Gday MrPharmer,
I can second that I have a Blitz and get lots of great use out of it. Again, its not the same brand, but essentially the same machine. When I got the machine I got a whole box of printed cards, which I ditched and started afresh printing from InstaCode. I have an
InstaCode Live subscription, which I can and do sometimes vary month to month depending on whether I require just code for house cylinders, or for autos, with the autos and opening information another 6 dollars or so per month. I think the base subscription for house cylinders costs me about $10 AUD PM. Obviously, I also only require a subscription when I need a new card, when I first started afresh this was all the time, but now that I am a year in this may only be every other month, so I only pay accordingly. If I ever need a new card or code ASAP, I simply logon to the website, renew the subscription, then fire up the program and reactivate, which works nearly instantly.
I can also attest to the good repairability and ability to adjust these machines. When I first got mine secondhand, there was a good amount of rust and wear on the lower depth bar attached to the key carriage. As it was the non-eccentric bar, I simply removed it, machined a couple of thou off it and gave it a fresh gun-blueing. Reinstalled, and tightened up the grub screws securing it, and we were good to go. This first repair looked so nice, that I took the decision to dissasemble the entire machine and give it a full refurb / overhaul, which included blasting and re-powdercoating the unit, as well as cleaning, repairing and re-blueing most of the other shafts as well. You can see a log of this
here. My apologies for linking to the 'other' picking forum, but this machine was repaired when I still though this forum was invite only! After repair, I found it relatively easy to reset and adjust using some known good depth and space keys, and it currently cuts to within a couple of thou max to where it should be. I cant complain at all. If you go the refurb and want help resetting / adjusting it, PM me and I will do my best to remember how I went about it. This also applies to the gun-blueing if interested, I have been very happy using a cheap cold-blue solution I got from the gun shop, it gets me a finish very close to the original.
Highly recommended,
adi_picker