Lookie what I dug out!

[Brian Leavitt]

I'm sure some of you have used one of these. I forgot we still had it. We used to have several at the shop. I just dug it out and brought it home today. I still have all of the attachments and everything. I think I'm going to play with it in the garage. If for nothing else other than nostalgia.
http://i.imgur.com/oJb2i1el.jpg

[David Somers]

Careful Brian! You might play with it and get spoiled and end up abandoning the lasers!!!!! <grin>

[Kev Williams]

Is that an ITX? I forget all the NH letters ;) -- Just got rid of my last NH IRX-IV earlier this year. Had one like yours in a table-top version, a friend of mine bought it from me over 20 years ago, he still has it. Before our first C2000 in '81 we had the ITX, four IRX-IV's, dad's original Scripta 3D machine, a 1940's Gorton 3U deep-throat and a Gorton P1-2 we bought new in '75. There's still pieces of all of 'em kicking around this basement!

They had their moment and made us money in the old days. But I don't miss 'em a bit ;)

[Brian Leavitt]

David - That's why I took it home. I'm afraid if I left it at the shop, where all the money making happens, it would end up replacing all of our equipment -- including the sublimation equipment! ;)

Kev - I don't remember which one it is. I'll have to look at it when I get home. Yesterday we just dumped it in the garage and then I got back to work on my Chinese laser. We kind of followed the same path as you. We got our first C2000 in the 80's and before too long we had three more. They replaced all of the manual machines we had and we never looked back. The C2000 is a great engraver, in my opinion. We still use the same four machines every day and they just keep on truckin'. We've hardly had to replace any parts on them and they keep up just fine with the newer machines out there.

We have a sea container outside in back of the shop where we store all of our junk. There was this machine, 2 Meistergrams, a Dahlgren Wizzard 2000, Epson C86 and 4800 "sublimation" printers, couple of heat presses, a little mini screen printing dryer for hats, pad printing equipment, probably 20 filing cabinets, and a bunch of Christmas decorations in there as well. :eek:

[Tony Lenkic]

Brian,

That looks to be GTXU machine....top of the line in that category.
I have a similar one in my basement TX model also floor standing.

[Merritt Conner]

Why get rid of the other lasers? Swap out the spindle with a small solid state laser and put it back to work with the others. Something to be said about getting back to the "hands on" feel. ;)

[Brian Leavitt]

Merritt you got my gears spinning now! What a weird machine that would be.

I do think it's the GTX-U.

[Merritt Conner]

It is a weekend.;) Throw in a dead man switch and a foot power feed, and you have a new art form.

[Kev Williams]

What a b***h lining up the mirrors will be... ;)
-- guess it'll have to be a fiber :D

But seriously folks-- I've been giving serious consideration to buying a hand-held fiber, and mounting the mirror/lens head to the 5000XT sitting next to me...
It has an adjustable spindle head that would allow me to fit, focus and galvo-engrave parts up to 30" long, unlimited height, almost 5" tall. Think large operator panels :)

Yeah, like I got time for that... :rolleyes:

[Merritt Conner]

Ok, the idea has been brewing over night, dangit I had work to do today. Two options, SS laser that mounts and moves like the spindle (think JT Photonics). Other, fix the laser (co2, fiber, ss) and have the work surface move under the laser (all mirrors would be fixed).... Oh how we digress.

[Rodne Gold]

We still use our Gravograph TX3 panto for cup engraving and to match historic engraving styles on silverware .. curved surfaces....

[Brian Leavitt]

We still use our Gravograph TX3 panto for cup engraving and to match historic engraving styles on silverware .. curved surfaces....
That's good service, Rodne. We do all of the odd shaped bit, cups, bowls, knives, etc. on the Signature machine now. The fonts in that machine are typically very close to older manual panto typefaces.