I wrote this over a 2 week period starting with the delivery of my 1240CNC. Just an FYI for anyone considering one. Enjoy!
I thought I would share my experience with the purchase of a Smithy 1240CNC through Novakon. It’s basically the Smithy 1240 with Novakon’s control system. The mill was supposed to arrive on a Tuesday. The trucking company called and left a message on my answering machine that the driver could not find my address. When I called them back she said the driver was there but no one answered the door (my roommate and I were here all day) but she couldn't even remember whom the driver was. She asked if I had a forklift to remove the mill as it is curb delivery only. I said no, she said they would have to contact the shipper because the lift truck was more money.
They called back on Thursday saying they had authorization and a time was set for Friday. The truck arrived and the driver unloaded the crates except for the mill itself. It was put in the truck sideways and he was unable to get his pallet jack under it. He said he would have to finish his other deliveries then return to the depot to have the mill turned. While he was gone I opened the crates I had gotten and removed the base stand from its pallet and set it in place. At this time I noticed there was no documentation on how to setup the base, cooling containment or anything. Most of the door latch hardware had fallen off of the base doors so I reinstalled it and adjusted it so all of the doors (4) would actually work properly. I had to run a tap through the threaded holes on top of the base to clean them up as the bolts would not go in. It took the driver 3 hours to return and off load the mill and set it in my garage. I opened the crate and found the mill and lots of metal pans, trays and such with no clue as to where they went. I did find the coolant tray (sits between the base and mill). I test fit the coolant tray to the base and found the holes did not line up. No problem, just file the holes (4 out of 6) to slot them a little. At this point I found out that the engine hoist I had could not lift the mill. It was 2 days before I found one that could. A bit of juggling with the chains and I got it off the pallet and on the floor. I reset the chains to install the mill on the base and when setting in place found that the holes did not line up. The base, coolant tray and mill all had unique bolt patterns.
After getting permission from Novakon I had to drill the holes in the mill to 1" (from 1/2") to get it to fit on the base. Drilling the mill was easy, as the cast iron was rather soft. I hope the table is a bit more durable. At this point I noticed that the entire mill was covered in automotive body filler, sanded, then painted. Even the sheetmetal components had filler on them. I took a close look under the mill as I was lifting it back onto the base and found that the casting was very nasty/rough looking. Since that was merely cosmetic I don't see a problem with it. Once setup you don't see it anyway. Quick note, there were 2 boxes in the base that had tools and steel plates (4 round plates, 2 square) that I figured went under the mill to space it off of the coolant tray. Again, no documentation. As I was supposed to get a coolant pump I am assuming that the second tool kit/plates were installed in the base by mistake instead of my pump.
It took me a day and a half to figure out how to remove the shipping block on the spindle (instructions merely say to remove it, just not how). It’s just a long drawbar that threads into a t-nut in the table. Just undo the nut in the mill head then unscrew from the t-nut and pull up through the top of the mill head. Next was to connect all of the cables to the mill and computer. I wanted to see this thing move! I have never used CAD/CAM software or run a cnc anything before so when it did not work I thought it was my lack of knowledge. I noticed the mach3 kept saying something about an external stop issue. After 3 days of reading manuals, online help forums etc I found the problem. The short parallel cable gender changer (or so I thought) was actually a jumper cable to go from the parallel port of the PC to the add-on card (mill controller) then the cable from the mill actually connected to a different port on the controller card then what I was using. Again, some documentation would have been nice here. It did however give me the opportunity to learn alot about the mill and software. The PC booted and I started the mach3 and the mill moved!!! Success!!!! It took me about 3 hours to draw my first part in Bobcad then about another 2 hours to generate the toolpath and gcode. Now that I am familiar with the software I can redo it in less than an hour. It did take a couple of days to figure out/debug the gcode but the mill moves through the motions just fine. I have not yet received my coolant pump so I spend my days watching the laser pointer I put in place of an end mill trace a printout of the part I created taped to the mill table. I’m also learning how to setup stock in the mill to cut the parts and how to do a tool change. I think I have it all figured out. All in all I think the mill is a good one. There were a lot of annoying little problems but I don’t feel they will detract from the operation of the mill. I still have a few parts leftover that I don’t know where they go. I think they were for the Smithy control equipment. Might be for the coolant system. I’ll figure it out when the pump arrives.
A couple of days later and a few more things to add here. I found that the t-slots in the bed were not machined well. The t-nuts would not fit. I had to use a belt sander on the nuts and a Dremel to fix some imperfections in the slots. I went and bought 9/16ths t-nuts so I wouldn’t have to mess with it anymore. There are a lot of sharp edges on the sheetmetal parts. Seems every time I walked by the mill I got a new scratch. A fine file fixed all of those pesky things. Still no pump. I asked when it would get here, got an offer to put my story in a magazine for a response. I have used the mill for drilling a few parts. The Mach3 was a lot easier to use than I thought it would be. A little practice with feed rates and traversing the table to setup a part was a snap. I think a wireless keyboard might make it easier to run/setup parts. Just worried about keyboard response time. Got tired of waiting for the pump so I went and bought another one. It was 110v and the mill is setup for a 220v pump. It works (with a little wiring magic) but when running a program it’s 50/50 whether the pump starts or not. I’ll install the 220 pump later. Once I had the mill fully operational I annihilated the rebel forces and made some parts. My only experience with machines has been with manual units so a computer controlled one is a bit different. I know exactly what I want to make but can’t figure out how to draw it in the CAD/CAM software. So far I have been making 2D parts and all of them have come out great. The transition to 3D is going to take a while. All in all I think the mill is a good one. With a bit of practice in setting up milling operations and training in CAD/CAM I believe I’ll be making parts with this machine for years to come.
Jim M.