A3 Marchant Dice Kit

[neo]

The thread seems to have gone a little off topic but here's part 3 for the holiday season to keep you going...

Part 3 Missing you already.

The parts to join the two sections together arrived about a week later.
unfortunately, those four missing specialised nuts were not the only parts that were not sent in the main box: The bracket to attach the spindle was also absent and so were two extra colletts for the Kress.
just to add to the experience the mach3 software was also missing....killed in action maybe! ((Mach3, speed of sound? jet fighter?..ohhh please yourselves Frankie howerd))
It took a while to dawn on me that all these parts were not included, remember there was no packing list. Fortunately the original invoice had the software and Kress colletts listed but they most definately wasn't in the box of packaging, I know I emptied it onto the lounge floor several times!

After hoovering up the mess, I was back in my wife's good books!

I kept my calm and duly emailed a list of the missing parts and they added them to the package containing the specialised nuts.
I can't tell you if there's any more missing parts....'cos there's NO CHECK list! (you can add any expletives between the words NO and CHECK at your discretion!......I did!!

So after a short while, all the parts arrived and we set about joining the two main parts together. It didn't take long and all of a sudden it started to look like a CNC machine.

The most noticeable thing is how heavy it was becoming, which on the one hand is great as the weight provides rigidity essential for precision, the downside is it becomes awkward to move about.
This is not a problem of the design, its the consequence of having a large machine: the bigger they are the heavier they become and this will affect DIY and commercial units.
It really is surprising how much they weigh.:surprised:
Subsequently, adding the bed to the machine increased its weight even more, it was becoming increasingly difficult to move, and I started worrying about my back! I began to wonder if I could leave the bed off and add other bits whilst I could still move it.
In the end I did a number of dry runs, keeping the sequence in my mind, only to conclude that adding the bed now was the most sensible step as it didn't have to be turned on its side anymore.


Neo

Part 4 to follow

[John S]

Perhaps if they had left more parts out it wouldn't have been as heavy ?

BTW the Mach software is downloadable off the net.

.

[neo]

Perhaps if they had left more parts out it wouldn't have been as heavy ?

You're right john! and ALL this could have been avoided with a simple checking or packing list which could have saved me, the customer, a bit of heartache.

That a side I hope you are all enjoying the read of the build so far...


in part 4 I add the final touches and hopefully very soon I'll have an old PC worthy of going down the shed

Neo

[ChrisG]

Happy New Year all,

My I put in my 2peneth about supplier problems? Oversights, poor/no instructions etc happen, that doesn't bother me to much as I'm an Engineer and guess what? I also make mistakes. What does anger me is the next step, the way the problems are sometimes so slowly delt with by the suppliers.

I reckon it's up to us consumers to give feed-back to our suppliers good or bad, and not just moan amongst ourselves. It is useful to see others problems, as they say ' A clever man learns by his mistakes, a wise man learns by others.'

Chris