Thoughts on Computerized Mat cutters?

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KathleenZ

Grumbler in Training
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Feb 2, 2018
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Portland, OR
We have an old eclipse mat cutter from back before wizard bought eclipse that's been giving us a lot of problems. AKA having to hand set the blade every time for 8-ply and fabrics mats as in we have to hand pull the blade further out of it's holder every time.

I'm curious about people's opinions between Valiani's and Wizards? There seems to be a huge price difference. Is there a good reason for that difference?
 
KathleenZ said:
We have an old eclipse mat cutter from back before wizard bought eclipse that's been giving us a lot of problems. AKA having to hand set the blade every time for 8-ply and fabrics mats as in we have to hand pull the blade further out of it's holder every time.

I'm curious about people's opinions between Valiani's and Wizards? There seems to be a huge price difference. Is there a good reason for that difference?
Click to expand...

Welcome to the Grumble, Kathleen.
We have a Wizard 9000 now and we had a Wizard 8000 previously.
I've been framing for 48 years now so I've seen a lot.

I remember when we had the old hand crank mat cutters and we wrote up the customer orders on stone tablets....:rolleyes:

A lot of this can depend on the volume and type of framing that you're doing.
I have not used a Valiani, but it may be the Mercedes of CMC mat cutters.
The Wizard is probably the Chevy or Cadillac of mat cutters and it still does a great job.

There are also a number of used CMC mat cutters available at good prices.
You have to look at your situation and decide what fits your jobs.
 
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I totally agree with Neil about the Valiani being the Mercedes - I actually believe it to be the Rolls Royce compared to the Chevy Wizard (I'm not a Chevy fan). Check them both out. I started with the Eclipse which I think was a fantastic machine - to bad Wizard bought them out because I believe Eclipse could have been the best CMC in the business with modern updating. I checked out Wizard and wasn't impressed at all - I checked Gunner and was impressed except for the price, I check out Valiani and found it to actually do what both Wizard and Gunnar can do and the price wasn't that much more than the Wizard 9000. Wizard 9000 also didn't impress me.

Like what Neil said, check them both out an purchase the one that best fits your needs. I have a Valiani and in the 5 years I have had it I have yet to have my 1st mechanical issue - it's a great machine and does as much and more than Wizard but that's my opinion.
 
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I've had two CMCs. The first was a Fletcher-Terry F6100, from about 1998 to 2007. A frame shop in a nearby town bought it and still uses it daily, I believe.

In 2007 I bought a nearly-new Valiani MatPro 150ix show-demo machine, and nearly all of the available options. The MatStylus drawing tools were added when they were introduced, and the V Studio software has been updated several times. In all of these 11 years, I have had only to replace the head rollers - recommended as a maintenance item for about $15 each - and one servo-motor, which arrived overnight for about $350. Everything still works perfectly.

If I were shopping for a CMC today, I would buy a new Valiani with the latest features, such as a vacuum table.

It is curious that your survey did not include Gunnar, which would be my second choice.
 
So, you're saying that your bladeholder doesn't have a white nylon block behind the base of the blade that moves left or right depending whether you want to cut 2 ply, 4 ply or 8 ply? There is also a screw at the back end of the holder that adjusts how deep the blade extends from the holder.

I have one of those old Eclipse cutters and that is what is on mine for adjusting the blade.

What other problem/shortcomings does your machine have that would make you consider spending many thousands of dollars for another machine?
 
framah said:
So, you're saying that your bladeholder doesn't have a white nylon block behind the base of the blade that moves left or right depending whether you want to cut 2 ply, 4 ply or 8 ply? There is also a screw at the back end of the holder that adjusts how deep the blade extends from the holder.

I have one of those old Eclipse cutters and that is what is on mine for adjusting the blade.

What other problem/shortcomings does your machine have that would make you consider spending many thousands of dollars for another machine?
Click to expand...

It does have that block and we've tried adjusting the screw neither actually fixes the problem. The other side of it is the operating system is very antiquated and not user friendly.
 
As to what we do at the shop there's a lot of specialized sports framing that happens so we really use all of our specialty corners. We do tons of plaques and commercial framing so I was drooling over the money the embossing head on a valiani could save us. We tend to do pretty high end work with galleries and Interior designers on the other end of our business so we do fairly complicated mat designs with a lot of fabric and specialty mats.
 
Personally, no matter which cutter you go for, as you know, it will pay for itself in no time... especially for the work you do! If I was to need a new cutter, i'd go for the Valiani.
 
it's been a while (9 years) since i used a Valiani, but i remember thinking at the time "This is awesome! I just wish the software was as good as Wizard..." Not sure what the most recent Valiani software is like but they seemed to have better hardware while Wizard software seemed more intuitive to me.
 
I have had a Wizard 5000, 8500 , now a 9000 since it was introduced very very happy. The depth blade setting is way easy. The Debossing very easy, the Pen tool works great. I also have the vinyl cutter(so cool) and the box making attachment. Software easy to learn and very versatile.
I do a lot of special design work and also do some quantity work of cutting 100 to 300 mats at a time.
I have only had one major problem with my cutters. It was a driverpack which Wizard sent a replacement for overnight.
I did not see it but I hear the new model has some nice features.
 
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