User Reviews

Test Day 1, February 17, 2007
Marcus Hunt, seated at one of Alexandre’s training benches in Antwerp, Belgium. Lower right: Airtact unit connected to a standard GraverMax SC. — Although this setup was quite different from the bench Marcus normally uses, it worked well for his Airtact tests.

In mid-February this year (2007), I visited Alexandre Sidorov during a weekend open house event at his school in Antwerp, Belgium. Whilst there, I was able to play with a pre-production model of the new Airtact at my leisure. I was able to assess it freely and pass my comments, critique, and observations of this new tool directly to GRS folks as there was no 'show' pressure or large crowds of people.

Natural Control

During the years I’ve been using GRS equipment, I have come to the conclusion that no engraving tool is perfect. Glendo [GRS] has made vast improvements to their equipment over the past few years by way of improving the GraverMax and by taking air-assisted engraving to new levels with the GraverMach. But, to my mind, the one thing I've always hated was the foot pedal. Although the air-assisted graver has become an extension of my hand, the foot pedal always made me feel a bit divorced from the actual work piece. There's a feeling that something’s not quite right in the brain saying 'go' which is then interpreted by the foot and finally carried out by the hand.

I used to hand push gravers and since owning a GraverMax (and latterly, a GraverMach) I've always dreamed of having a way my hand could naturally and completely control the air-assisted graver. Foot pedals have always ended up causing me back strain because of the hours spent seated with one foot in an unnatural position but the advantages of air-assistance outweighed this disadvantage so I’ve been prepared to compromise. When I met DJ Glaser in August, 2006, I strongly encouraged him to come up with a hand controlled system which could be used with the existing GRS technology. My father, Ken Hunt, was with me and he agreed wholeheartedly with me in this request.

Scroll Test on Tag
Round tag, approximately 1" in diameter. — After experimenting with the Airtact for a few hours, Marcus Hunt engraved and shaded this scroll in nickel silver. The main scroll lines were from a standard GRS pre-marked pattern, which Marcus said he neither particularly liked nor disliked. It was, however, an opportunity to see how precisely he could follow layout lines using Airtact. After cutting the main scroll lines, Marcus added his own shading design with some incredibly fine lines. The test was successful as this photo clearly shows.

Beauty in Simplicity

My first impression of the Airtact is that the control box was actually a lot smaller than it seemed in the pictures I’d seen of it.The box is the brains of Airtact and does away with the need for the standard foot pedal entirely. However, a new ultra slim, low profile pedal (called the FootPod) attaches to the Airtact control box to make certain actions such as stippling easier. The box also does away with any exhaust noise which comes from the standard pedal, so the whole system, apart from the handpiece piston impact, is now silent. Emerging from the black box is a slim hose and it's this that controls the system. What happens is a small, almost imperceptible, amount of air comes out of this hose; close it off and the hand piece operates, simple!

It's the beauty of this simplicity that makes the whole system so great and it can be customized in so many different ways according to operator preference. This can be a small rubber pad on the actual handle or placed differently so it can be controlled by the thumb. But if you wanted to strap it to your opposite hand and squeeze it against the vise as you work, that would work too.

There are almost limitless ways the operator could set it up. My preference was for the hand control unit, which is a small rubber pad built into the back of the hand piece. All I had to do was squeeze the handle and away it would go, just like when I used to hand push except the pneumatics now assist instead of raw muscle power. And again this is where GRS have helped both the experienced and novice engraver in that the time period required to train muscle memory to be able to cut steel is no longer needed and this time can be used in learning graver (not muscle) control.

Pleasing Experience

At first I found the Airtact a little jumpy as I wasn’t at all sure of how the tool would react; it was a bit like learning to manually gear shift in a car in that it got smoother and smoother until one finally forgets about it all together and just does it. Also the gravers I was using weren’t mine and weren’t set up for me. After a few hours practice however, and learning to finely tune the controls to do slightly different actions (such as shading or fine bulino or heavy scrollwork) I found it so natural that I hate the thought of having to go back to the standard foot pedal for everyday work. In fact I managed to cut a panel of English small scroll with it, and because all you have to do is stop squeezing to stop the graver, the true plunge cut at the end of each cut was easy to attain.

English Scroll Test
English scrolls, shown with a British Pound (approx. .88" in diameter), slightly larger than a U.S. nickel. — Marcus Hunt is understandably particular when engraving English scroll and wanted to see how well the Airtact control system and its hand control worked with his technique. Marcus cut this steel practice plate quite early in his Airtact tests and “isn’t my best work” according to Marcus. He pointed out that he was not using his own gravers or the tool shape he prefers for this work. Still, this result demonstrated to Marcus that Airtact worked well for this style of steel engraving. Note that he purposely cut a range of scroll sizes as part of his test on this plate.

Having left it over night, I wondered if my feelings about it would have changed, but on the following morning I just picked it up and started cutting in an even easier and more relaxed manner. There was no jumpy start up or any over runs this time and for me it was a truly pleasing and natural experience as I became more and more accustomed to the unit. I have never, since going over to air-assistance from hand pushing, felt something feel so almost instantly natural as Airtact did. I say almost because, to be fair, any new tool will take a little bit of getting used to, but to an experienced engraver this learning time is negligible and changing from foot to hand control is the most natural thing in the world. The smoothness of the tool has to be experienced to be believed.

Fully Retro-fitable

Some points that I addressed to GRS were that I would prefer a smaller box or some way of mounting it under the bench. The two hoses to the handpiece looked untidy also, but this is a pre-production model and I'm assured that a one piece, twin extruded hose is said to be under development, so there will be no need to tape the two hoses together.

I have no doubt that at some time in the future all the qualities of Airtact will be built into one complete unit (such as a new Mach), which will be great aesthetically. But for most of us mere engravers our Max’s and Mach’s just keep on going and giving great service and we have no need to replace what is a perfectly functional unit. GRS has a winner here in that Airtact is fully retro-fitable and we won’t have to make perfectly serviceable units redundant. Well done, GRS!

In conclusion all I can say is that if they'd given me that prototype there and then in Antwerp, I'd have been in Airtact ‘Nirvana’ as it really was that good. This is going to be a truly great system for GRS users — I really, really want one, and I want one now!