Fromm / Orgapak strapping tools?

[Vinko]

anyone use these?

Recommendations?

Looking at Fromm P329 (Made in Italy) and the Orgapak 400 (Made in Switzerland). Don't know if there's another company making these (Signode perhaps -- but maybe this is OEM Orgapak -- not sure).

Super-spendy (at least to my mind) but the labor costs/time that it can save can be worth it.

They've got a lock on distributors and there's not much room to negotiate on price. I understand the Fromm (at least) has batteries you can find commonly with some of the power tools found at Home Depot.

 

[MattT]

We've got a couple of the ORT400s at work. They use 18v Bosch lithium batteries and chargers. I found this out when we were quoted 2 week lead, and over $600, for a new battery and charger

Only service documentation I've been able to find on them is in German. I read enough I was able to figure it out with a little help from google translate. Not sure if they'll sell you parts or not. The couple times I've worked on them it turned out to be bad microswitches. I know the times we've sent them off the bills were high and the repairs took about a month.

And don't think I'm implying these things are unreliable. We've got people here who could tear up an anvil with a rubber mallet. The battery and charger had to be replaced because they got hosed down with evaporator coil cleaner.

 

[jake00]

We've been using Fromm for at least the last 10 years... we're in the lumber industry and use about a roll of strap a week.

Our are older and use Milwaukee 14.4 v batteries.... ours have been very robust, they've been dropped, fallen, beat up and they still work good. Once in a great while the tensioning roller needs to get cleaned out. Our units have outlasted about 5-6 batteries.

We kept a spool of steel strapping and a set of tools, but they haven't been touched since we got the fromms

We have this

 

[Vinko]

Thanks guys. Yes, I heard the Fromm's use a battery at Home Depot (otherwise I've been quoted an extra $300-$350 for batteries). Didn't know it was Milwaukee brand. I'll check to see if that's still the case. Good to know that the Orgapack uses the Bosch 18v.

For the Fromm, at least the 329, I like that the unit won't disengage until the seal is finished, whereas I understand that the Orgapak you can disengage before the light signals that the seal is complete.

I've been concerned about operator mis-use or abuse since like you guys we have a few idiots who don't treat tools well -- and you can have a policy or you can say you're going to police it -- but we all know that really this is almost impossible to do all of the time and you have to have heavy-duty and robust tools in a lot of work environments.

The one thing I've found frustrating about this is $3000 is a significant chuck of change -- I'm willing to spend it if it makes sense to do so -- because like I said, if you're strapping enough stuff the time saved (not to mention having a guy spend his time on something more profitable then spending all day strapping up loads) could really pencil out.

There's a strap I really like. But I haven't found anyone who can tell me if we can still use it. Though I did find a company who was willing to let me use the Fromm for a three week trial period. So we'll see.

We've been using Fromm for at least the last 10 years... we're in the lumber industry and use about a roll of strap a week.

can you let me know what type and make of strap you're using?

Likewise MattT

Only service documentation I've been able to find on them is in German. I read enough I was able to figure it out with a little help from google translate. Not sure if they'll sell you parts or not. The couple times I've worked on them it turned out to be bad microswitches. I know the times we've sent them off the bills were high and the repairs took about a month.

Here's the manual in English (also in French and German):

http://toolrepair.strapsolutions.com/manuals/ORT 400.pdf

I found a lot of info in English on the Orgapak and notice that even uline sells them now.

We're a Uline customer. I'm going to check into their return policy. If they're willing to send me one on our account, and let me try it, to compare to the Fromm, that would be ideal.

My guess is most of the distributors don't want to deal with a small outfit like us. They're probably used to guys who don't think twice about dropping thousands on tools.

 

[jake00]

We get our strap here
https://www.anasco.com/Landing_Page.html
We've bought it from other places, but these guys are local and helpful. I can tell you it's green and 5/8". I could probably dig up some actual specs .

I want to say the units we got were 2000ish each. Maybe start with a used one from eBay/Craigslist ?
As far as disengaging before the seal is complete, ours has a light, it takes 2-3 seconds

 

[Vinko]

We get our strap here
https://www.anasco.com/Landing_Page.html
We've bought it from other places, but these guys are local and helpful. I can tell you it's green and 5/8". I could probably dig up some actual specs .

Thanks. We're using a 5/8 x 0.35, green, 1400 lb 16 x 6 rolls from Continental western. It's thick stuff, but we'll see. Just hoping it seals well. Been through a lot of different strap until I found the one that worked. But it's killing us doing too much manual strapping.

I want to say the units we got were 2000ish each. Maybe start with a used one from eBay/Craigslist ?

Thanks. Had thought of that. Looked a bit. They're pretty spendy even used. So I thought that if I get something, and it's not working for us, I'm out at least a thou or more. And then I'll say to myself, should've gone with the right model, new

As far as disengaging before the seal is complete, ours has a light, it takes 2-3 seconds

Thanks.