Purchased 2 New Trotec Speedy 300's

[Keith Outten]

Most of you know that I run the sign shop at Christopher Newport University. At CNU we have three large buildings under construction, the opening dates for the buildings are so close together we have had to start making signs for all 3 projects at the same time. We just finished CNC machining over 850 ADA door sign plaques that are now ready to engrave. We will start making the area of refuge, fire evacuation, and all the other specialty signs in a week or two so we have a very long way to go before the first install happens in July. The specialty signs can take between two to three hours of engraving time and when you add up the hours for the three buildings it is more hours than we have time before the buildings open. We only have two people in the sign shop so engraving on the second shift is not an option so we purchased a Trotec Speedy 300 with a 75 watt power supply which will allow us to run two engravers simultaneously and cut the hours in half.

Sorry, there won't be any pictures of the new machine, the state has issued a prohibition against sharing photographs unless permission is ascertained from the Attorney Generals office

I was so impressed with the Trotec and based on a glowing review from Mike Null and others who own Trotec machines I purchased a Speedy 300 80 watt for Northwind Associates which is my sign company and the owner of SawMill Creek. My new machine should be arriving sometime after the first of the year and since I own it I will be glad to share pictures and information concerning the new laser as I put it through its paces. I have a couple of sign jobs in house right now, one school and one exterior sign, they will most likely be completed before my Speedy 300 is delivered but I hope to be successful bidding a couple jobs in the near term.

My old Epilog Legend and the APLazer machine will be leaving my shop in a few days so I will be back to one laser engraver when the new Trotec arrives.

Woo Hooooo, ADA signs rock the house and pay the bills. Hope more of you will look into adding ADA work to your sign companies.


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[Scott Shepherd]

Congratulations Keith! You will be happy, I'm sure. Our Speedy 300 arrived last week so I've been messing with it when I can.

I'll share photos soon.

It's unbelievably fast and smooth. Ours is 75W and it will rock and roll. Pictures and videos soon, I promise.

We've now owned an Epilog (no longer have), a Universal, and a Trotec. We'll keep the Universal and the Trotec, so we're adding capacity too.

[Randy Digby]

Good for you. We love our Speedy 100. Wish we had one of the big boys but ours does everything we need for our product line and I'm not sure more power would really gain anything for us - that's a good thing for the pocketbook. Have fun, Keith.

[Keith Outten]

Thanks Steve,

I'm glad to hear you were able to get the new laser engraver, the last time we spoke you were still considering the purchase.

I have a sample of your vinyl work to share, as soon as I can get the pictures off of my camera I will post a picture

I have sign blanks in my shop that need to have the window edges routed this morning so I can get back to engraving them and then start another batch. My install date is already a bit late on this one but it is a retrofit for an existing school. Still I hate to be so late with the holidays just around the corner.
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[Keith Outten]

Thanks Randy,

More power will cut the time down considerably. At 35 watt it takes me about 25 minutes to engrave each sign, at 60 watts it takes about 12 minutes each. I hope that the 80 watt will reduce the time to about 6 minutes which will shorten a project that has 400 door signs. I found out first hand that power without speed isn't a viable situation so the speed of the Trotec combined with a more powerful laser will be just the ticket.

The Speedy 300 also has a larger cabinet and engraving table. I can use the larger table to offer even larger specialty signs. After using the Xenetech laser at CNU for five years it will be a real pleasure to move it out of my office and replace it with a machine that has a driver that isn't full of bugs. I plan to move the Xenetech to the shop area and let my assistant use the wretched beast because I am all out of patience with the thing.
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[Zvi Grinberg]

My old Epilog Legend and the APLazer machine will be leaving my shop in a few days so I will be back to one laser engraver when the new Trotec arrives.

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If I remember well, the APLaszer was relatively new at your shop, and you were very happy about it.

[Keith Outten]

Zvi,

Yep, I was pretty excited about the features of the APLazer. The only problem I had with the machine was the speed, even with 80 watts of power the speed was to slow to engrave ADA signs at the pace I need to support my schedule and I don't have the shop space to keep two machines. My Epilog was in my shop office, even so it had to go because I will be moving my office into another building this Spring. Climbing the stairs to get to my second floor shop office has become a problem. My age now dictates the kind of work I can do these days so I will continue to adjust my shop machines to suit.

I am hesitant to let my ADA work suffer in order to add new products such as engraving stone and ADA work has picked up again recently.

