Vision MAX Pro User manual

THE ENGRAVERS JOURNAL/JUNE 07 www.engraversjournal.com
1
Vision Engraving Systems,
Phoenix, AZ, touts its new MAX Pro comput-
erized engraving machine as its “most versatile
machine to date.” That’s a very big claim for any
company to make, but after trying the system
recently, I would tend to agree. Designed spe-
cifically for the jewelry and gift engraving mar-
kets, this innovative machine can handle a heart-
shaped silver locket, a tapered glass vase or the
inside of a ring as easily as it can engrave a lug-
gage tag or plaque plate. And although jewelry
and gift engraving is MAX Pro’s claim to fame,
it can also be used for some industrial engrav-
ing applications like engraving legend plates
and marking small machine parts, capabilities
that expand this system’s versatility even fur-
ther. Coupled with Vision’s proprietary Vision
Pro software, the MAX Pro engraving machine
is one of the most user-friendly rotary systems to
date, which adds to its appeal.
Vision Engraving Systems introduced the
MAX Pro to their line of computerized mechani-
cal (rotary) engraving machines in 2006 as a so-
lution for engravers who needed an easy-to-use
system to engrave flat, deep, round and odd-
shaped items—exactly the type of products you
find in the jewelry and gift market. I had the op-
portunity to do a hands-on review of the system
(conveniently, just in time for holiday gift-giv-
ing!) and found that the MAX Pro Engraver pret-
ty much lives up to all the claims surrounding it.
The Basic Package
The MAX Pro Engrav-
er is a mid-price range en-
graving system with a base
cost of $13,995. For that, you receive a machine with a T-slot ta-
ble for engraving flatwork, a self-centering vise for holding jew-
elry and other small, odd-shaped items and a complete cylindri-
cal attachment for engraving round work like glasses and vases.
You also receive Vision’s top-of-the-line engraving software
package, Vision Pro 7.0, which comes standard with numerous
fonts, graphics capabilities (like automatic vector tracing and
multiple fill routines) and many helpful software “wizards” that
walk you through job setups for specific engraving applications,
such as inside-ring engraving. The latter is something I found es-
pecially appealing because you don’t have to remember the steps
or refer to the manual; the software does it all for you!
The MAX Pro engraver from Vision,
Phoenix, AZ, allows for engraving of
flat, deep, round or odd-shaped items
in one compact, easy-to-use machine.
The standard spindle on
this unit is an 11/64" top-
loading rotary spindle.
Copyright © 2007 by Davis Multimedia Intl., Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
As printed in June 2007, Volume 32,
No. 12 of The Engravers Journal.

THE ENGRAVERS JOURNAL/JUNE 07 www.engraversjournal.com
2
You also receive an accessory kit,
two engraving cutters of your choice,
a two-year limited parts and labor war-
ranty and an operator’s manual. The
manual is actually fairly well written
and easy to follow. It includes the ba-
sics for engraving different types of
jobs, some tutorials and a walk-through
of the main features in the software. If
you need more help, you can use Vi-
sion’s online Technical Assistant Cen-
ter. Vision also offers on-site training
and installation with the purchase of
this system.
Different package options are also
available, depending on your needs.
For example, in addition to the above-
mentioned items, you can add the ring
engraving accessory, additional cutters,
a burnishing adaptor and three different
holding jigs for a total of $16,710, in-
cluding freight.
For all it has to offer, the MAX Pro
is fairly compact, measuring 28" long x
28" wide x 26" high and weighing 150
lbs. I had the unit sitting on an office
desk and there was a little more than
half the desktop left over for work-
space.
An 11/64" top-loading spindle with
adjustable speeds up to 16,000 rpm is
standard on this machine. This allows
you to use industry standard rotary en-
graving cutters for materials like plas-
tics, rotating diamond burnishing cut-
ters for glass or non-rotating diamonds
for traditional diamond engraving. Op-
tional spindles are available as well, in-
cluding a 6 mm or 1/4" top-loading spin-
dle, top/bottom-loading collet spindles
or high frequency spindles (40,000 or
50,000 rpm) for special, high produc-
tion work.
