Any Gunnar Users?

[Grahame Case]

anyone able to give me an honest opinion of the reliability and build quality of the Gunnar CMC's?

[Spit]

I think Ormond's the guy to speak to, I've only had one six months - however, I will say that I'm perfectly happy with the build quality. After I figured out how to fine tune the configuration, it does its job perfectly, time after time, no further adjustments have been needed. You should be ok, the engineers should do all that when you get one, mine was second-hand.

[Moglet]

Anything that Gunnar users wish that their machine could do/do better? Anything that you don't like about using the machine?

[Spit]

My only problems with it are very minor software issues (most users seem to be happy with it as it is), the main thing it could do better is to allow designing within the program, rather than having to do it in corel, which of course requires a licence and isn't cheap. Having said all that, I don't think any other makes do it much differently.

If they were to ask me what I'd really like in the program, it would be a virtual machine so I can try things out without using real mountboards. Sometimes when you do a design, it doesn't cut as expected, usually because you've left an unneccesary point or a line hidden behind another, or cuts too close together (user errors!) A virtual machine would allow you to experiment more without waste. It'd be a great training tool too!

I don't ask for a lot do I?

[osgood]

anyone able to give me an honest opinion of the reliability and build quality of the Gunnar CMC's?

Grahame,
My Gunnar Rapido is extremely reliable. I have had it for about seven years and it was several years old when I bought it. A framer in Brisbane was upgrading to a larger model so I bought theirs second hand.

The Rapido is old technology now, but it is a great workhorse and is used almost every day. I expect that this machine will outlive me and I can't fault it's quality.

The newer machines have a number of improvements, as you would expect, and some of them I would prefer to have, but I really don't 'need' to upgrade.

Steve has said that he wishes that Corel Draw did not have to be used to draw specific designs. I think I have only done that two or three times in seven years so for me it's no great issue and I can drive Corel draw if I need to anyway. Every CMC user will develop a wish list just like every car driver will develop a wish list. No brand of CMC has everything in it's software that everyone wants!

Just about everyone who is thinking about getting a CMC thinks too much about the bells and whistles. How great it would be to make fancy shapes and they wonder how many Batman and Robin shaped mats they will sell every day and how that will make them fourteen umptabajillion dollars or quid every week.

In the real world, 99.8% of the mats you cut will be rectangles plus a few circles or ovals. The Gunnar software has many pages of fancy corners available to use. They are all configurable and you can combine several of them to make other shapes. There is no shortage of wonderful shapes to use on the few occasions you will need them.

In your country, I'm not sure what the initial instruction consists of but down here it is two days of personal instruction by a Gunnar technician. My machine was second hand and I got the same instruction as if it had been a new machine.

From my experience I would highly recommend Gunnar. The backup from the supplier is excellent. This is very important when you need to ask a question.

[Jared Davis CPF, GCF]

Hey Spit -

I have a handy idea regarding a "Virtual Machine" alternative, which you can use on any CMC.

Remove the blade and hit "cut". ....... If all goes to plan, and behaves as expected, put the blade back in and hit cut again? I do this a bit when I am importing very elaborate designs from Corel Draw, and I want to see if I have missed any hidden "doubled up" openings or tight shapes.

For example:



This simple method reduces a few broken blades & wasted mat offcuts - but I still need to test "real" cuts as well.

Cheers,

Jared

[Spit]

Jared, good idea and I'll use it. I just think it'd be nice to do tests sitting on the sofa in front of a warm fire when I'm playing with shapes in the evening at home (I'm always at my most creative in the evening) Imports from a linux-based drawing program would be nice too - they're free to use Actually, I'll take a look and see if there's one that already exports to a suitable format and report back - there's quite a few. Some have windows versions too.

By the way your designs are excellent - one day I hope to produce something to rival that.

[Lemon_Drop]

I got a Gunnar also, it was bought new about 2 years ago. It arrived on a Friday and was left unopened until Monday when Sarah from Gunnar arrived, she set up the cmc, installed the software on the computer, registered it, and checked to see if it was cutting ok.

All I have done in the last 2 years is change the blades.

Oh! and installed software updates fron the Gunnar site, plus some templates that Jared emailed me.

