Ok A tough one ---
Santinelli VS Briot
Ok A tough one ---
Santinelli VS Briot
I have no experience with Briot.
But i really appreciate the ultra-precision of my Santinelli Lex-1000, mit drill.
B
Santinelli, but also check AIT and others
This is the thread I always post whenever anyone asks about Briot: http://www.optiboard.com/forums/show...ighlight=briot
If you do a forum search for Briot, you will find A LOT of threads complaining/asking for help with their edgers. Do a search for Santinelli and you'll find A LOT of people recommend them. Yes, I've seen a couple of threads from people who have had issues with them, but I think they just got a bad machine. Overwhelmingly, Santinelli is the most recommended. And I recommend them too.
I though you said this was a tough question.....
There are rules. Knowing those are easy. There are exceptions to the rules. Knowing those are easy. Knowing when to use them is slightly less easy. There are exceptions to the exceptions. Knowing those is a little more tricky, and know when to use those is even more so. Our industry is FULL of all of the above.
Santinelli. Love the equipment, hate their customer service. As I told the owner a few years ago, not everyone who uses their equipment is from New York. Some of us are from Texas and we like friendliness, even if it's fake. To quote Woodrow Call from Lonesome Dove after beating a man to a pulp for hitting Newt "I hate rude behavior in a man. I won't tolerate it."
As for Briot: I consider them to be the Rodenstock of the edger world. They had an opportunity but threw it away for reasons unknown to mankind. They have spent the last 12 years or so trying to prove that they are still worthy but just cannot do it. You'll find an occasional person who likes them because only occasionally will you find anyone who uses them. That means that the equipment isn't bad, but you're kind of on your own. They need representation here or they just need to give up. Just like Rodenstock.
If those are your only options, go with Santinelli. Edger selection all depends on what you plan on doing with it. No drilling, no REALLY strange frame shapes, no facets or stone inserts? Go with AIT. Need to customize lenses and do weird things? Santinelli.
Last edited by hipoptical; 02-04-2011 at 10:35 AM. Reason: Forgot to mention Briot
Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither. C.S. Lewis
An explanation of cause is not a justification by reason. C.S. Lewis
Wow. I've NEVER had a problem with their customer service, either on the phone or in person from their techs.....
There are rules. Knowing those are easy. There are exceptions to the rules. Knowing those are easy. Knowing when to use them is slightly less easy. There are exceptions to the exceptions. Knowing those is a little more tricky, and know when to use those is even more so. Our industry is FULL of all of the above.
Could it be that it's because you're from NY? Maybe you just don't notice it...:)
Kidding of course.
They have made great strides to change opinions like mine I will admit, but they haven't changed my opinion completely. In saying all that, I could buy one this year.
Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither. C.S. Lewis
An explanation of cause is not a justification by reason. C.S. Lewis
If I were from NY City, then I might agree. But I'm on the other end of the state, and originally from Virginia.Originally Posted by hipoptical
We've got two LT-1000's, a SE9090 (most awesome basic production level edger EVER), and a ME-1000. I'm trying to convince my boss to get us a ME-1200 and a couple more SE-9090's (especially if they're robotic 9090's).
Note: Just in case, since it's hard to tell tone of voice and such on forum posts, I am NOT offened in anyway by the quoted post. Just wanted to make sure that's clear. Have a nice day.
There are rules. Knowing those are easy. There are exceptions to the rules. Knowing those are easy. Knowing when to use them is slightly less easy. There are exceptions to the exceptions. Knowing those is a little more tricky, and know when to use those is even more so. Our industry is FULL of all of the above.
Too funny! Since you're from Virginia you understand. Why has it been so hard for Santinelli to learn that phrase? I should admit that it's been a couple of years since I dealt with them directly. Maybe they finally changed. (It was about 7-8 years ago when Gerard told me they were trying to change...)
Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither. C.S. Lewis
An explanation of cause is not a justification by reason. C.S. Lewis
I have been a Santinelli customer for over 5 years and purchased the 2nd ME-1000 in the US market; I had a few issues over the years, but after all is said and done the service has been very good and they have gotten friendlier over the years.
We do our own repairs and they would rather send out a tech, but they even call a day or so after we work on something to ensure it is functioning as it should.
