-
Posts
-
Dennis,
We will be doing a templating seminar in April….April 22nd actually, in Seattle. THe laser has come a long way, and we will have our latest edition available to be “test Driven.” The laser is made for custom situations….
That is the only reason you would need a laser…..Please contact me if you are interested in learning more.
Thank you,
Eric Patterson
630-605-0902Dennis,
Occasionally the person digitizing the templates will use IntelliCAD to check that they digitized the tops correctly. Once you get a set digitizing practice down though, there is really no need. I have no idea what the cost difference is between getting the digitizer with IntelliCAD or getting it without IntelliCAD, but I most likely wouldn’t get IntelliCAD if you are just going to be using it for digitizing purposes.Have a good evening,
SethDennis, I am sorry but if you used the lt55 and went back to stick… well you must have just been doing somthing wrong. I sticked forever and hey if you have no cnc maybe that is still ok but come on. The lt is so much more accurate. Every top I do fits just perfect. My installers would quit me if I got rid of my lt55. I do mostly remodels.
So tell me this, How are you sticking templates over existing lam tops with backsplash? I used to tear out, template, build and a week or so later show back up with a top.
Now it is simply show up tear out and install new. NO down time for customer.I was in the same boat as Dennis. However, it was due to lack of proper training. I called up the company and had them walk me thru it one more time. Now I can’t imagine using another method. It saves a tremendous amount of time over the sticks. Both making the template and getting it into the CNC. Hours of time saved. But there are times we use the digi board for customers that want us to fab for them and they install. That is something I would not do with the laser. The digi board is an expensive item to just use every once in while
John
Travis, We used the LT55 for 3 months, on every job and it never was as accurate as our stick templates. We had problems with placing the laser so it could shoot the entire kitchen at once, and if you have to move it and make sure it is level again, it is just too much of a pain. Our shop is close to two other shops that use have the LT55. A granite shop that uses 2 Park Stone CNC’s has it and there countertops are not accurate at all. And by there own admission the LT has limitations. We also have our Silestone fabbed at another shop that has 3 CNC’s and a waterjet, and they are the ones we borrowed the LT from. They do not use it. They have never been able to get it to template accurately. Plus, by other users on this forums own admission, the PDA has serious battery and freezing issues. Would suck to drive 80 miles, and have the battery be dead, and no other way to template.
We use a CNC for our solid surface production, but our Granite fabricators, are all manual, so they require a template and do a far better job than any granite shop with a CNC. Our Silestone fabricator hates the laser and they require plastic templates. Plus, like John said, sometimes customers bring in templates, so a digi board is the way to go for us, because we still would need to be making physical templates for at least a third of our jobs.
Travis, all I do is remodels, with sticks. I cut 2″ x 6″‘s down to 4″ (standard backsplash height). Cut them into 24″ lengths, and template on top of them. No down time for the customer.
Oh, if we are doing a remodel that has existing countertops, we can just template overtop of the existing countertops, fab the counter and do tear out and replace in one day. But customers usually expect some down time, so it is just a bonus for them not to have counters for a week.
We actively market against the no top till install thing. Our customers are happy to not have the down time.
Wow, thats amazing. I must have gotten lucky and got an LT that is amazingly accurate. My Silestone fabricator required me to get one. They would not take a template any other way. My granite guy would just laugh at me if I told him I was bringing him stick templates again.
They also both have cnc machines. Silestone is still built sq so I cut vinyl template from digital file and scibe top to fit.
Granite guy cuts his own vinyl and scibes granite to fit.
Stone cnc is for edge profile and sink cutouts. Waste of money to buy one to do your scribe work for you.
One more thing, I have never had a kitchen yet that I could not template with lt55.
Also, level doesnt matter unless you plan on moving the laser up or down. Just got to get it level enough to hit all targets. Remember, its a 2d machine. As long as your starting point is constant, level doesnt matter.
When I walk into a kitchen it takes me approximatly 2 minutes to set up. Big kitchens are shot in multiple steps. Even then a big kitchen to me is 90+ sq’. Takes me no longer than 30 minutes to template. Could be faster but I have to answer all the customers questions.
Lt has never failed yet. I wish I could say the same for myself.
Battery is no big deal. You can plug the hp unit right into the laser if it happens to go dead. Laser battery lasts a long time.
