Any recommendations for a cnc?

[Mick Simon]

Indeed for sure! My second issue, even if I went with the 24x36 with liftgate, my drive is positioned such that a semi would notbe able to back in and to complicate it further the approach is gravel so even loading onto furniture or car dollies I wouldnt be able to 'roll' it down the drive. I'd have to make a dolly with pnumatic tires.

I have the same problem. I have a 960 pound 16" Hammer jointer/planer coming this Friday. Rural, downhill, curved, gravel drive with overhanging trees means I'll be offloading onto a sheet of reinforced plywood then shuttling sheets one in front of the other until I reach my shop. Only have to do it once.

[Mick Simon]

Michael...
The liftgate option is a shipping company regulation. It is based on a maximum of 4', I think. Larger crates cannot be safely moved and rotated onto a liftgate. In most cases the trucking company will unload at the street as they are not permitted to put heavy trucks onto residential driveways.


If you do not have access to a small tractor with forks or a forklift , then the rollback is a great option (at a dock or at your driveway) as they can place the crate at your garage door. Some of the better operators even push the crate inside the garage.

I agree. We used to use rollbacks on all of our local CNC deliveries. It's a very good and cost effective solution.

[Michael Ramsey]

Michael... The liftgate option is a shipping company regulation. It is based on a maximum of 4', I think. Larger crates cannot be safely moved and rotated onto a liftgate. In most cases the trucking company will unload at the street as they are not permitted to put heavy trucks onto residential driveways. If you do not have access to a small tractor with forks or a forklift , then the rollback is a great option (at a dock or at your driveway) as they can place the crate at your garage door. Some of the better operators even push the crate inside the garage.

I do have a friend who has a buddy that is near me with a tractor that has a front end loader. What I don't know is if he has forks for it. looking into that today.

[Robert Bonenfant]

Didn't see the part where they wouldn't offer it for your order,

Do you have a truck and trailer - If you have a truck or suv with a tow package you can rent a small trailer and pick up directly from the Carrier Center (Most Carriers offer this type of Service, UPS, RL and Road Runner all have Hubs Close to you) Remove the ramp have them load it - We had to be creative when we first started out. Just another option I used in the past.

[Michael Ramsey]

I gotta say right now I am a little bit disappointed in Camaster... . I call and talk to the sales guy and can obviously tell he has better things to do (trying to rush through the phone call). Extremely slow to answer emails and if / when i get a reply my questions are not fully answered. Been days and I still cannot access the camheads forum to post. I guess a $12k order is chump change or something but it's really becoming a major annoyance.

Shopsabre on the other hand has been on the ball with communication. I hate to see this go by the way of who ever answers the phone first.

Can anyone tell me the specification of the stepper motors on the stinger 1? NEMA 23 I suspect, but what is the torque specs? Oh and what size are the guide rails?

[Bruce Page]

A couple of things; the Camheads forum is not run by Camaster. AFAIK, it has a single Admin and he runs a full time cabinet business, be patient.
Second, I remember being frustrated with the sales people also but you only have to deal with them once.

[Gary Campbell]

Michael...
No one has ever accused me of being sympathetic to someone in sales, for any company. That said, I have had a peek on the other side of the curtain.

Hypothetical situation: Most prospective purchasers agonize over the CNC buying decision, with good reason. The average one requests multiple quotes, and places 3-5 emails and an equal number of calls (per week or in some cases per day) to have their questions answered that have come up. These questions come up either due to more research or due to things that are said by online user recommendations or competing sales persons. Some potential buyers double or triple the numbers above.

This is the time of year where most business owners purchase with the intent to expense the machine on this years tax return. So there isn't just one customer with these multiple request's for info there are dozens..... that buy. Hundreds that don't. No one agonizes more than someone that knows what they need, but cant afford it.

I wont defend a lack of response, as long as it would be somewhat timely. But timely is a matter of perspective. Often this time of year there will be hundreds of emails in the sales inbox from a weekend and more coming in every hour. There is an analogy here; the better restaurants have a long line. The ones with lousy food allow you to walk right in. Where would you prefer to dine?

