Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. - Thomas Edison
Here we go.When we tested the Aquasol with the Chromaline exposure calculator got a 15-20 second exposure. Then we used a Chromaline 10 step Stouffer scale, it gave us a full #6 at 15 seconds and #7 at 20 seconds. We shot the Kiwo (fine 85 LPI) and Chromaline calculator at 15 seconds and again got a solid #6. The instructions show 6-8 being a proper exposure. We held good detail, clear #4 text and good line and halftone detail. Paul can post detail photos tomorrow if needed. But, we think the best detail and durability still comes from dual cure emulsions.Bottom line is we tested this machine thoroughly. We sent it to the Kiwo lab in Texas and got a very favorable review (actually that is Alan's machine). Pierre tested one and was impressed, as he has posted on this and other Vastex bashing posts before. We had our Chromaline rep come in and do tests with us, all good. We brought screens and a digital microscope to every trade show for the last three years. Charlie Taublieb has many customers using them, all good getting fine detail and great speed. We have sold countless units all over the world with little to no issues.This thread, and a few others, has been hammering us with two customers unhappy with our LED machine, and one is using it below 50degF. Although we tested it outside at 30 degrees and it worked fine. We have hundreds of customers using these LED's not posting on this thread, not calling us with exposure problems. As a result of these two unhappy users we made many calls to many customers using our LED's, all very happy with their results. Not that we are not in touch with many on a regular basis, but we called the ones we never hear from. What we didn’t do is ask them to go online and post it, this forum is not for that kind of cheap tactics. We still stand at two not happy, hundreds happy, or at least quiet.We’ve had some trouble with bulbs going out, I admit it. I think it is the chips or its connections to blame, when this happens we replace them completely free of charge.Alan, if you’re so unhappy with your machine, move on. Contact River City and let him take it back, we will make you whole. I am sure we offered this over a year ago after your first or second thread, as we offered the pump upgrade over a year ago, but regardless, I will offer it again. The time spent writing about it could be better spent making money or enjoying life.In our 56 year history, Vastex has almost never had to take a machine back for an unhappy customer. But in the LED case, I can take a score of hundreds happy, one or two not.As for my friend in Japan, I wish you purchased through our dealer, they would have assisted you. But you insisted in purchasing directly. We contacted them, who has sold many machines; all their customers are very happy.One of my competitors has taken this opportunity to chime in on this one, very very classy. I have not responded to most of this or that because I always felt this was a place for people share ideas, not make sales pitches or stick it to the competition. And honestly we didn’t spend our time monitoring this or any other forum. I don’t believe either of these two customers was treated poorly, or ignored, requiring this and the other pages of reading for the world.Mark Vasilantone
I have to think that once the machine is returned, the folks at Vastex will be very interested in checking it out to see if indeed, there is something wrong.Myself, the few times that something failed with a product of mine, I was a little miffed that a custy did not point it out immediately so that i could see if rather than operator error, I had some bad ink, vinyl, or an equipment issue that needed to remedy ASAP.It's part of the process of constant improvement.
Quote from: Dottonedan on February 29, 2016, 05:16:53 PMHA! In PA, the weather forecast was "Partly cloudy in the Allegheny county. (EVERY DAY). Er was it Partly Sunny. 50.50.We actually had a nice sunny day here in Allentown, PA. That is the only reason we tried it out. Normally we won't recommend sun exposure because there is really no way to regulate or replicate it. It's tough to come up with any real conclusions from it but we thought we would give it a shot.
HA! In PA, the weather forecast was "Partly cloudy in the Allegheny county. (EVERY DAY). Er was it Partly Sunny. 50.50.
We actually had a nice sunny day here in Allentown, PA. That is the only reason we tried it out. Normally we won't recommend sun exposure because there is really no way to regulate or replicate it. It's tough to come up with any real conclusions from it but we thought we would give it a shot.
It's hard to keep up here only being able to check the thread every 3-4 hours but I'll try to address the questions.Ron and a few of the guys did come and demo the Starlight. He is spot on with his assessment and how I felt. I didn't want to give up on anything yet, and having seen a few others not having issues and Pierre's testing. So I went back at it, trying new emulsion and EOMs and we've managed to squeeze a little more detail by adjusting some things, but the swab test really is a telling result, especially when we're dealing with such a thin stencil and long exposure time with an emulsion that is made for LED.There has always been just enough doubt in my mind that it's us/me and when Rockers and I started communicating about our issues they mirror each other so precisely that I can't fathom it being coincidental. We've got some options on the table right now that we're mulling over. I'll keep on trying to solve our problems and of course I won't give up until I have a better option or better way of doing things. Gotta go but I'll try to address any other questions or comments I didn't get to.
just wondering if you have fixed the problems you had with the pump?I noticed on our unit after we had to change the power supply/ transformer that we could not get a good blanket draw down as we had before. It took a good 2 minutes or more for a a fairly OK vacuum. What I did notice now is that this was caused by the glass not being locked down completely even though all screws and clamps that hold it in place were pushing it against the sealing strips and were tight. We repositioned the glass a little bit further to the right locked it all down and boom complete blanket draw down in 20-25 seconds. I`m wondering if this was the cause for your slow vacuum times.