Vanguard 3400

[john passek]

I am looking at buying out a small business that has a Vanguard 3400 and was just wondering if anyone has experience with them.
It runs on DOS at the moment do you know if it is possible to upgrade it to a newer OS like Windows 7 or Vistawithout too much trouble. it also has the controller panel on the left side of it.
Lastly - how much do you think I should pay for it. it is approx 10 years old.
Any help or advice would be appreciated.
Thanks
John

[Mike Null]

John

I'm not an expert but I did have that machine. It is a rugged engraver, though it has a rather small table. The controller and software are not worth the upgrade if there is an upgrade. New Hermes will not support that machine unless you pay them more money than the machine is worth.

I wouldn't pay more than a few hundred if it's operating and you get or have a computer to operate it.

[john passek]

Thanks Mike that's a big help knowing it wont be supported. they are asking a lot for the machine so I think I'll pass on this one.
It does come with 2 computers, one is a ready to go back up.

[Liesl Dexheimer]

I have the Vanguard 3400 & run Gravostyle 98 Discovery with Win XP. The machine is tough but changing the rubber belt can be quite a pain if it breaks on you. Also, the control module can have issues. We had some problems when it was under warranty and had to have them replace it more than once.

[john passek]

Thank you Liesl
i made a deal with the owner to buy all their stock and a few items like a shear, edger beveler, rotary cutters and they will sell the Vanguard seperatly.
I will also pick up a really good Industrial customer too.

[John Salitsky]

I have one here as well although I havn't used it in a loooong time I remember it as a pretty sturdy machine that did fine with cylindrical work but not so much with flat work. I hated the dos based program that ran the thing though, it was really a pain. Working on it yourself will be a challenge to say the least, I had a coupler crack once and I could not get to it for the life of me and we had to have someone come in to fix it. I have no idea of the worth of the thing. We upgraded to an IS400 which is a nice machine and runs both flat and cylindrical without any issues other than the somewhat small table size for flat work. I rarely use it for flat work though as we have a IS700 to take care of that.

[Mike Null]

John

I believe the 3400 will do flat work only.

[John Salitsky]

Mike, did they make one that only did flat work? My 3400 was mainly used for cylindrical work but was also capable of flat work. It's possible there was one for flat work only, not sure about that.

[Mike Null]

Mine was for flat work. I see that the upgraded controller has a cylindrical option though it could not be used on mine as it didn't have the height to house the vice etc.

[John Salitsky]

Ahhhh okay! At the time of purchase we had flat engravers and really just wanted it for cylindrical so we could keep that stuff in house.