Xenetech Rotary machines?

[steph brown]

Hi, I'm currently using an Epilog Helix 24 45 watt Laser and a Roland EXG-300 rotary at my engraving shop. The laser is the main producer, but I use the rotary regularly for metal plates and metal goodies like knives... I have an opportunity to pick up a couple of Xenetech rotary machines, but I'm not sure where they'd fit with my current setup. The 9x12 would be equivalent to the Roland, but the guy says the little xenetech fritzes out now and then. The other is a 16x25 Xenetech, which would allow larger rotary jobs, but I seem to have read on SMC about issues with software and computer compatibility. I don't really have shop space for more computers, and would prefer to run all the engravers from a single terminal. I have Engravelab and Corel, both of which work fine for all my engravers.

I've been trying to switch all my clients up to laser products from rotary products, since it's faster and easier and gives more consistent results, but do hit certain roadblocks with surfaces that need the drag or rotary treatment. So I need to keep rotary available, just not sure how much I really need.

So I'd love to hear your opinions and experiences with Xenetech's rotaries and find out what I should know about their software. Thanks in advance~

Stephanie
Oregon

[Bill Overturf]

One big thing you need to look into before you even consider purchasing these machines is whether or not it has been upgraded to the Viper system. If it has not then you have to run them from very old PC's that still have ISA slots and those are getting really hard to come by. And if I am not mistaken you have to use the Xenetech software but I could be wrong. Message Roy Brewer he is a member here and can give you all the info and advice you could ever need on Xenetech

[Scott Shepherd]

They are very well built machines. Like Bill said, it would depend on whether or not they had the Viper electronics package. If not, then you are stuck in Windows 95/98 land. If not, then you won't be using anything other than the Xenetech software, I don't believe. If they have the Viper electronics, you might be in good shape. We were told it was $6,000 to upgrade to the viper package, and the new machine was $10,000, so for us, it didn't make sense to update an old machine when a new one wasn't much more.

The "fritzing out" you mentioned probably means it's the old electronics package. There were bugs in it and they abandoned support for it, so instead of fixing the bugs, they just put their money into their new product and left people like us out to dry. I've watched it engrave for 45 minutes straight and on the last cut, go crazy and destroy the item being engraved. They openly said "it's a bug and it's not going to be addressed, you need to upgrade to the Viper package".

[steph brown]

Wow, good food for thought. Demonstration coming tomorrow, I'll write when I know more! Thanks