Quote Originally Posted by Jess View Post
Worse, if I go the way gianluca_g suggests (and ripping the existing controller out seems to be a rather common suggestion with these!), then I'm taking it apart and retrofitting it; and £700 buys a lot of fixing and retrofitting. On the other hand, if £735 is the difference between ending up with working hardware, and ending up pouring lots of precious time and good money into a bad purchase then it's it's worth every single extra penny - all 73554 of them!
Im not sure Hpc is selling the same machine as an eBay machine. I am assuming they have had to do things to meet UK health and safety legislation and its hard to imagine that they could survive and expand selling basic eBay machines. Yes buying from an importer is more expensive but they are supplying a degree of service you can't get from an eBay seller such as a guarantee and serviceguarantee. We haven't had to mess with the motion control stuff and when things went wrong (not their fault) they repaired it under the guarantee. When I said getting your hands dirty I was referring to the water cooling and alignment. I know people who have epilog machines and they just don't have these kind of issues. I understand someone buying cheap who is willing to invest a lot of time repairing but we need certainty and Hpc provided a balance between price and convenience.