I only used vinyl. It can handle a variety of media though, from paper to canvas. It's a really great printer!

@@Plannerface Thank you so much for your time and help 🤗🤗🤝. Just the ink is a bit expensive to be honest 😅 but hopefully can make lots of print with that model :). Thanks again 🤗

of course!! It is really expensive 😭 I really underestimated the cost of ink tbh!

I am not sure on either of those unfortunately! I just got the machines so haven’t timed any bulk jobs

@@Plannerface the machine specs should have it...do you mind sharing the model ... I have operate what supposed to be high end wide format but sometimes the print are grainy

Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-2100 and CE7000. I ended up going with a "fine art" printer because I was concerned about grainy prints

This was a Graphtec CE7000-60, but I have a Graphtec CE7000 F-Mark 2 now!

The printer was about £2000 and plotter around £1800!

I'm on Etsy and Shopify!

​@@Plannerface so awesome! I'm in the car industry but just doing it as a hobby :d is a epson ecotank good for now? That's what I'm using but some papers are bad because the glue residue particles stick on top and bottom when it cut it with a cameo 4. Could you also tell me what program you're using to cut? And print registration marks. I realized my plotter is the exact same as yours I use to cut window tint. It's just rebranded as a vinyl express!

@@dandee28 Oh awesome, that sounds so cool! I've never used Epsons myself but I've heard good things about them from friends. I'm no longer using the Graphtec I showed in this video, but when I was I was cutting with Adobe Illustrator + Cutting Master 4 plug in!