PlateMaker for Letterpress

Hello,
We are looking to get a Anderson Vreeland Orbital platemaker. Does anyone have any input on this machine? The machine cost $5,500 and we will be using it for our workshops, and press rental. The plate size is 12x12. Anderson Vreeland has day light safe negative film which is supposed to be pretty good. I use daylight safe film for my stamp maker and the quality is really good.

Here are the specs: http://andersonvreeland.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/AV_Orbital-XI_lit.pdf

Does anyone have any recommendations on other platemakers?

Thank you,
Pete

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Pete

The A&V’s are great machines. You don’t need to buy a Orbital XI though, they recondition and sell older machines which are much larger (the XI only comes in that smaller size). And, quite frankly, the larger the machine the better off you will be in the long run. I’ve been running an A-2 VIII (their most popular machine) for about 18 years and it is still doing the job. Occasional maintenance, but 18 years!!!

I’ve got some info here:
http://bielerpressxi.blogspot.com/

Gerald

Also, just a note, A&V kind of moved a bit quickly away from the Orbital X; not sure I quite get the small size only of the XI. They seem far more interested in the flexographic folks, these days. Though, no matter what machine from whenever, they are extremely helpful with customer service.

Gerald