Hi Frameboy,
A few months ago, I put together a list that shows all the CMCs, what they cost, how to contact the companies, and a side by side basic feature comparison. it's up at
THIS LINK , if interested.
Wizard offers three options:
www.wizardint.com
1) JR Rental: $500/software fee(plus $150 for optional CADD program), $245/month, 1000 corners/mo included. corners 1001+ @ $0.10 each
2) FULL Rental: $500/software fee(CADD program included), $390/month, 4000 corners/mo included. corners 4001+ @ $0.055 each
3) Purchase OR lease: ~$15225, or $15995 for someone to fly out to set up and teach you how to use the program. Shipping for us was $245. Cadd included, 500 blades, unlimited corners.
My advice is to give serious consideration to option 3, if you go with this brand. It sounds like a lot, but if you do the math... It costs ~$300 per month, with some creative financing and you can do whatever you want with it. We have had ours exactly 3 weeks, and have used 7000-8000 corners already. (and we have a very small 2 person/22 month old shop) I suspect our first month's corner usage will be close to 10,000. If we were on the JR program, that would have cost $1145 w/extra corners. (or $885 for std rental program) Granted, we did a lot of playing around and learning the first month - but the corners would add up fast otherwise. One mat we did had over 700 corners.
Eclipse is another excellent machine. Eclipse users rave about the reliability of their machines. Their plan is for purchase and not rental (unlimited corners).
www.eclipse-cmc.com
1) Eclipse LT: $11900 (lease ~$233/mo)
2) Eclipse XL: $18900 (lease ~$369/mo)
3) Eclipse PRO: $24000 (lease ~449/mo)
Trucut makes a great high end machine too:
www.trucut.co.uk
1) Elan: $25500 w/freight single blade
2) Excel $33900 w/freight double blade
3) Alpha $44000 w/freight double blade
I wrote to 6 other CMC manufacturers, asking for information about their products, but they didn't even answer the emails.
If you opt for a lease, understand that the leasing companies are usually outside banks, and the agents are commissioned salespeople. Get everything in writing and check their math. I have found some of them to be slightly less than honest
[ 12-22-2003, 07:52 PM: Message edited by: Mike-L@GTP ]