Original Gerber Edge

[outacontrol41]

I have come across a friend who owns a craft and flea market with a number of vendors working the booth. One of the vendors, a sign maker, recently got dismissed from the flea market for not making timely payments for booth space. He took most items and belongings with him except 2 Gerber Edge printers and many ribbons. No software, no cables, etc...took all that with him. Is this worth taking home or is it a white elephant? Thoughts?

 

[eddesign]

work horse

Been using my edge1 and edge2 for 20 plus years and they work very well only replaced one head on edge2 one time

 

[Mike Paul]

He took the software and cables and left the printers and foils?
Did he plan on coming back and was locked out?

Are they free?
How about some more details...

 

[Drip Dry]

The price of new software is pretty steep. And then you need a cutter. You generally need a Gerber cutter ( not cheap )
I think the picture shows the original Gerber edge.
However, Gerber had a deal ( and I'm not sure if they still have it ) that they would give you 5,000 towards a new FX Gerber,
This could be an opportunity for you to get into the market.
Anyone that has Gerber, will tell you they are tanks and just keep making you money.
Remember, "If you build it, they will come "

 

[outacontrol41]

He took the software and cables and left the printers and foils?
Did he plan on coming back and was locked out?

Are they free?
How about some more details...

I told my friend, the flea market owner, the printer(s) are pretty much worthless without the software/drivers that runs the devices. He was rather discouraged. I don't think he left on good terms so he never returned to get the printers. He also still owes money so maybe that had something to do with it. Anyway, were still working when he left. I suspect he got out of the sign business after that.
Needed: Serial port cable, Gerber software, Gerber plotter, owner's manual....
I'm already in the sign business so that's why my friend called me.
Yes, they are free to me if I want them,,, trouble is, am I wasting my time with such old equipment? Will it be a challenge finding supplies?

 

[outacontrol41]

software....

Got the software already. It appears the driver is already in my Flexi Sign Pro software. Now, where to get a plotter?

 

[eddesign]

Used plotters

Try here www.digitsmith.com

 

[SightLine]

You can run it with FlexiSign Pro and if you have a cutter that has an automatic optical registration system you can cut with it just fine. What I mean on the cutter is one that Flexi supports to begin with, and has some sort of camera or mark detection system. When you use this sort of cutter in Flexi, you add a contour cut to whatever it is you want to print, Flexi then prints some specific type of marks (what the marks look like depends on the brand of cutter) around the print when it prints. Then you put that in the cutter and the cut job will be sitting in Production Manager, you send that and the cutter will then ask you to position the pointer or knife over the first mark. Then it detects all of the marks and cuts the job.

We have the second model Edge, the Edge LE which was the first front opening one before the Edge II (it is pretty much identical to an Edge II). We use it with FlexiSign Pro and cut the jobs on our Summa S160T and it works great. So really all you need is a serial cable, a preferably REAL (many do successfully use emulated USB serial adapters) serial port on the computer that has Production Manager, and the right type of cutter.

You do not have to have Gerber Omega nor a Gerber cutter to use it.... We don't have either one, and never have.

 

[jfiscus]

If you ever want to unload one of them, give me a shout with a price.

 

[outacontrol41]

Thank you all, you've been very helpful, indeed....especially
SightLine.
I think I have some serial cables in the closet from the olden days. Now just need to download an online .pdf of an owner's manual. Anyone have a link?

 

[outacontrol41]

Jfiscus....will keep you in mind.

 

[J Hill Designs]

http://www.gspinc.com/downloads/PDF/fastfacts/literature/EDGE_Users_Manual_classic-trunnion.pdf

 

[outacontrol41]

Thanks J Hill!! You guys are awesome!

 

[GMS Product Manager]

End of service 05-01-15

The old Edges are worth at least the trade in value towards an FX. At this time $5,500 is what they are worth. That's a lot for a machine that's 21 years old!

At the end of April 2015, Gerber will stop servicing Edge 1's. The FX's are nice, clean, network ready, and built very well. The software may be pricy at MSRP, but I think we could swing something if you want to upgrade one of old ones. If you have Flexi, that's a great start. Just remember, Gerber Omega has all the profiles for all the foils and materials. And GSP builds the software, the machines, and the recipes for the materials. They have more of a vested interest in making the system attractive for businesses. When you dig deep, you will find the Edge is far more versatile than any other output device. And you have two, so you'll have redundancy. Let us know if we can help.

