Esterly Speed Mat system

[karel210186]

Anyone using the Esterly Speed Mat system for cutting their matting? I have been on their website and it looks like there are several versions of this system. The thing I like is the fact that it can be wall mounted which helps considerably from a space standpoint. The other thing that is really nice is the fact that you can keep the matt in place and not have to turn it to make your cuts which makes accuracy of the cuts much better.

Anyone know what the price of these systems are? The one I would consider would be the standard version the can utilize the regular matt board of 32 X 40. I guess the major issue is whether I can justify the expense.

Any comments would be appreciated.
--
Karel

 

[Jon Shiu]

Hi, I think it is around $3000.

Jon

--
Mendocino Coast in Black and White: http://www.jonshiu.com

 

[santa]

Roughly $3000 is correct. I just ordered one. There is no industrial model any longer, it just standard and big sized. Bill Atkinson uses this, as does Micheal Reichman. There are other wall mount systems out there but none of them are as fast and as accurate as the speed-mat from what I have been able to discern. They are obviously overkill for doing a single mat here and there but if you plan on cranking out mats, particularly if you are going to do several with the same setting they sound like well designed machine. I always look at this kind of thing in the long term. Do I want to cut mats for the next 10 years spending X amount of time or 3x amount of time ? Three or four years down the road I'm always glad I got the better quality machine.

 

[Darrill Stoddart]

I hope you have had better luck than I will the Esterly or more specifically Speed-Mat the company that sells this device. I purchased mine just before moving back to the UK from America and when I finally started to set-up the Esterly I had a few issues.

The device was poorly packed and there was some small damage to one of the rulers, the manual (almost a joke book for a $3000 product) had what looked to be dried blood on the cover, two of the production stops do not work properly and the metal channel that the glass and board cutter runs in twists when the hold-down is used hence making a mockery of any alignment performed.

I do not think any of these were major problems but it took 4 emails to get a response from Speed-Mat and then they did not take any of the steps they promised. Since than I have tried further emails and written letters to their President but still no response.

This $3000 unit comes with a 1 year warranty but it appears Speed-Mat will not honour this. My next step is to find their trading name in the UK and see if I have any legal options.

Hope you had better luck.