My New Baby!

[David Dustin]

Well that looks like one happy universl customer.. noted....

[Scott Shepherd]

Yes David, I can say I'm a very happy Universal customer. I can't say that about our last laser. Having said that, I think it's really important to understand what your needs and wants are in a system. I also think that most people who go to buy a laser have never been exposed to them. So many of the real world features that are needed and used, aren't on the radar screen for a new laser buyer.

That's why I post these posts, to help educate people on features that I personally need in my business (and others may not need in theirs). There are some stark differences in the top 5 machines and the companies that sell them. Most of those differences wouldn't be apparent to the new buyer.

There are several huge myths out there being marketed by some companies and those myths need to be debunked. One myth is that servos are better than steppers on a laser. Pure myth. Pure truth on larger CNC machines, but pure myth on lasers.

I have never seen a GCC, so I can't comment on them, but I have seen a handful of other brands, and I've owned 2 of them now, and I can say that if I had to buy another laser, it would be a Trotec or a Universal because both have job control software, both have the Z-Axis (if I recall correctly), and both require no cleaning of encoder strips, or various other items to keep the quality up.

I'd buy another Universal in a second, but I also believe Trotec have an outstanding product.

[Dave Fifield]

It plugs in, so it must be a boy....

[Larry Bratton]

Scott:
Congratulations on your success. Here's a report on mine.

I replied to your post of 1 year ago, and I am now 16 months into my Epilog EXT. So far, Epilog has replaced 1 motor..don't recall which one it was now. They have helped me numerous times with tech support on various issues. To date, they still have not fixed the issue with the air assist line that can hang up the carriage on full table engraving, or at least not that I know of. I've done a homemade fix for that, but I still feel it should have been engineered correctly to begin with.

The new driver is OK. I too wish it had a time estimator built in.

I wish I had Z axis control you speak of with your machine. I run a CNC router and I miss the same type of control in the laser that I have there.

Otherwise, I am pretty happy with it. If I had it to do over, I would buy more power. I like the big table I have. I can turn out a lot of product with it. I like their tech support. Contrary to your experience with Epilog, mine has been quite good in general. Considering the feature comparison though, I would consider Universal favorably on a future purchase.

Wishing for your continued success!

[Barb Macdonald]

Hmmm, Peter, yeah, that's always a good boys name
Or Dick?
I know, bad joke...
sorry, couldn't resist
PeterLarrySimon?
I love the name simon....
Abigail is lonely, I've been kinda sickish....
Congrats on his first birthday, I did nothing for Abigail....
Except make her work
And of course, clean her encoder
Maybe THAT's why I've had problems. PMS in machines?
My Xenetechs will crash if I turn them on for a $50.00 job. They only work, when I have LOTS for them to do. How do they KNOW?
Weird
Have a great day
Barb

[Paul Brinkmeyer]

4.0 lense and the chuck solve both of your issues.
I have done full wrap logos on pens, turns out really nice.

The negative side, in my opinion. Rotary Axis.
But.....but....it's tough to use. You can't just take anything you want and put it in the machine and hit go. It has to fit in the nosecone and reverse cone on the headstock and tailstock. Not always easily done. You can, however, engrave a mug with a handle, but doing a variety of shapes can be a real challenge. A small Maglite won't fit, so you have to make spacers or fixtures to make that work and the focal length of the lens starts to hit the top of the rotary axis around the 3/4" diameter mark. So engraving a pen, or anything small becomes a serious problem. In my opinion, the rotary attachment needs to have a small chuck on it and it should be about 1/2" shorter off the top end, so the focal length can be set to dead centerline if you wanted to. It's a very powerful tool, but it's no where near as easy to use as I'd like to see it.

[David Takes]

Scott,

Your one-year-old son has a sibling or cousin who just arrived at my shop yesterday. He looks eerily similar, hence my concern about him being related. He was 350 lbs., but with some help, the delivery went smoothly. I hope he came from the same gene pool as your son. It's going to be fun nurturing him along.

[Scott Shepherd]

David, they might be cousins, for sure! Good luck with him, they eat a lot, don't sleep, and cry for more food constantly

Paul, excellent little chuck there. Would you mind saying where you got it? Yes, 4.0 lens solves the issues, but I was thinking more like 1.5 and the rotary I haven't convinced myself to spend the $500 for the 1.5 assembly and I have some use for it, now you're trying to talk me into the 4.0 for another $500

Never ends, does it?

[Paul Brinkmeyer]

The chuck came from Penn State Industries, but I found the same on many wood working sites.

[Scott Shepherd]

Happy 2nd Birthday! Can't believe the little fella is 2 now! Still running strong. Very few issues, mainly issues with some internal changes made within the system to make all platforms on the same page. All of those issues have been addressed by ULS to my satisfaction.

I think I've finally got a handle on running it (2 years later). It runs well, I'm still impressed by the same things that impressed me a year ago. Virtually no maintenance, and the ability to tune the laser to a material. I do a lot of very small text engraving. I even had some fonts below 2pts recently and I'm able to do them razor sharp because of the ability to use the Image Enhancement tool.

The machine is a work horse. It just runs.

It's outgrown it's old room of 400 sq.ft and it's now in a new room as of last week that's much larger. Enough room for brothers or sisters now So many things to buy, so little time......

Not much has changed with it over the last year. Still happy with it, still don't like the nosecone install/removal procedure, still don't like the rotary and don't think I've used it since last time I wrote this.

Would I buy another one just like it. Sure would.

Happy Birthday Son. I'd give you the day off, but you have work to do

[David Takes]

I've got the same machine, but just a little bit younger than yours. All I can say is ditto. It's the best machine I've owned.