The machine features three inch-
es of Z travel (up/down movement),
which is notably larger than similar
machines available on the market. You
can adjust the “lift” of the spindle as
needed, i.e. the amount the spindle
lifts between each cutter during en-
graving. This is useful in situations
such as engraving the inside of a bowl
or a tapered item to prevent the cutter
from smashing into the high spots. The
amount of downward pressure exerted
against the material can also be modi-
fied using a manual spring dampen-
ing pressure adjustment on the spindle.
Typically, you need more pressure on
harder materials, like brass, and less
pressure on more fragile materials,
such as glass or when diamond engrav-
ing materials of various hardness.
The machine is powered by micro
stepper motors, which are surprisingly
quiet. I had the machine running in a
quiet office setting and it didn’t disturb
anyone. According to Vision, they opt-
ed against servo motors, normally tout-
ed as providing smoother and faster
engraving, due to the speed and perfor-
mance of the stepper motors. As a side
note, Vision Engraving Systems has its
own in-house machine shop, so nearly
every component on this machine (as
well as the others in their line) is manu-
factured in their Arizona factory.
The Control Center
The MAX Pro is equipped with
Vision’s most up-to-date Series 3 con-
troller. On this model, the controller
is built into the machine and all of the
various engraving features and opera-
tions can be accessed using a hand-
held pendant mounted on the side of
the unit. Note that the hand-held ver-
sion of the controller is a $750 option
on Vision’s other units but it’s stan-
dard with the MAX Pro. Personally, I
didn’t find it necessary to remove the
pendant from the cradle as it is already
in a usable location on the side of the
machine. For example, it is very con-
venient to push buttons on the pendant
to jog the spindle around while look-
ing at the work area as opposed to the
pendant. And because it isn’t a separate
unit, it doesn’t take up any added work
space, which can be precious in many
retail operations. The pendant features
15 buttons and an LCD display, but
don’t let the 15 buttons scare you; I
found the pendant very user-friendly.
Using the hand-held pendant you
can set the Z speed (how fast the spin-
dle moves down to the material), the
spindle rpm and the feed rate (X,Y en-
graving speed). The maximum feed
rate, by the way, is 10 inches per sec-
ond, which is quite fast for this type of
machine. Note that you can also make
machine adjustments like these in the
software, but most engravers will prob-
ably prefer using the pendant. This
is easier and faster and allows you to
make adjustments “on the fly.” For ex-
ample, if you decide you need a high-
er spindle speed or slower engraving
speed, you can adjust the speed using
a knob on the pendant while the job is
engraving.
Vision’s controller also offers other
state-of-the-art features, such as open
architecture and high speed Ethernet
connectivity to your PC. In addition to
Here is a close-up look at the spindle
assembly on the MAX Pro machine.
The Vision Pro software allows you
to scan and vectorize logos and then
apply fill routines for engraving.
Engraving features and controls can
be accessed using the hand-held
pendant conveniently located on the
side of the machine.

THE ENGRAVERS JOURNAL/JUNE 07 www.engraversjournal.com
3
Vision’s own engraving program, you
can also run the MAX Pro using other
software, including CorelDRAW. For
those of you who want to take your en-
graving skills to the next level, you can
utilize the system’s 21/2D and 3D en-
graving capabilities by pairing it with a
3D engraving program like CASmate’s
EnRoute, for example.
Workholding Options
One of the best features of this ma-
chine is the multiple workholding op-
tions that are built right into it. There’s
a T-slot table for flat work, a dowel
pin vise that accepts a variety of jigs
for odd-shaped items, a cylindrical at-
tachment for engraving roundwork and
even a ring engraver (although the lat-
ter is optional). It’s not just the multi-
ple workholding options that make the
MAX Pro so versatile, however. It’s
the fact that you can switch from one
method to another with extreme ease.
Are you finished with that name badge
job? Remove the T-slot table and slip
on the holding cones for a champagne
bottle and glasses. Finished with that?
Remove the cones and attach the ring
engraver to personalize a set of wed-
ding rings. Obviously, there is time in-
volved in setting up each job, but the
hardware changeover between jobs is
really easy.
Each holding option has its own
driver installed in the software, so
you simply select the driver based on
the type of work you are engraving.
