All about Vinyl Cutters / Plotters

Welcome to our series of articles and reviews on computer controlled vinyl cutters or plotters.  Vinyl cutters are essential machines for anyone in the sign business.  These machines are controlled by a computer or laptop and utilize a small blade to cut the vinyl part of a vinyl roll and not the paper backing.  This allows the sign maker to weed out or remove all the vinyl that will not be on a sign and leave the rest.  They then transfer tape the part they want to use, peel it off the wax backing or release liner, and transfer it over to the sign, window, vehicle, etc..

You can easily earn $50 per hour or more operating a vinyl cutter.  Here is an example of how you would do that.  Lets say someone wants a 3 x 8 basic banner.  The banner will cost around $20 and the vinyl will cost around $5.  It will take about one hour to make which will include design.  Once completed, the banner will sell for about $120.  Your profit is going to be about $95.  Which is equal to $95 per hour.

If you made banners and basic signs all day long and worked 5 days a week you would make around $104,000 per year at $50 per hour or $197,600 at $95 per hour.  Out of this would come your shop expenses but no matter how you calculate it, you can make a lot of money with a vinyl cutter.