Why I like the GCC

[Kev Williams]

As most of you know, I bought my GCC from Gary, been 2 years ago now. It served Gary well for around 9 years, and I've been using it daily.

The GCC was a good fit for me because I needed a reasonably big work area (38x20" max), a rotary, and open access for long stuff, all of which it has.
One customer brings me various length aluminum extrusions to laser part numbers on, some are 12' long. Can't do those in the Triumph, I CAN do them in the LS900 but I only have 7' of space. I can put 15' long parts in the GCC.

Yesterday the size AND open access came into play, as I needed to engrave this thing--
it's a free-standing test panel. The standing part measures 32" x 18"...
panel1.jpg

That's easy enough, but the bends to make it stand up kinda get in the way.
This is the back of it...
panel2.jpg

I was all prepared to run this in the Triumph, which has plenty of room for it, but setup would've taken quite a bit of time, just getting it square and level to the machine.

So I flipped open the front door of the GCC and slid it in. I knew it would fit, but I also knew that flat on the table, the bottom row of engraving would be lower than the machine's 20" limit because of the bend...
--but not by much
I grabbed 4 of my 12" x 1" x 1/2" steel bars, and positioned them on the table for the plate to rest on.
The extra 1/2" above the table allowed the plate to move up around 1/2". This put the lowest point of the engraving at 19.865"... perfect!
I set a pair of 12 x 2 x 3/4" steel bars along the top of the plate for counterbalance and hold-down weight.
--after checking for square and hole placement,
panel3.jpg

I ran the bottom row of engraving-- look hard, you can see it
panel4.jpg

I then ran the next row up, and once I was happy everything was aligned right,
I let 'er fly. And this is the result, in only one relatively easy setup. (I'm purposely keeping the engraving mostly unreadable)
panel5.jpg

Just another white knuckle job on the books!

This has been a great machine for me, I'm lucky Gary had it for sale. Western machines- even made in Taiwan - are worth what they cost.
I love my Chinese Triumph, it makes me money, but I said in another thread that if I could find a used Western machine, even with no tube,
for the same price I paid for the Triumph, I'd buy it over another glass machine in a heartbeat.

[Keith Downing]

Surprisingly I've never heard of GCC. Any info on them?

Thanks for sharing btw. Always fun to see what others are doing.

[Tony Lenkic]

Keith,

GCC is a Taiwanese mfg that uses western made RF tubes. If you Google them you will see full line up of products they offer.
In your neck of woods Sign warehouse used to sell GCC lasers under name Pinnacle. There are couple of US based reps with good reputation as reliable sources (Laserpran.com and Jorlink.com).

There is another Taiwan based mfg. LTT technology that had products sold in USA under name Accuris also sold by Sign warehouse. Both of these mfg's use air cooled laser tubes.

[Gary Hair]

I'm glad that machine is working out so well for you! It was a workhorse and made me lots of $ as I'm sure it is for you! I love my Trotec, but you never forget your first...

[Rodne Gold]

We have had 10 GCC's over time.. 2 mercuries , 4 spirits and 4 explorers .. all gave me round 10 years of workhorse heavy duty (like 8 hrs total abuse a day) continued work
The only reason I changed to chinese lasers was that tube repairs of the GCC's became an issue... I canabalised my last few and eventually after being stripped of anything useful..I sold them as scrap
I would love the GCC print drivers on my chinese machines