I have owned 3 brands of equipment and the only one we hated and returned was the Briot. The others are stilll being used by a friend of mine after another 5 years.
Craig
I bought my Briot used and have been relying on Briot for parts and support. They have good people in both the phone and field tech support roles.
As for the machine, it does a great job of cutting lenses. I have to take some unusual steps when cutting Trivex, but I can live with that.
Why would you have to take unusual steps to cut any material? We do 85% trivex and just hit the trivex button!
What do you need to do to cut a trivex job that is necessary but acceptable?
Listen to Craig. He's guided me through my get acquainted mode with my Nidek LEX 1000, and now the only thing that ever makes edging mistakes is....me!
B
Did you change out the wheel and/or the pads?
I agree with Craig. Last year I bought the cheapest edger AIT makes (Continuum) for a specific purpose, but discovered that it does a good job on everything
I've thrown at it. The polish is comparable to Santinelli on all materials, but the price was comparable to a used Briot :bbg:.
Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither. C.S. Lewis
An explanation of cause is not a justification by reason. C.S. Lewis
Pads done - worked much better thane expected.
Wheel was bought, but upon installation, I discovered that the wheel, meant for an ME, will NOT fit my LEX 1000 due to offset issues. SuperAbrasives DOESNOT make a wheel for the LEX at this time.
So it is PADS only, and I'm fine for now with that. But I would recommend the SA wheel for any ME owner.
Barry
Curious what model you are looking at and what price are you finding? Thinking about adding one to our repetoir as well...
My business is a relatively new one. I've been committed to the idea of paying as I go and not taking on any loans. Therefore, on my first patternless edger, I decided to buy something I found here on Optiboard for less than $5000. Buying a used machine sometimes involves accepting trade-offs. The less expensive the machine, the more likely there will be these trade-offs. Would I rather have a brand new 7E, Mr. Blue or some other fancy brand new edger? Sure I would -- and I may buy a new machine sometime in the future. I established a savings account for that purpose. At this point in time, I take a couple of extra steps to process Trivex --which I use a lot. To me, the small amount of extra time necessary to process Trivex is acceptable. With these extra steps, the quality of the job is excellent -- good sizing, on axis, etc.
Thanks everyone for all of the answers. I have been using Briot edgers for 20 years now. The 3000 and 4000 to me have been the best edgers! I have not gone to a patternless edger because, 1) Expense 2)Manual abilities. The main deal is the expense. We are a small company, but like to do our own work. After getting all of these answers, I did start looking at AIT. Anyone have a rough idea on the prices of the AIT's. I noticed that the Briot B&W is self contained, meaning does everything. Looks like the AIT's you do have to still have seperate blockers / scanners. We are thinking of buying used instead of new just to keep the prices down. Probably purchasing two edgers. Thanks again
Not tough at all. Santinelli every day of the week and twice on Sundays.
I'm Andrew Hamm and I approve this message.
I'm awaiting delivery today of my new used 1997 Briot Accura B&W. This will be my second one, and I hope that 'll be set for the next several years -- eventually scavenging parts from one to fix the other. I don't think these are bad edgers at all. Because they aren't as popular as some other brands, they can be purchased inexpensively used. Between my two I will have paid less that $8,000. Rather than taking on payments, I've paid for this one in full this month.
To those considering AIT, You should know that we just signed an agreement to be the exclusive distributors of WECO equipment in the US. Our product line has expanded quite a bit =)
Matt C.
Marketing Specialist
Luneau Technology USA(AIT-WECO, Briot, Visionix)
www.luneautechusa.com
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Was just looking at some numbers for our office to get into the edging business. Finally! I have my eye set on a Continuum from AIT and from everything that I've been able to come up with, it seems like a wise choice for my needs. Smaller office, not doing any drilling or fancy beveling. Just trying to get an estimate so I can approach the doc with something.
I campared these two as well as the NO machines at a show. Decided against the NO because they still have those undependable, expensive servo motors. Against the Briot because the tech at the show could not get it to preform properly. Enjoyed the Santinelli very much. Groove polys come off the machine ready to mount. Great job.
We been using NO for about 20 years. First the Horizon 2, then 3, now 7E. We have never replaced a servo motor.
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