Hi, I am hoping someone with engraving experience can help. I currently have a pet tag business where I manually stamp every tag with metal stamps, letter by letter, character by character, all by hand. It's a lot of manual labor and I've been thinking about adding an engraving machine for some time but cannot figure out what I need. I'm not looking to engrave pet tags that look like the ones from Petsmart and Petco, but with deeper engraving such as my stamped tags. So far companies have recommended to me the U Marq GEM-FX5 and the Roland EGX-350. However, I've read comments in this forum that indicate these machines are not the best. I noticed Vision was recommended and another company that I can't think of right now, I think it was something Hall.
The metals I engrave are nickel silver, aluminum, brass, and copper. I might like to do some stainless steel in the future but I do not use it at this time because stamping stainless is too hard. I want a rotary machine (I guess?) that can do deeper engraving and I'd like to be able to do any font that I am able to download and also clip art. It would be great if it can do photos too but it doesn't have to.
Can someone recommend a machine for me? I would so appreciate the help. I am looking to spend approximately what the above-referenced machines cost but it's not written in stone.
Thanks!