End of the Centroid disaster.

[cnckeith]

NC cams, ..good advice.. i concur and certainly applies to buying almost any items other than just a CNC control system. where are you located? I'd be glad to come out and look at your lathe. I'm on the east coast. what make model is it?
I've installed many centroid and ajax cnc controls over the years. and have many very happy repeat customers. If anyone would like retrofitting advice, i'd be glad to help with specific information. I've been retrofitting Milling machines, Lathes and CNC Routers for 15 years now. attached are a few recent photos.

[NC Cams]

Asside from price and features, which can be found in the classified add that the member placed, I'd be disinclined to post serial number info on a M/B posting no matter who asks or why.

When you have the S/N, you can get all sorts of updates and/or system backups that are otherwise unavailable. Posting a S/N on a M/B is sort of like posting you ATM PIN number - not a smart thing to do. It has as much if not more value than the hardware, especially when it comes to warranty service or software updates.

Those interested in Centroid might find this to be an opportunity for an atractive deal, sadly at the expense of someone who isn't satisfied. If that is the case, contact the member and i'm sure a deal can be worked out.

But to bicker back and forth like kids fighting in the back seat, although entertaining, really doesn't do a lot for the advancement of the thread.

[cnckeith]

this is complete baloney! I want the serial number so I can call centroid and find out exactly what I would be buying! duh...

[NC Cams]

CNC Keith: we're in Ann Arbor MI. Things are slow now so we've put the retrofit on back burner.

Besides, we found a guy who does the CNC turning we need for reasonable prices with good quality and good turn arounds - we e-mail him the drawing and he makes the parts. We then pay within 10 days.

Although your services and the services of those like you are quite valued, I don't have the revenue stream to afford to have a retrofitter come in to do the work - besides, I don't want to chissel the services from a person who makes their livelihood on doing retrofits.

I do appreciate the offer, however.

[Al_The_Man]

As someone who has made a living from doing professional retrofits for several years this is my take on the choice a person has when looking at doing a retro fit. And the subject of attempting your own.
Many times the person attempting his own retrofit is very capable, just not that experienced, so what seems like a good idea, ends up being a long learning curve.
Ask anyone that has attempted using one of the PC based Packed systems that claim a retrofit can be done in 3 days.
I would like a $ for every customer of mine that has waved some Magazine article at me showing essentially how a PC can be wheeled up to a machine, connect a few wires and Bingo, CNC retrofit on the cheap.
For someone like myself, it usually requires attendance at one or more of the Manufacturers plants to learn the integration procedure in a fairly short order to cut short this learning curve.
NO, there is NO such thing as a plug and play system, every machine has its challenges and certain 'Engineering' question have to be overcome, it is slightly easier when a retrofit on the same model has already been carried out..

I have used everything from in house designed 'simple' systems using Galil or Acroloop to Camsoft up to Mitsubishi and Fanuc.
If I have a customer that wants a professional system with the lowest possible down time, I would easily suggest a high end system like Mitsubishi, where there is a higher chance of predicting the outcome in terms of successful sytem in the lowest time possible.
Especially when this machine is someones livelyhood.
If you have the luxury of unlimited time, that is another matter.

Comments like 'This product stinks' or 'This is the best system on the market' is rather worthless without some kind of Rational justification or reasoning that is qualified somehow
My 2¢
Al..

[NC Cams]

Re: serial number =

I realize that this is a touchy issue. The current owner can't/won't give up the S/N (neither would I) and the prospective buy wants/needs it to "verify" that he's getting what he's paying for.

If you bought a car, you'd write up a sales contract, in which ALL the deliverables would be defined and certified, woudn't you??? Same thing with a house or anything else workt $12.5K or thereabouts, no?

So, write up a purchase contract. Put the money into escrow just like you do when you buy a house or car. The escrow agent then releases the money when the FULL terms of the contract (the machine deliverables in this case) are satisfied. If the stuff isn't there, the money don't get transferred. The other option is to pay by credit card as they do wondrous things to help resolve purchase conflicts.

Surely, reasonable people can get around the issue of exchanging the S/N if they are truly interested in working out a deal.

If it were me, however, I'd do whatever I could LEGALLY and ETHICALLY and MORALY do to affect a sale.

But, BUT I would not give out the S/N to anyone but the true and actual buyer of the machine - too many games can be played with a valid S/N that could come back to bite the actual S/N owner.

[cnckeith]

amazing what you can find on google..

[Text removed by svenakela]

http://www.cnczone.com/cg...5;t=000705;p=0

[cnckeith]

a simple phone call to centroid reveals that they (CENTROID) have an outstanding offer to putterman to buy back the system at 100% of the amount paid. guaranteed or your money back? sounds preety good to me..anyways.. [Text removed by svenakela].

anyways.. back to more positive things like making parts!!

[NC Cams]

AND, AND the info provided in both post 22 and 23 did not require the need or use of a Serial Number.

Yes, it is amazing what you can do with Google - simply amazing.

And now, back to making good parts and hopefully decent/good information/advice