Quote Originally Posted by JAZZCNC View Post
Hi Rory,

So roughly £4500 for working Mid size machine with No PC or Spindle. . . .Thank you for a straight answer.

I wish you well with this machine and it's well thought out and put together. The only thing that concerns me is the linear bearings.?
At this money I would be expecting profiled linear rails, Looking at this machine it appears like it's using some Hybrid design.? Round rail in a machined housing.?
Because of all the shielding etc which is good thing, but does always make me wonder is it for the right reasons or just hiding something not so desirable.? we can't actually see the bearings/carriage and type or how the ride on the rails.!! . . . . Would it be possible to see this area please.?

Has you know and I know the linear rails are major part the machine and affect accuracy and quality of cut greatly so for this machine to stand the test of time the bearings/carriage design will need to be good. Even cheap bearings will last 12mth warranty period and for nearly 5K I'd be wanting and expecting maintenance free(other than lube) bearings for minimum 3-5yrs or better. So this would be an important and off putting if not decent quality design and bearings consideration for me.!!

Rest of machine looks Spot on thou. .

Oh Not keen on all electrics being housed in part of the main cutting frame, Shock vibration etc doesn't do most things any good. Then there's them pesky chips and coolant issues, esp if you plan on cutting aluminium which some will want to do, has even with air/mist coolant still collects and runs into cracks etc so hope it's well sealed.!

Please don't think I'm trying to pull machine down, I'm honestly not. I'm just doing my usual close looking and pointing out things less experienced potential customers won't see. If experienced folks like me don't speak up then we end up with likes of Strike CNC taking folks for thousands.

Cheers
Dean.

Edit: Ps. Would be nice to see pics of inside the Electrical housing so we can be sure there's no Ala Strike CNC booby trap surprises.!!

Dean - This is exactly the sort of involved feedback we are looking for and in our opinion it is very difficult to get people to think in this manner - thank you for taking the time to look over our system and highlight some very important considerations when looking at this type of router system. Typically with customers the price tag is king - but only half the story. And as you know only once you get to know the beast do you start to see the quirks.

I am not familiar with Strike CNC? What was the story there with their "booby trap"? haha sounds like fun times :) Every minute your "bought CNC machine" is "not machining for you" or at the very least "in a position to do so" it is lost value to the customer. When I bought my first router I spent more time making it better than using it!!! Our experience with other low cost router systems have shown up common pitfalls in machine design. With that said low cost machines do teach people CNC and are accessible at their price. The problem is customers do not fully understand the limitations of such systems at the point of sale and this has created issues with support warranties etc. It is for these reasons that we have chosen the presented platform.

And I'm 100% with you on the rail systems. The rail system is probably THE most important part of the entire machine design. Our ball screws are shoulder machined on both sides and sit fully supported at each end condition in the bearing housing. Therefore no load is transferred to the motor and there is no "rock" within the bearings in the frame. This design while generating excellent performance inherently challenges the gantry structure as the frame MUST be straight and 100% true to prevent lock up and jamming etc - this design demands flawless performance from the rail system. We have two ball-screws driving each gantry pillar on the main axis also. This is part of the reason we have such a stiff frame and supply a fully modular system. With the design there is no scope for misalignment of the gantry structure due to improper bench installation etc etc. However the trade off with the stiff heavy superstructure is that it does add to the cost but we feel its more than justified.

Our rail system is custom built in Germany - I won't go into specifics until I have pictures to support explanations - early next week at the latest.

The electronics are safely sealed away - all the cover panels are CNC cut and are sealed with sealant around the edges. The Tslot table end condition also provides a level of drip creep prevention from pesky coolant :) More details to come ASAP also there

We have had customers hammering 3D work in hardwood with no issues on full time production. The drive and PSU mount layout has heat-sink properties and there is also room for adding control boards if necessary for advanced machine variations.

We have a machine in a stage of assembly that that will suit to support the information you are after. I will be working on the machine on Monday and will take some sample pictures of the considerations you have highlighted. Is there anything else you would like to see while the opportunity is there?

Also - can you point me in the direction of a possible show/fair/expo where a stand would cross paths with the wider CNC community? We prefer potential customers seeing it in the flesh.