Iroquois Ironworker - anybody have experience with them?

Look like nice machines, expensive though. If you can afford it, get a Geka. The cheapest full-featured ones are the Uni-Hydros. Price punches & dies before you purchase a machine.

GWE

...and if you're within striking distance of Los Angeles, CA next week you can see just about every brand of same in action.

Looks like a new company, suspiciously close to Scotchman, making simple, homemade style ironworkers.

Not very sophisticated design, although the ability to have a 24" press brake is a cool idea. Pretty cost competitive- expect that to change if they stay in business, as nobody will know about em unless they advertise and hit the trade shows- and that costs money. The way scotchman got to where they are is the ironworker equivalent of a rock band constantly touring- scotchman bought ads in every magazine, and hit every trade show. People have to see em, to even consider buying em.

But really, I would have to agree with the "Buy a Geka" comment.

The difference between a well thought out, real machine tool, versus a hydraulic cylinder and some heavy plate, is worth a couple of grand more, in my mind. Geka has really good gaging tables at both ends, with built in stainless steel rulers. Electric stops that are sturdy and also feature built in stainless steel rulers make repetitive, accurate, measuring tape free cuts. Quick change tooling.

The other thing I think is that you are taking a risk on a new company, that doesnt seem to be very heavily capitalised, and you have no idea how long they will be around, for service or parts. Buffalo and Edwards, Hill Acme have all been around for a hundred years. Geka, Mubea, and Peddinghaus, at least 50. Even Scotchman is pushing 25 or 30 years, with the Dvorak they descended from going back to 1950 or so. Piranha is owned by a big company now that also owns Bertsch and W.A. Whitney.

Being able to call somebody up, to troubleshoot, or to order parts, is worth something to me.

But really, I think the timesaving features of the Geka outclass every other machine on the market. I have had my Geka for 5 or 6 years now, and it is easy to use, accurate, and fast. I have seen endless scotchmans, uni-hydro's and piranhas with bits of angle iron vise-gripped to em, with tape measures hanging off them, which take longer to make inaccurate cuts.

Does Geka have a home web page?

Que Pasta? (Sorry, we just got back from Pizza Cookery.) ;-0

Where is this, kind sir? Machinery show?

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--LOL; good one! Yeah, it's WESTEC next week at the L.A. Convention Center. Put on thru SME; the website's at:

Geka is made in Spain- so yeah, there is a spanish home page, but better is their american distributor-

Really, check out the tables and stops, and the electric stop- these are the things that seperate them from the crowd. Instant quick adjust handles, just slide it to 2" on the ruler, and your hole is punched 2" from the edge. No measuring, no marking, no center punching. Same with the length stop cutoff- I use it even if I am only cutting one piece- you set it at 24", you get a 24" long piece- no marking, measuring, trying to squint in there and seeing if your sharpie mark is really on the edge of the shear- it saves a LOT of time.

Plus, the overall production quality is very high. We work the hell out of ours, and it never complains.