Yea it freezes every now and then, never during a shoot though. Simply hit the reset button on your first template and its good for the day. Unless you turn the ipaq off before closing lt software. Then it freezes every time.
Not trying to argue or make anyone mad but I gotta tell ya. You guys are dead wrong if you think the LT-55 is not a great machine.
Travis,
I do think the LT-55 is a great machine. Trouible is, I finally find guys who do quaslity estone and slab work, but only one (Silestone) takes the digital files. Two of my other guys even have CNC’s and they still do not take the dang files.Works great for solid surface.
I have to disagree with you on the never fails, though. Also, although the CAD software is fine for it’s purpose, it sucks in general and they could give us some standard CAD stuff that would be a help. We still run it through the shop software before transmitting the finished files out.
You also have to be careful in the set up abvout your line orientation, etc. The rotate function (to square a line) does not always lay flat, but sometimes 90 degrees and 45 degrees.
So by your own admission both your granite and silestone have to eventually have physical templates.
So what is the point of not just making a physical temp in the first place?Since we are paying for someone to fab the Silestone, it is unacceptable to have to scribe it ourselves.
Our Silestone is cut on a waterjet that follows the contours of our template so no scribing is required.In my mind it is a waste of money to have stone CNC just for sink and edge polishing. Much cheaper ways of doing that considering the price of a stone CNC. If you are going to all the trouble of getting a file to a computer, why not have it do the whole piece rather than just half of it.
Thats like cutting a solid surface sink hole on the CNC and then using a skill saw and power plane to finish cutting it out.I think that someday digital templating will be the standard, but I just don’t think that it is to a point where it is as accurate and foolproof as physically making a template.
Just today I templated a job that the customer had a raised bar with weird angles. He wanted the radius of the bar to match the radius of his pendant lights, which was taken off the wall opposite the bar. How would you be able to show the customer that and have them approve it, without making a physical template?
Dennis,
I don’t think over 1000 LT-55 owners are wasting their time, the thing is extremely accurate, maybe your unit had been dropped and needed to be calibrated (which can be done for free by contacting us). All of the situations that you spoke of are easily shot with the LT-55 it justs takes a little bit of thought ;after using it everyday for a couple of weeks you don’t even have to think about special situations anymore they just come second nature. The LT-55 can easily do raised bars, check out the video of Drew shooting a kitchen on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xcf-3nEQ4Dg you should be able to see his video of adding a raised bar in a matter of minutes, very fast very accurate.
99.9% of our issues are due to lack of training, did you ever have someone from Laser Products train you either in person or on the phone?
If your worried about being able to confirm the measurements there is a “view dimensions” feature on the 1.58 software that displays all the dimensions for varification.
Please come to our booth at one of the shows and challenge us, I gaurantee we will meet your challenge, arcs, circles, raised bars, etc. It won’t be long before the majority of stone shops only accept digital, the major quartz MFGs have already started in most markets.
Check out the pictures of the doctors office that they are using for the Digital shoot-out a couple of days before Coverings in Orlando, you can see them on the Stone advice site listed under the digital shoot-out thread. The office is full of weird angles, radius tops, arc tops, raised bars, blind corners, etc. We are looking forward to shooting that office, as a matter of fact, Drew is going to video tape the event and post it for all to see.
If you can get your hands on the LT-55 again, give one of us a call and we can walk you thru how to use it easily, or you can visit us at any of the shows and we will train you there.
Thanks
Just today I templated a job that the customer had a raised bar with weird angles. He wanted the radius of the bar to match the radius of his pendant lights, which was taken off the wall opposite the bar. How would you be able to show the customer that and have them approve it, without making a physical template?
********************************************************************************
The laser could have shot the pendants in arc mode and created the EXACT arc of the lights, you could build the raised bar on the pocket pc, show the customer the drawing on the pocket pc with dimensions and have them sign off on the drawing, if they are not happy with the small drawing, you could bring a laptop and either hook the LT-55 to it and show them a larger drawing of their kitchen, or pull out the sd card stick it in your laptop and open their kitchen in CAD and show them an actual cad drawing on a large screen, you could print the drawing and have them sign it.How did you duplicate the pendant lighting with a hard temple? Just curious, I can only think of a plumb bob and 2 men.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.