Choosing and Using a Fabric Cutter

Learn what cutters can do for your business and how to pick the right one for your shop's needs.
June 01, 2007

In today's do-it-yourself society, where customers flock to home improvement retailers rather than pay contractors to do the work for them, it's no wonder that fabric cutters are so popular in the decorated apparel industry. These inexpensive, yet versatile, devices let decorators cut their own appliqué pieces instead of buying precut pieces. Once you own a fabric cutter, you can always say "yes" to your customer, no matter what the potential job calls for, and make a profit on every job.

While embroiderers and sporting goods stores are some of the most frequent users of fabric cutters, the equipment actually makes sense for all types of decorators. It allows you to create custom appliqué pieces — including names and numbers for athletic uniforms, corporate wear, spiritwear and Greekwear — as well as offer small runs with fast turnaround profitably. That's an important point: If a customer only wants three embellished jackets — an order that may yield a high profit margin — using a contract cutter service may not be a viable option because the minimum will be at least 10 pieces plus art, set-up and digitizing fees.

In addition, it's just cheaper to do it yourself. A one-color appliqué piece might cost anywhere from $1.50 to $2.50, depending on its size, whereas you could cut that same piece yourself for 60 to 90 cents. True, there's an upfront investment in the cutter and you need an employee to run the machine. You'll also want to factor in the cost of paying someone to weed each piece as it comes off the cutter. (Once the fabric is cut, the individual letters or pieces need to be lifted from the sheet material, which is the process referred to as weeding.) But the investment is a relatively small one, especially in light of the benefits a fabric cutter offers. In fact, you can lease a cutter for as little as $20 to $40 a month, depending on the agreement's length.

Are You Ready?

Some startup embroiderers delay getting a fabric cutter, figuring that if they're just learning how to embroider, it makes sense to master stitching first and rely on third-party vendors for appliqué pieces in the meantime. Eventually, though, shop owners reach a point where they're ordering more precut appliqué pieces, and it becomes apparent that it's time to bring the process in-house.

However, even if you're a startup shop, you can make the leap and start using a fabric cutter right away, as long as you're already familiar with creating artwork. Essentially, a fabric cutter is like a printer in that your computer feeds it instructions and tells it what to do. Most decorators use graphics software such as Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw — both of which are vector-based programs — to handle artwork for cutters. The equipment "sees" and cuts these vector lines. It cannot handle bitmap images (JPEGs, for instance).

Speaking of computers, when you start shopping, let your cutter vendor know whether you use a PC or Macintosh computer platform. While some cutters are cross-platform, most are PC only.

Cutter Types

You can choose from either a roll-fed cutter or a sheet-fed unit, also known as a flatbed. (A wide range of sizes and models is available, but this article focuses on the most popular types used for appliqué fabric cutting.) Flatbeds come in 16" x 20" and 18" x 30" sizes, while the most popular size for roll-fed cutters is 24 inches.

A roll-fed cutter lets you feed continuous rolls of material, making it ideal for repeat jobs and small runs. That's because you don't have to constantly refill the cutter with material. It can accommodate rolls of fabric up to 50 yards. However, most roll-fed models don't have as much cutting force as sheet-fed units, generally maxing out at 200 to 250 grams of force. They're really built for cutting film and vinyl, not fabric.

Flatbed cutters, on the other hand, have a physical head three times the size of a roll-fed unit's head, making them beefier and better suited for cutting fabric. Also, flatbed cutters can handle heavier materials such as felt, which is a popular look on sweat shirts (think Abercrombie & Fitch).

If you are going to do regular fabric cutting and not just the occasional job, look for a machine with as many as 400 grams of force. More force means greater flexibility and a more durable, long-lasting machine. Roll-fed cutters that have around 200 grams of force can cut twill fabric, but the twill must have a backing called a carrier sheet. However, if you require your roll-fed cutter to cut twill all day long, you may soon find it malfunctioning because it is not designed to do this.

Also, whether you choose a flatbed or roll-fed cutter, you'll need blades, which sell for about $16 to $22 each and generally come in packs of five. If you're cutting film or vinyl, a blade might last six months, whereas you could burn through one in a few weeks if you're cutting 100 twill logos a day. However, just factor in a penny or two per logo on your pricing and your costs will be more than covered.

Preparing Fabric for Cutting

If you use a woven fabric — generally something other than twill, acrylic, wool felts or some suedes, such as material that you purchase from a local fabric store — it won't come with an adhesive backing. In that case, you'll need to apply adhesive and a carrier sheet for use in a roll-fed cutter. The point here is to give the fabric stability. If it moves, your cut's registration will be off. For use with a flatbed cutter, the fabric only needs an adhesive backing.

To prepare fabric for cutting, first, apply adhesive to it. Vendors offer thermal adhesive by the yard that you can heat press or iron onto fabric in just a few seconds, and then peel away the paper backing. Thermal adhesive comes on a 27-inch-wide roll and is sold by the yard. One application method is to spread the fabric on the table, place the sheet over it and use a hand iron. Or, you can cut the fabric into smaller pieces, apply small pieces of the thermal adhesive sheets and use a heat press.

If you are using a roll-fed cutter, peel off the paper backing from the adhesive once it is heated onto the fabric, and lay a tacky, pressure-sensitive Mylar carrier sheet on top of the adhesive. The tacky adhesive on the Mylar carrier sheet allows the fabric to stick to Mylar so you have a sandwich of material that can be cut. Even though this sheet isn't on a roll, you can feed it into your roll-fed cutter. The excess just hangs down until it's taken up by the equipment's tractor feeders to be cut. The adhesive, combined with the carrier sheet, gives the fabric stability so that it can be fed through the cutter. It also gives something for the cut piece to hold onto after it's cut. Then, you weed it, just as you would any CAD-cut, vinyl or other material fed through a cutter.

Meanwhile, hoop your garment and, using your sew-out disk or digitized file, sew the shape's outline onto the garment. (If you don't have software to create a cut-and-sew disk, you can scan the shape you want to cut and use that as a template to digitize from.) Position the weeded design on the garment using the stitch outline as a guide. You can use adhesive spray to hold the appliqué in place.

The Ioline 300, a popular sheet-fed cutter, comes with software that matches the cut file automatically. Roll-fed cutters require you to create your own sew disk. Software packages to create a sew disk range from around $900 up to $10,000 (for a full digitizing software package) and have a learning curve.

Going Shopping

When you're ready to purchase a fabric cutter, expect to spend up to $6,995 for a quality sheet-fed unit. Industrial-level machines are available for $20,000 or more, but they're designed for high-volume decorators. Roll-fed cutters start at around $1,700 to $1,900.

As you're shopping, find out what kind of support you'll get after the sale. For instance, does the vendor offer phone support only, or will he send a technician to your shop? Does the vendor have online tutorials? Also, find out the length of the warranty and what it covers.

The bottom line is the same as with almost any purchase: Don't sacrifice quality to save a few bucks. It makes much more sense to spend extra dollars to get a quality machine from a vendor who offers solid support for years to come.

Terry Wagner is the national sales manager for Stahls' and has been with the company for nearly two decades. He can be reached at 1-800-478-2457, or by e-mail at terry.wagner@stahls.com.