The question never asked

[Robin Lake]

Greetings to all --

I am working hard at completing my "due diligence" before settling on which make and model laser to buy. Done lots of reading, made lots of notes, made up comparison charts, stacking up the glossy sales brochures and samples.

Sometimes, though, it takes some experience to know what questions to ask. Therefore, I have been wondering if, in your experience . . .

. . . Is there something that has come up, hardware, software or service related, since you acquired your laser(s) that you wish you had asked the salesman or rep about before buying? If so, what?

Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year to all.

Robin

[Brent Brod]

I've had no negative issues since I bought my Epilogue. I had a power supply fail, and the part was shipped that day after walking through the diagnosis with the service tech on the phone.

I would encourage you to deal with a distributor that you like. Distributors have a lot of skin the game when it comes to keeping their customers happy, and are often the people that are the experts at understanding what it takes to get past little hitches that can sometimes come up.

[Bruce Volden]

Robin

YES!!! I have 2 LMI 25Watt machines. I am stuck in WIN98 land / hell!!
I wish I would have asked for OS drivers for ~ years to come!! LMI stopped making these machines years ago as everyone on the block was coming out with lasers. I am at present working on a "work around" for this problem, it's just a shame I have to do it myself!


Bruce

[Joe Pelonio]

Robin,

The Epilog service has been outstanding, and there are advantages to having some fairly local support available (Phil in Centralia, WA). When I bought my 24TT I wish I had known that they were working on a new model (helix) with built in vaccum table, I'd have waited. Ask about replacement parts and extended warranty costs to compare, I've heard some tubes are under $1,000 and I know mine would be $2,300. They'll eventually go out.

[Michael McDuffie]

I've had my Epilog Legend 24 since Phil was still based out of California.

Customer service the one time I had to use it (hint hint) was excellent. I'd burned up a motor and they had one out to me next day.

There were some early glitches with the firmware but I've not had a problem since.

If you think you might be doing a lot of precision rotary engraving, check to see if you can test run the machine before you make your decision. In my case due to the drive o rings being a different size than the firmware thinks they are, there is a noticeable difference in what you sent and what you got.

Michael

[Rebecca Leedy]

I don't know if this will help you or not Robin. When we first met with our Epilog sales rep, my first question to him was "What can I do to screw up this machine." In addition to lasering PVC (huge no no) his answer was taking the front panel off and not putting it back right or some benign answer like that. He said, "Other than that..you really can't do much to screw it up."
Well, being one to prove the experts wrong, I have inadvertently made it my mission to screw up my Epilog and haven't done so yet. I actually set fire to it last week trying to vector blue acrylic (which can be done safely..say it with me everyone...AIR ASSIST). I have misfocused and crushed the vector grid, we have had to clean and replace a cracked lens already (we haven't had it 2 months yet.) So my advice to you is, ask that same question to your sales rep and see what their answer is and know that if you get an Epilog, you really can't screw it up no matter how hard you try:o

[Kurt Sallaz]

Hi Robin,

We also did a lot of searching, question asking and personal demonstrations. We ended up with an Epilog Mini 24 45 watt system and are still learning Corel 12 in order to run the laser. In my opinion Epilog has excellent service. Our rep Steve Hovest is doing a great job at training us in Corel. For me- lasering is the easy part, its learning Corel that is the hardest part because its such a huge graphics program. We haven't had our machine in operation all that long so we are still at the :confused: stage. We try to sit down at the puter everyday to practice on Corel. Steve came to our house where we are set up and worked with us for five hours one Saturday afternoon showing us how to do certain things with Corel. One of the things we did was to engrave on a tree branch our begining montra---
"Success is..... a series of glorious defeats..." (Gandhi)
We make art crafts from nature and bought our laser to take it to the next level.
Good Luck,
Kurt Sallaz