Doug Goodloe
Gerber Specialist
800-232-8018

 

[outacontrol41]

The old Edges are worth at least the trade in value towards an FX. At this time $5,500 is what they are worth. That's a lot for a machine that's 21 years old!

At the end of April 2015, Gerber will stop servicing Edge 1's. The FX's are nice, clean, network ready, and built very well. The software may be pricy at MSRP, but I think we could swing something if you want to upgrade one of old ones. If you have Flexi, that's a great start. Just remember, Gerber Omega has all the profiles for all the foils and materials. And GSP builds the software, the machines, and the recipes for the materials. They have more of a vested interest in making the system attractive for businesses. When you dig deep, you will find the Edge is far more versatile than any other output device. And you have two, so you'll have redundancy. Let us know if we can help.

Doug Goodloe
Gerber Specialist
800-232-8018

'Stop servicing' as in no longer repairing and fixing them? Or stop selling ribbons and supplies? Or both? Was and am using inkjet technology at this time....

 

[GMS Product Manager]

Stop Servicing them, as in fixing them. Just like old computers are hard to get parts for, I assume they look at it that way. Some of the parts for the trunion aren't available now anyway. I think foil colors will be available for a long time in the 1" roll format. 3rd party suppliers will be the first to drop colors in that format.

I realize you are an ink jet shop. You have to be. But there are endless products the Gerber Edge can produce that ink jets can't, due to material availability, different processes, and different colors. So the addition of an Edge to a sign shop is a good addition. And if you have a Graphtec, Summa, or Roland cutter, Omega, Flexi, etc. will probably enable you cut Edge prints. When Sign Shops get rid of Edges, it may be because the person who ran it is no longer there. In other words they don't know how to use it, and distributors don't teach much. We offer beginning to advanced lessons and help because we focus on the Gerber systems. However, we can't teach Flexi. As one lady told us this week, "I don't know what I don't know." We are happy to help.

Doug Goodloe
800-232-8018

 

[Drip Dry]

May be off topic but Doug,

Did the Fx address the problem with spread and choke.

it seems that's my biggest disappointment with the LE model I have.
If I have 2 colors side by side, I feel forced to put it on the inkjet.

 

[Fred Weiss]

May be off topic but Doug,

Did the Fx address the problem with spread and choke.

it seems that's my biggest disappointment with the LE model I have.
If I have 2 colors side by side, I feel forced to put it on the inkjet.

Choke and spread is an effective solution only when the image is large enough to allow adequate space for an overlap of .03" to .04" to cover the margin of error between two print color passes. With smaller sizes or for skipping choke and spread altogether, I find simply switching to using four color process foils to be the best solution. Because process colors work on percentages rather than solid colors, there are no knockout lines needing corrective overlap by choke and spread. The edges instead simply blend together.

 

[GMS Product Manager]

May be off topic but Doug,

Did the Fx address the problem with spread and choke.

it seems that's my biggest disappointment with the LE model I have.
If I have 2 colors side by side, I feel forced to put it on the inkjet.

There are a bunch of reasons the Edge can print out of registration, and therefore a bunch of things you can do to fix it. But to answer your question; The FX's must ship with a tolerance below .007". Typical color spreads in the offset/film world are .015. As Fred suggests, you need a big enough spread for it to matter, and for one color to climb over another. However Gerber was proud to tell me that they are shipping with an average of .0025". That's tighter than the eye can see.

One of the reasons the FX is better is the larger diameter core they use for the foils. On a 1" core, the difference in diameter between a 50 yd. and 100 yd. foil is larger than it is on a 1.25" core. The difference in torque required and therefore the pull speed from the take up is reduced with a larger core. The print head pressure on the media helps to regulate that. When you have the choice of longer refills, it is tempting to save $, however the chances of registration issues will increase with longer foils.

Some of our customers will request only 45M refills. Through experience they have figured out that they have fewer registration issues (they don't know why) when they stick to the 45 Meter foils. The savings realized by buying longer refills is quickly lost by wasting media - Here's why: If you are coming to the end of foil on one color (let's say red), and for the second color you are starting with a brand new black foil that must trap, you may see issues, especially if it's a 91 meter ribbon. If you can grab a new/full red foil, it will usually eliminate the issue. That's just one of the reasons trapping is necessary. And on complex art, trapping can be time consuming.

I hope that helps.

Doug Goodloe
800-232-8018