That’s where some of the Vision Pro
software’s “wizardry” comes in. By
selecting the appropriate driver, the
software communicates to the engrav-
ing machine the proper home position
(upper left corner for the T-slot table,
center for the vise) and engraving ori-
entation. You can also add up to nine of
your own drivers and save them for fu-
ture use, e.g. for quick setup for certain
styles of pens or other items that you
frequently engrave.
Here’s a more detailed look at the
MAX Pro’s workholding options:
T-Slot Table
The MAX Pro’s aluminum T-slot
table is used for holding and engraving
flat items, such as trophy and plaque
plates, name badges, luggage tags, etc.
The table has an 8" x 12" engraving
area and will handle items measuring
14" wide x 3" thick x any length since
the material can extend beyond the ta-
ble’s limits. Four Allen screws secure
the table to the vise, so removing or
installing it is a matter of removing or
installing the screws. Materials can be
held to the table using Vision’s quick-
lock vise fixture (included) or their
“Multi Mat” material, a self-adhesive
material that can be placed directly
on the table to provide a rubber-coat-
ed gripping surface. Vision also sells
other clamping accessories, such as an
edge clamp that clamps down on top of
the material, wedge clamps and corner
clamps.
The Workholding Vise
When the T-slot table is removed,
you have access to the unit’s vise for
holding various odd-shaped items ei-
ther directly in the vise or in conjunc-
tion with a variety of holding jigs.
The self-centering dowel pin vise on
this unit is modeled after the timeless
“SC-3" workholder, which originated
on the highly versatile GTX series pan-
tograph engraving machines that many
long-time engravers still own. The
great advantage here is interchange-
ability—you can use any of the indus-
try standard holding jigs you may al-
ready have on this machine in addition
to Vision’s own line of holding jigs.
Vision holding jigs for this vise in-
clude a pen/medallion fixture, a seal
fixture and their universal pin jig. The
universal pin jig features a series of
holes that you insert pins into to secure
items. This is a particularly good ac-
cessory to have on hand since these jigs
can handle many small, odd-shaped
items like ornaments, jewelry, letter
The Measure Wizard allows you to define the engraving area using a red pointer and
then preview that engraving area.
With the Measure Wizard, you can use
the system’s red pointer to define the
engraving area on odd-shaped items.
The self-centering dowel pin vise
on the MAX Pro accepts a variety of
interchangeable holding jigs, such
as this Universal Pin Jig, for holding
odd-shaped jewelry and gift items.

THE ENGRAVERS JOURNAL/JUNE 07 www.engraversjournal.com
4
openers, charms and medals.
The vise has an 18-inch wide open-
ing capacity, a spindle clearance of
seven inches and can be opened and
closed either automatically by pressing
the shift and arrow keys on the pendant
or manually by using the adjustment
wheel. You can also tilt the vise 15 de-
grees to the left or right to improve the
cut with tapered items such as pilsner
glasses. Note, too, that you can select
the “vise rotated” driver in the soft-
ware when holding items sideways in
the vise and the software will automati-
cally rotate the layout 90 degrees.
Roundwork
The MAX Pro’s built-in roundwork
engraving capabilities add to the versa-
tility of this machine, enabling you to
engrave mugs, glasses, vases and more.
To switch to roundwork engraving on
this unit, remove the T-slot table or any
jigs from the vise and slip on the hold-
ing cones. A flat cone mounts on the
follower side of the vise (right side)
and a tapered cone slips onto the gear-
box side.
This system is capable of engrav-
ing round items measuring up to six
inches in diameter and 12 inches long,
which encompasses most round gift
and award items. To clamp an item,
simply open the vise, position the item
on the cones and then close the vise by
using either the motorized feature or
the manual hand wheel. When doing
this, I did break a couple of glasses.
While I obviously over-tightened the
vise, it may not have been so “touchy”
if I had cushioned the tapered cone (or
both) with foam, rubber or some other
“springy” material.
Setting up to do cylindrical en-
graving is straightforward and quick.
Simply select the “rotary axis” key on
the pendant, choose between “standard
mode” and “ring mode” and enter the
diameter of the object to be engraved.
Note that Vision provides some nifty
digital calipers for doing this accurate-
ly and easily.