[Keith Outten]

Once the order is placed and the machine is received what is most important for the life of the machine is tech support. Trust me on this point I have a lot of experience asking for help

Both CAMaster and ShopBot have excellent tech support even when the years have gone by they will both help you no matter what the problem.

Concerning sales Gary's explanation above is right on target, the best I have ever seen in all of the years The Creek has been online. Its frustrating to purchase a CNC Router at best and it will test your patience beyond what you would expect. We all go through this the first time we buy a machine, it gets easier when you order routers in the future when your first machine pays for the second.
.

[Michael Ramsey]

Sorry guys, busy day at work and haven't had a chance to reply. I do know how sales guys can be. They tend to bug the crap out of you when you don't want them but seem to never be around when you do. I was specifically looking for an answer on the specs for the NEMA 23 steppers ie the torque rating. Someone here tipped off the fellows at Camaster regarding my disappointment and lack of forum access on CamHeads, thanks for that. I do have access and did get a call from Thomas Mwangi yesterday who apologized for the issues. Kudos to him for reaching out.

On a slightly different note as far as taking delivery... If I were to rent a uhaul truck and pick up the machine at the freight terminal would I have any trouble unloading it with furniture dollys and the ramp?

[Kevin Jenness]

I will give a plug to Camaster's tech support. I bought a used 4'x8' Stinger a couple of years ago and have contacted them several times for advice and in one case repair service. Although they do not respond instantaneously, they have been very helpful and did a thorough job with quick turnaround when I sent in my x/z axis gearbox for a rebuild recently. The key here is that they are supporting a 6 year old second hand machine. If you decide to upgrade in the future and sell your router the ongoing factory support may be a selling point. That and the active Camheads forum have been quite useful to me. I also visit Shopbot's forum and CNCzone, which has boards for a number of cnc brands including Shop Saber, as well as Woodweb's CNC site for a wider perspective. As Keith said, whatever brand you choose, any ongoing relationship will be with the techs.

[eugene thomas]

Ss tech support is for the original buyer and not transferable...... just another food for thought.

[Bill George]

On a slightly different note as far as taking delivery... If I were to rent a uhaul truck and pick up the machine at the freight terminal would I have any trouble unloading it with furniture dollys and the ramp?

I have purchased my share of heavy stuff. Best way for me anyway, I have a 2 wheel low to the ground trailer with a 1800 lb net weight load capacity. The one I have now is NOT tilt bed but either will work. Have them load at terminal and not all can come off the dock to load, so in that case straps on the fork truck forks will work. When your home its only about 18 inches or so to the ground, some shop built ramps and a couple of floor jacks work wonders. Never (knock on wood) dropped anything nor did anyone get even a smashed finger. Oh and 99% of this is by myself.

[Keith Outten]

Ss tech support is for the original buyer and not transferable...... just another food for thought.

To my knowledge both CAMaster and ShopBot will support their machines for the life of the machine whether you are the original owner or not.

[Brad Shipton]

Have you picked up the phone and talked to someone like Bruce, Keith, Gary or someone else that has a good knowledge base of this machine size? These are all decent guys that I bet will take the time to talk to you. Camheads has a map of users on their site as well. You should go look at one if there is one nearby.

Have you sat down and made a list of what is really important for your projects? It is easy to get bogged down in tech specs. I did, and I forgot to ask some important questions. The needs for 3D work, simple box building, or parts requiring secondary cuts are all different in some respects.

I would not worry too much about moving it yet. That is not all that hard, and mine weighed 2,000lb.

[Kevin Jenness]

Brad makes a good point about visiting owners of the machines you are considering. Most people, especially those who frequent these forums, are quite willing to help with advice. The Vectric forum (http://forum.vectric.com) has a member map and most member profiles show their equipment. I believe Shopbot, Camaster and Shop Saber all ship their machines with some Vectric software so there ought to be a fair sample of those owners represented.