I downsized my CNC Router last year from a 4 by 8 ShopBot to a 4 by 3 CAMaster Stinger. I hope to be able to purchase a new 4 by 8 CAMaster Cobra later this year if business keeps improving and be able to keep the smaller Stinger. My long term goal is to have two top notch laser engravers and two CNC routers. I will have to start selling some of my more traditional woodworking machines so I will have the necessary space for the four primary machines. I haven't used my table saw, planer or my joiner in a long time but I just haven't been able to part with them yet. Should business remain at the current level one Trotec laser and one Stinger will be able to handle the load and I won't be forced to sell my woodworking machines.
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[Scott Shepherd]

I've been running the Universal and the Trotec all day today, going on 12 hours. Keith, if it's not too late, send the Trotec back. That dang thing has worked me half to death today!

Wow.....talk about cranking some work out. Wow.......did I say Wow yet? Wow.

Stunning machine. Now I wish I had 100W Maybe not, it's bury me with work to feed it.

[Mike Null]

Guys, you can count on me not to say "I TOLD YOU SO".

Congratulations on your purchase and may you have the success I've had with mine. I must admit to being a bit envious of the 75 watts as mine is 45.

[Keith Outten]

Mike,

I started with a 35 watt laser, it is painfully slow now after using a 60 watt machine but only when I engrave Corian. Most materials engrave in reasonable periods of time even with just 35 watts until you compare the performance to a new machine that you can engrave at much higher speeds. The trade off of power versus investment in a machine drives the decision to purchase like any other machine I guess. Honestly, outside of Corian engraving jobs it is rare that I need more than 35 watts since I don't do a lot of vector cutting other than letters that I cut for my ADA signs. Cutting letters at slow speeds and low power settings has always given me the best quality, I wish the reverse was true because I need to cut about 60 sheets of letters and numbers for the next batch of door signs and it will probably take a week or more to cut, sort and put them into storage bins.

I have never run 850 door signs in a batch before or anything close to that number. We have boxes of door signs stored everywhere in the office at CNU and I am now using a cart to roll boxes of signs down the hallway from the shop to my office and back. I plan to use the old Xenetech machine to engrave the large signs because we won't have to change jobs but once every two hours so we can run the CNC router at the same time. The Trotec will engrave all of the door signs, it should take just enough time to change the template and send it to the machine before the last one finishes engraving.

This Winter wil go by very fast given the pace we will be working.
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[Mike Null]

Keith

I started with a 25 watt ULS which worked just fine for several years but the speed and power of the Trotec have been a real help on much of my work. I don't need a 75 watt machine but it would be faster.

[Michael Kowalczyk]

Hey Keith,
Welcome aboard. I am sure you will enjoy your new toys. You are 100% right that speed without power does nothing for throughput. I look forward to seeing some pictures that won't trigger the take off of black unmarked helicopters.

[Keith Outten]

Michael,

Thanks, I'm really happy to join the Trotec club. This will no doubt be one of my favorite machines. You and Mike Null should both get a finders fee for the Trotec Lasers I purchased, I read every word both of you have shared here about your machines. So far the folks at Trotec have been absolutely the nicest people I have had the pleasure of working with. They have suffered though a lot of phone calls and even more email helping me select the best machine that fits my needs.

Now I just have to wait for the delivery truck

Lots of pictures to follow..........
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[Keith Outten]

We received our Trotec Speedy 300 yesterday at CNU. The unloading was quick and painless, the truck driver did all the work in less than 5 minutes. The box design they use was a snap to remove from the machine, you cut the straps and lift off the top, the sides lift right off, nothing could be easier. Once the box was removed the Speedy 300 was totally sealed in a plastic bag with a huge bag of dessicant inside. We used a set of ramps to roll the machine off of the pallet to the floor so we didn't have to lift the machine at all.

Monday morning I have to install a wall bracket for the dust collector and cut a hole in the shop wall for the vent. The wall is brick but it won't take but a few minutes to make a hole with an air chisel. Once this is done we should be on our way.

The Speedy 300 is a beautiful machine, built extremely well with every part of the machine accessible for easy maintenance. Don from Trotec is scheduled to help us install the machine Monday afternoon per telecom and he will be visiting us on Friday to check out our new machine and provide the necessary training. So far this has been an enjoyable experience, the people at Trotec are professionals that take care of every detail and they have kept me informed every step of the way.

The second Trotec machine (mine) should be delivered to my workshop in another couple of weeks. Knowing how easy the process has been at CNU I expect to have my machine up and running real quick since my shop already has the dust collection fan ready to hook to the machine, the space has been cleared and my computer is ready to go.

Sorry, there won't be any pictures until my machine is delivered due to state regulations that prohibit my posting any photographs.
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[Tim Bateson]

Sounds like an impressive machine & congrats on the deluge of work.