The built-in self-contained coolant
system for engraving glass is another
nice feature. The system has a recir-
culating coolant pump and a trough to
catch the coolant. A tube connects to a
plastic nose cone on the spindle, which
streams water or other water-based
coolants over the item during engrav-
ing. You can also adjust the liquid flow
as needed. As a side note, the machine
is manufactured with all stainless steel
machine components, including the
rotary spindle, so there are no wor-
ries about rust when using the coolant
system. With the exception of a few
broken glasses, I found this glass en-
graving setup to be one of easiest I’ve
ever used and the results were very at-
tractive. Vision also throws in tubes
of Gold Leaf, Silver Leaf and Antique
Silver Rub ‘n Buff to color fill the en-
graved glass.
Ring Engraving
For $1,995 you can add ring en-
graving capabilities to this machine,
allowing you to engrave the inside and
outside of most rings and bracelets.
The ring accessory consists of a three-
jaw chuck that holds the ring/bracelet
and an L-shaped diamond graver used
to do the actual engraving. To set up
the machine, you secure the chuck to
the gearbox side of the vise using set-
screws and mount the diamond adaptor
to a bracket located next to the spindle.
Next, set the position of the cutter by
lowering it until the end of it touches
one of the holding pegs in the chuck.
Several holding pegs are provided
with the chuck to accommodate differ-
ent sizes of rings. The ring or brace-
let can be positioned over or under the
pegs, depending on whether you are
engraving the inside or outside of the
ring. The remainder of the setup is a
snap thanks to the “Ring Wizard” in
the Vision Pro software. The wizard
takes you step by step through the set-
up process and even includes illustra-
tions showing you where and how to
measure the ring and where on the ring
the engraving will be placed.
After selecting inside or outside en-
graving, the software prompts you to
measure the size of the ring with the
ring size tool provided, as well as the
width of the ring with the digital cali-
pers. Next, you can select where within
the circle the engraving will be placed
by entering a “from” and “to” point on
the ring. Then enter the text, includ-
ing the font, character size and the top
and bottom margins. For the text size
and top and bottom margins, you enter
a percentage of the ring width (shank
thickness). So, for example, if the ring
width is .25" and you enter 50% for
the text size, then the text height will
be .125". If you enter 10% for the mar-
gins, then the margins will be .25".
You can also enter a second line of text
if desired in the same manner. This
step-by-step guidance is a great feature
for jewelers who can’t afford to make
an engraving mistake on an expensive
ring.
Impressive Engraving Features
For many non-rotating engraving
jobs, MAX Pro has a built-in proximity
sensor to set the engraving depth. With
this feature, the cutter automatically
lowers and detects the material surface
so you don’t have to “set the surface”
manually, which was standard practice
in rotary engraving for many years.
This surface-sensing feature automati-
cally adjusts the cutter throughout the
entire engraving process to maintain a
uniform engraving depth, an especially
The optional ring accessory allows
you to engrave the inside and out-
side of most rings and bracelets.
The Ring Wizard in the Vision Pro
software takes you step-by-step
through the ring engraving process.

THE ENGRAVERS JOURNAL/JUNE 07 www.engraversjournal.com
5
useful feature when engraving curved
and tapered items.
Another major highlight of the
MAX Pro is its auto laser layout fea-
ture used in conjunction with the soft-
ware’s “Measure Wizard.” Say, for
example, you are engraving a heart-
shaped compact where the engraving
area is difficult to determine in terms
of X, Y coordinates. When the “Mea-
sure Wizard” is activated, a red laser
pointer on the machine automatically
turns on and the software prompts you
to jog the spindle to mark the upper left
and lower right corners of the engrav-
ing area. This information is automati-
cally sent to the software as the “plate
size” and you can design your lay-
out from there. The pendant will even
prompt you to “outline” the material,
which causes the red pointer to outline
the engraving area for visual verifica-
tion. This is an awesome feature that I
found extremely useful and time-sav-
ing for even simple jobs like luggage
tags (no more calipers and rulers!).
Note that for some reason this feature
is not available with the Vise Rotated
driver. You can also use the red pointer
for a “dry run,” meaning the red point-
er and not the cutter will “engrave” the
job. This is really useful when engrav-
ing expensive items.
Another handy feature is the abil-
ity to restart the engraving anywhere in
the job. For example, if a cutter breaks
or the engraving depth is uneven in the
middle of a job, you simply jog the
spindle over to that point and restart the
engraving. The machine will automati-
cally reengrave starting at the character
closest to the spindle position.
