weslambe
04-28-2007, 07:53 AM
I owned a prt96 and used it to start a fairly successful business. Last year, I decided that I had outgrown my old shopbot and looked at the old Alpha machine. At the time, the new PRS wasn't available so I decided to go with another brand.
That was the worst mistake of my life! I am legally bound not to mention the name of the machine as a condition of the refund. That tells you something doesn't it? I drove the machine back to their factory twice. (2500 miles round trip each time) I just returned the machine Thursday. (3rd trip)
I won't tell you the name of the company but I can tell you the machine that I bought had THK ballscrews and linear guides and was welded frame construction. Turns out that the company was simply applying these quality components to un-milled metal. Warps, cups and twists are all over 10' of any metal that isn't milled. I couldn't get their machine to quit shaking, violently at times, at various places all over the machine so I won't be complaining about the PRS arch chatter. My brother is a jig and fixture/machinist guy at the Goodyear aircraft factory in Foley, AL. He came with some of his equipment and made measurements around my machine. He told me that I got f'ed and that the machine was a piece of "s". We couldn't fix it without replacing the entire table.
My finance company, Northland Capital, was great on getting me out of my old machine and into a new PRS. I didn't have to close the old lease and start a new one like many companies would have done. They simply added an equipment exchange form and applied the refund then bought the PRS Alpha. My payments went down and I now have a machine coming that will cut straight. All of this happened within a couple of hours of showing up at their office in St. Cloud, MN on wednesday.
I've been watching what's going on with the newer bots for a few years now. While I see that there may be issues, they are at least minor and correctable.
After seeing what the competition has to offer, I won't be complaining too much in the future about the shopbot.
That was the worst mistake of my life! I am legally bound not to mention the name of the machine as a condition of the refund. That tells you something doesn't it? I drove the machine back to their factory twice. (2500 miles round trip each time) I just returned the machine Thursday. (3rd trip)
I won't tell you the name of the company but I can tell you the machine that I bought had THK ballscrews and linear guides and was welded frame construction. Turns out that the company was simply applying these quality components to un-milled metal. Warps, cups and twists are all over 10' of any metal that isn't milled. I couldn't get their machine to quit shaking, violently at times, at various places all over the machine so I won't be complaining about the PRS arch chatter. My brother is a jig and fixture/machinist guy at the Goodyear aircraft factory in Foley, AL. He came with some of his equipment and made measurements around my machine. He told me that I got f'ed and that the machine was a piece of "s". We couldn't fix it without replacing the entire table.
My finance company, Northland Capital, was great on getting me out of my old machine and into a new PRS. I didn't have to close the old lease and start a new one like many companies would have done. They simply added an equipment exchange form and applied the refund then bought the PRS Alpha. My payments went down and I now have a machine coming that will cut straight. All of this happened within a couple of hours of showing up at their office in St. Cloud, MN on wednesday.
I've been watching what's going on with the newer bots for a few years now. While I see that there may be issues, they are at least minor and correctable.
After seeing what the competition has to offer, I won't be complaining too much in the future about the shopbot.