GRS System 300

GRS tool company is trying to sell me their system 300 air powered system
for engraving and stone setting. Does anyone own one or have used one
that could give me any feedback? I just bought their benchmate system and
really like it alot.

Wendy Newman @Wendy_Newman

Wendy, I have the benchmate also and love it, actually I have 6 of them and
everyone loves them. We used the graver-mate air powered tool and the
graver-max air powered tool for a couple of months and returned them. Heres
why, we do tons of setting most of it channel setting, we have always used
those pnuematic hammers on our flex shafts. I was told that these air
powered tools were a god-sent and could push mountains of metal easily. The
first problem was I needed a quiet air compressor because it runs all the
time when using these (about $1000.00) and it was driving everone nuts
(employees and other tenants in the building). This may not be nessesary
depending on your situation. The big thing was it didn’t move mountains of
metal. Maybe my expectations were too high but for all that money it should
open up the safe in the morning, take out the jobs and have most of them
done by the time I walk in. Seriously it wasn’t dramatically better than
what we were using. I bet if I had sat with someone who had used it for
years I may have been happier. I think new tools and technologies can
really save you time and money, but with the hammer feature whether it is
air powered or electric motor powered didnt make that much difference. The
graver attachment would be helpfull if you do alot of bead setting and/or
have limited arm strength, it did seem a little choppy but that would only
take a little practice to correct. Fordoms graver flex shaft (I can’t
remember the name) didn’t have enough push. For me we do engraving and bead
work by hand, you would have to do alot to justify its puchase. If it was
less costly I would probably buy it.

Mark P.

GRS tool company is trying to sell me their system 300 air powered system
for engraving and stone setting.  Does anyone own one or have used one
that could give me any feedback?  I just bought their benchmate system and
really like it alot. 

I’ve used the GRS GraverMax for around 10 years, and I always enjoy using
it. There are times the manual method is preferred, such as when setting
fragile stones that can’t withstand vibration. I would ask the folks at
GRS if the System 300 has as much power as the GraverMax. You may require
power on certain jobs. The hammer handpiece that works with the GraverMax
is useful when you’re working in heavy 18k white gold for instance, or
pounding a thick bezel over. I looked at the 300 and considered it might
be good for light applications… never tried it though… Jeffrey Everett