Chuck,
I can tell you that I do use my computerized mechanical engraver every day.
One of the keys to my growth is that I have been able to promote the fact that I "engrave". I have a big neon sign in my window that says "Engraving". In hindsight, it should say "We Engrave". I have so many people that say they came to my business because they remember the sign. If they came into my store and all I did was laser engrave, I would have alot of customers leaving my store upset or disappointed.
Customers to our industry don't understand all of the nuances of what can and cannot be engraved by the various technologies. Granted, it is our job to educate them, but all they want is Baby Joe's silver-plated picture frame engraved, not an education. What they do know is that they read or heard that we engrave, and now we say we can't. What is it?
I don't do a tremendous amount of industrial engraving. The image development of my business has been on the corporate gift and award side of the market. I can't imaging my business functioning effectively without a computerized mechanical engraver.
If you are going to get into the gift market, investigate the machines that have the ability to engrave cylindrical items. I know in my market I am the only person in town that offers this service, therefore it is at a premium. It would be anyway, because it does require an additional investment.
You also want to find the machine that has a good vice sytem with reasonable clearance for larger sized and odd shaped items.
I really enjoy my New Hermes IS400 Volume, but there are some less expensive machines on the market, of which I would specifically like to mention the new machine from Xenetech. I am not sure if it has been released, but the early comments have been interesting.
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