Sorry Dave,
I never saw this post to me for some reason...I decided to do a followup on what we decided to do, and saw your question about if it would be more efficient to get a print/cut machine.
The answer is yes and no...for us it's mainly no. We already have a large format (54") Roland printer that we are doing aqueous pigment printing with. We just bought a 65" laminator to use with this and other things around the shop. Our goal was to be able to print, laminate and cut. Because of the laminating step, it really makes no difference if you have a print and cut machine, or if your printer is seperate from your cutter. The biggest advantage of having seperate units is that you can run both at once. Otherwise one is tied up while you are doing the other.
We chose to purchase the 54" Graphtec plotter that I was asking about, and so far I am very impressed. Within a week I was doing exactly what I wanted to, namely printing, laminating, and then cutting in register. The registration capabilities have been impressive....We needed it to be very accurate for the first job that we tackled, and it was.
I had an opportunity to land a job that would pay for the piece of equipment on the first run....I took it and so far it's been a great machine. Now the trick is to find more jobs like that first one :)
Brian G.
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