Software Highlights
Vision Engraving Systems offers
three levels of its proprietary software:
Vision, Vision Pro LT and Vision Pro.
Vision Pro 7.0 is the latest and most
advanced package and is standard with
the MAX Pro engraving machine. To
use it, you’ll need: Windows 95, 98,
ME, 2000, XP or NT; 400 Mhz Pen-
tium processor; 128 to 256 MB RAM,
depending on the operating system; 50
MB of hard disk space; a CD ROM
drive and an available serial port and
USB port.
Vision Pro is essentially the Engrav-
eLab package developed by CADlink
with some added features, such as the
wizards and the engraving controls par-
ticular to Vision’s MAX Pro system.
As with nearly all software pro-
grams available today, Vision Pro has
many different features, icons, buttons
and toolbars to get used to. The hard-
ware on this system is really easy to
operate; it’s the software that could
present a learning curve. Vision Pro
can be used to run other machines as
well, including routers, laser engrav-
ers, color printers and vinyl plotters so
there may be features that you don’t
use regularly, if at all, depending on
your applications. Some of the icons
are a little small and unclear for my
liking, but it shouldn’t take too long to
become comfortable with the software.
And, as mentioned earlier, the wizards
help tremendously.
The fonts provided with this soft-
ware include 65 engraving fonts,
Braille fonts, 1,100+ TrueType fonts
and a clip art package. There are plenty
of type styles to choose from, although
I find many of them to be very similar
to each other.
Like most engraving programs on
the market today, you can choose your
method of layout, i.e., a visual WYSI-
WYG approach or a mathematical
method where you enter dimensions
to do a “fixed layout.” The software
includes standard auto layout features
that allow you to define certain param-
eters to fit into a specified area, e.g. au-
tomatic kerning modes, set margins,
etc. A multiple plate feature allows you
to merge text files with layouts to cre-
ate batch or multiple plate jobs, which
is a time saver for quantities of name
plates or badges. There are also fea-
tures for arc engraving, fitting text to a
path, dials and rulers for industrial en-
graving and engraving by color.
A nice extra in this package is the
bitmap-to-vector conversion software.
With this, you can scan a logo or de-
sign, double-click on it and select the
trace option to create a vectorized im-
age. You can then edit that image and
add a fill routine to prepare it for en-
graving. The software includes various
fill routines for creating cutter paths,
including S-sweep, line sweep, island
and spiral fills. The whole process
is fairly straightforward and provides
good results. In this respect, rotary en-
graving has come a long way since the
old days in terms of using logos and
other custom graphics in your engrav-
ing jobs.
Braille conversion is another fea-
ture of this software. After translating
the text to Grade 2 Braille, which is the
correct type for ADA signage, you can
tell the engraving machine to automat-
ically drill holes for Braille “rasters”
or automatically rout out the material
leaving raised dots. This, of course, is
a must for those using the machine to
create ADA signage.
The Verdict
The user friendliness of this ma-
chine can’t be overstated. Vision has
obviously made it a priority to make
jewelry and gift engraving extreme-
ly easy. I was impressed with how
quickly I was up-and-running and
switching from engraving a luggage
tag to a flask to a pilsner glass or
from a charm to a humidor. And the
software wizards are a fantastic ad-
dition to the software. I’m not much
for rulers, so the “Measure Wizard”
served as a nearly foolproof means
for setting up a job, while the “Ring
Wizard” saved time looking up spe-
cifics in the manual.
As you can surmise from this re-
view, I found the MAX Pro to be an
excellent system for the gift and jew-
elry engraving market as well as most
award applications. If this were my
business’ forte I would definitely be
looking at this machine, and if it hap-
pens to be yours, I would suggest you
do the same.
Copyright © 2007 by Davis Multimedia Intl., Inc. All Rights Reserved.
As printed in June 2007, Volume 32, No. 12 of The Engravers Journal.
Jackie Zack
Jackie Zack began her career in the industry with The Engravers Journal in
1985. She has authored hundreds of articles for EJ and has covered almost
every related industry topic. Her dedication to the industry really shines in her
one-of-a-kind Rotary and Laser Buyer’s Guides.
Jackie can be reached by E-mail at [email protected].