Background info: I am a Maintenance Manager for a growing manufacturing company that builds alot of our equipment in house. Due to frustrations with leadtimes and workmanship from the local fab shops we have decided to bring our fab work inside. We recently hired several very experienced fabricators and are now in the process of gathering equipment to make them successful. I have been around fab shops my entire career and had a couple Ironworkers in the shops I've worked in but have never worked directly in a fab shop.
Question #1: We need to buy a used Ironworker and have a budget of $15k. It needs to be easily operable and good quality. Approx 50-60 tons capacity. I have read alot of posts within PM and learned alot from them. (My experience with ironworkers is somewhat limited)
Since we are a custom fab shop, I am more concerned about being able to have lots of options to easily make one off cuts rather than thousands of the same part. The majority of what we cut is 1/4" wall or under. One of the brands that has jumped out to me is Geka due to the quality of their fixturing tables. Unfortunately, there aren't many of them on the market and the ones that are there are either too big or too worn out. I've been looking for a month with little luck. I am leery of buying a new model of the cheaper brands (Iroquis, Edwards, etc) but am I just being too picky?
I look forward to your thoughts and please ask away with questions if you need more info to help make recommendations.
Question #1: We need to buy a used Ironworker and have a budget of $15k. It needs to be easily operable and good quality. Approx 50-60 tons capacity. I have read alot of posts within PM and learned alot from them. (My experience with ironworkers is somewhat limited)
Since we are a custom fab shop, I am more concerned about being able to have lots of options to easily make one off cuts rather than thousands of the same part. The majority of what we cut is 1/4" wall or under. One of the brands that has jumped out to me is Geka due to the quality of their fixturing tables. Unfortunately, there aren't many of them on the market and the ones that are there are either too big or too worn out. I've been looking for a month with little luck. I am leery of buying a new model of the cheaper brands (Iroquis, Edwards, etc) but am I just being too picky?
I look forward to your thoughts and please ask away with questions if you need more info to help make recommendations.