As for Aine's post, Is there anything I dont like about the cmc ,or wish it could do things better. I honestly cant think of anything at all.

Take a look at Jared's website http://www.jared-davis.com/jareds_mat_designs.htm

Like Ormond said the most mounts are rectangle, and if it can cut the ones on the website, rectangles are a piece of cake.

So Grahame,
Gunnar came to Ireland, set up the cmc, and I did nothing to it in the last 2 years and it cuts like the first day I got it. I cant complain.

One important thing also, the backup service is excellent.

[Grahame Case]

i have to admit, all this is very encouraging,

Sarah is coming up to have a chat with us next week, she is doing an install near by, and the week after we'll be down in Cornwall having a look at the Valiani and Wizard - if all goes to plan... then it'll be Spring Fair!

i know the Gunnar 601 would probably be my first choice at present but £18,000 is a little bit of an outlay

[Spit]

Alternatives to Corel: Open office draw (linux and windows) and Karbon14 (linux only) both export to WMF format and appear in SP32 via the clipboard - I'll try out a few shapes tomorrow and see how they cut.

[Jared Davis CPF, GCF]

Hey John,

Let me know how open office draw goes - that might be cool.

Here's a new design I just finished, which no one has seen yet

It looks awesome full sized...



Cheers,

Jared

[Grahame Case]

awesome Jared, simply awesome...

is it possible to convert say a photograph into a multi layer mat apperture template. if it was simple enough?

[Jared Davis CPF, GCF]

Possible, yes.... but the photo needs to be "just right".

The procedure is not simple, and has taken me a while to work things out using a combination of photoshop and corel draw.

As you can imagine, these take a bit of time to create, and all up, something like this might take me about 5-8 hours - depending... I would have to say mastering corel draw, and having an intimate knowledge of "what will work, and what doesn't" is the key to making this stuff possible...

Cheers,

Jared

[osgood]

awesome Jared

Yes, I agree that Jared is awesome and his CMC designs are awesome too!

[Moglet]

I would have to say mastering corel draw, and having an intimate knowledge of "what will work, and what doesn't" is the key to making this stuff possible...

Hi Jared,

As a highly experienced Corel Draw user, I have the greatest respect for your skill with the package! And the fact that you are creating these images on a CMC just blows me away!

Much as I would love to invest in a CMC, I've decided to go for a mortgage first (been living out of boxes for 5 years since I sold my beloved Wiltshire cottage to move back home to Ireland, and I'm now very weary from the situation...). Your inspiring work makes my need for financial prioritisation all the more frustrating!

[Ian Goodman]

Too add just a little bit more.

This applies for any cmc not just a Gunnar.

If you have a reliable 240volt or less supply then this does not apply to you.

But if you have an unreliable 240v or less supply then read on.

Something that has not been covered is the fact that even if you think you have a reliable power supply to your cmc then you may be wrong.

What you need is a UPS or Unintrruptable Power Supply connected to the PC that talks to your CMc as well as the CMC itself so the UPS needs to be the type that can handle both.

The way that a UPS works is that it detects when the power fails and the batteries inside the UPS then are used to convert 12v dc to the AC voltage that you require.
That is the theory but in actual fact the UPS does a 240vac - 12v dc - 240Volt ac in Australia whist ever the commercial power is available.

This is the insurance you need to avoid the costly replacement of the Controller in your CMC, I know all about this, try cutting matts on a manual matt cutter after you have been using a CMC for nearly 3 years, not much fun.

As far as the Gunnar 601 is concerned it is a very good machine.

The only thing I don't like about it is that the software is a bit clunky and the software updates are not labelled so you don't know which software you are downloading until you load it up.

And because I am not a Corel Draw expert is does restrict my creativity a bit.

Hope this info helps.

[Spit]

Well, I did this in less than an hour using Open Office - just a quick sketch out, no fine tuning of the points, export to WMF and cut. Some of the bits needed teasing out, but it worked. With a bit more experience with it will get better.

Guess who?

[John]

Nice work Steve.

Is that white on black, or black on white?

[Spit]

Single sheet of black on white counter!

Edit: Nose bits are cutouts and have to be placed!

[Merlin]

Steve
What part of Open Office did you do the sketch ?

Did you then transfer it as a WMF file?

So many questions now......