30 Year Old Gravograph Pantograph IM3 Refurb

[anthonyget]

Hi there,
I was very excited to pick up this 30 year old pantograph at an auction recently. They still sell today (although upgraded) for well over £1,000 so couldn't resist grabbing this one for £130. All the more because it came with a full set of letters.
Needs a little TLC, but otherwise looks sound.
While refurbishing it, I found these are actually really well made machines and very nicely designed.
Anyway, hope you find this interesting.
It is actually part 1 as I will make a second video so you can laugh at me trying to learn to use it.

[tlnixon]

Our City Parks and Recreation Department has a later model of the same company's product. It connects to a PC via USB cable. We had to work on it today. The company's Tech support was fantastic to work with. They have offices all over the world. The one we used was in Georgia in the U.S.A.

[NeiljohnUK]

We used one as apprentices to 'mark' our some of our apprentice pieces, now they print stickers to put on valve tags made from laminate for engraving, stickers that fade, peel or wear away, "but it's quicker/cheaper"...

[NortonDommi]

Very nice, looking forward to part 2. Chemical or LASER etching may be more common these days but on machines I think good clean engraving is impossible to beat for longevity. That said more and more stuff is merely stencilled on and quickly disappears with use.

[Toolmaker51]

anthonyget, realize you are now sitting on a machine capable of producing capital? Having the letter patterns is 90% percent of the value. Over the years many others have been produced, over here those plates are called 'fonts'.