No Epilog G2 fiber galvo thread? 24" X 24" engraving area!

[Paul Silva]

Thanks Gary,

We ended up chatting with some Jimani people and got some info, seems like they are about the same price as the Epilog G2 though...are there any other worthwhile options out there? I'd also love to hear from people that operate Galvos, specifically what we can expect for setup, maintenance, and troubleshooting accuracy problems etc.

[Kev Williams]

Hey guys, we are US manufacturer of measuring equipment, so accuracy and speed and very important to us (tolerance of .005). We are currently looking at the Epilog G2 for etching parts up to a size of 18” x 18” (aluminum anodized).

Is there a cheaper alternative to the G2 that can be made to accommodate an 18" part? We have heard about regular style Galvos that can be modified to do a larger work area?

We plan to run 100 - 200 parts a day, how do these hold up to 8 hour + days, what’s the maintenance like?

Any advice and experience appreciated, thanks!

I you're confident you WILL run 100-200 parts per day, then you don't want a 'cheaper alternative'. In fact, keep looking to see if you can find something that may better suit your needs than the Epilog.

This is just my personal experience, but as you can see in my signature I have 15 machines in my house (not counting all those long gone), and this all started as a mom n' pop deal. I can tell you that back in 1981, shelling out $13,000- roughly $36,000 in today's dollars- for a newfangled engraving machine just to engrave computer keyboard buttons was pretty scary- but less than a year later we spent another $13 grand to get another one. In '89 came the $18,000 5000XT, and then a second one (used) a year later. In 1991 we paid $10,000 for Casmate graphic software and a 486 computer because I was tired of digitizing logos with a mouse... Then came the other CNC machines, and the lasers... in summary, EVERY one of these purchases was a LOT of money for a mom 'n pop engraving shop, and every one turned out to be invaluable, and no machine has ever failed to make at least double its lease payments. Most paid for themselves within a year.

That's just my story. But the important thing is, every machine we bought was a result of necessity as our workload grew, and NOT based on anticipated workload. So final word from me, if you HAVE the work, buy the good machine. If you THINK you'll have the work, then yes, a cheaper alternative would be a good move. Much easier to upgrade than downgrade

[Scott Shepherd]

I agree with Kev. If you are running 100-200 parts a day, and want to go Chinese, you best figure out how many days of production you can afford to be done for if something goes wrong. I've seen 2-3 months where people were without a machine, waiting on China to fix the problem. If I had that quantity and daily demands, I wouldn't even consider anything but a western made machine.