Mechanical Engravers.

[Andy Wingfield]

Hello All,
Could I utilize some of your expertise and get your opinion of what company manufacturers the best mechanical engraver.
The companies I am curious about are Xenetech, New Hermes, Newing Hall and Vision Engravers. If I am forgetting a company please tell me.
Best being based on factors such as the following:
#1 Ease of Use
#2 Durability
# 3 Service and customer support
# 4 Price structure.

Regards,

Andy Wingfield

[Scott Shepherd]

How mechanical do you mean? Rotary engraver, or computer controlled Rotary?

If I had to rate them on my experience and travels, I'd say Hermes and Xenetech are well built but their companies are poorly run in my opinion. Both have struggled to maintain a good reputation for making their customers happy.

Never heard a bad word about Newing Hall, and Vision struggled with some issues early, but I think they make a decent machine. I know several people who have them, and their only complaint has ever been with it's limits on the software side. Having said that, all of them are old school people who struggle with computers, and these machines are older. The new one's might be much more Corel-ish friendly than the old ones.

If I had to buy one today, it would be a Newing Hall, and 2nd would be Vision. I'd find another business to be in before I bought another Xenetech. Either that or they could announce "Under New Management" :)

[Keith Outten]

Andy,

I can't help much at this point, i just purchased a used Vision rotary engraver and I am just now at the point of installing the software.

i have to agree with Scott conerning Xenetech, they have great hardware but they are very weak in the software side of the business. I operate a Xenetech Laser Engraver at CNU, the Corel Print Driver has bugs that are terribly frustrating to have to use and after two years it looks like Xenetech has decided not to correct the problem. Unfortunately the software is just as important as the hardware, Xenetech hasn't figured that out yet.

I think that Mike Null owns a Newing Hall machine, he will most likely jump into the conversation shortly and offer his comments.

Scott, the Vectric Aspire software has a processor for the Vision Engraver, I am researching the use of their driver to print from Aspire. If it works it would eliminate the need to use the VisionPro software and the stupid dongle. Got my fingers crossed :)
.

[Mike Null]

Andy

I think we've discussed this before but I have a Newing Hall 350 which is about 15 years old. I bought it nearly two years ago on the recommendation of a very experienced and knowledgeable engraver.

I took it to the factory in Toledo for a complete upgrade and refurbishing. What I have now is essentially a new machine with a two year warranty. It has been flawless except for the occasional operator error. (one of the great features of Newing Hall is that every machine they've ever built can be upgraded to today's technology.)

Buying a brand new version of this machine will take you into laser price territory.

The tech support is awesome.

[Mark Winlund]

Hello All,
Could I utilize some of your expertise and get your opinion of what company manufacturers the best mechanical engraver.

Do you really mean mechanical engraver? Probably the best ever made for industrial use were made by Gorton and Deckel. For commercial use, the New Hermes was at the top of the list.

If you mean CNC rotary and drag engraving, then I would have to disagree with some of the members of the forum and go with Xenetech (at least with their older equipment). Ever since Jay Hoffpauir died, the company has been taken over by a sales droid who has really ticked off a number of people on this forum. It is really unfortunate, because they really had some nice equipment. Xenetech pioneered many of he software functions in common use today.

Mark

[Bob Davis]

We purchased a Vision 1212 back in 1996 and it's been a real workhorse - mainly used for diamond drag engraving on aluminium with the occasional rotary-engraved brass job. Easy to use Cipher software for text and layout, and no compatibility problems - just design a logo in Coreldraw and export as a .plt. It often does a 10 hour day in continuous use and is only now starting to show a bit of play at the tip. I intend to get it serviced early next year after we get through the (rather intense) Christmas rush.
We also have a Roland EGX400 engraver running on Cipher; the Roland software is rubbish. It uses servo motors but is no faster than the Vision.
I don't have any experience with the Newing-Hall or Xenetec machines, but I can fully endorse the Vision 1212 as an excellent all-round machine.

[Hilton Lister]

We have a Vision Max, (3-4 years) which has a vice, a small flat bed and rotary setup for engraving cups and goblet etc.
In all, it appears to be quite sturdy, versatile and reliable. We have the occasional hiccup, nothing that can't be corrected by resetting everything.
Support? Luckily, we haven't had any call so far (touch wood) and seeing we have been using EngraveLab with our old Meistergram, the Vision Pro software is familiar enough (being the same thing). Love to get a Coreldraw driver for it though. Made two email enquiries to Condor Graphics regarding their "Plotall" software, but no reply!!!!