Omni CNC ordered.
After getting my first large chinese import, a laser, and being very happy I decided to go with my second.
I am replacing my DIY CNC router with a chinese 2500x1300.
I have spoken to a few companies and nailed it down to either quick or omni. I was originally looking at the basic 1325 versions which is the k45mt from quick and one similar from omni.
I had extensive emails with both Taney from Quick and Sunny from Omni, both have good english and can converse on the topics very well.
Until very recently I had decided that in the end I would go with Quick and move up to the K60MT model. It looked like omni did not have a similar style for their manual machines but did on their auto tool changer machines. I.e. the heavier, more robust rail mounting and under table supports.
On telling omni this they came up with an interesting proposal for a machine that would meet and exceed the spec of the K60 , 30mm linear rail on all axis, steel gantry etc (I dont believe the k60 has a steel gantry). Another things is that they would deliver the machine all wired up for mach3 to plug in to. They also say that they are using thicker walled tube. Of course I don't know that for a fact but there is a lot more weight to the machine in the specs.
I look forward to seeing how well the powder coat job is, my other large chinese machines dont have the best paint jobs but it's hard to get powder peeling as much.
I had mentioned that I would be converting the machine and omni said they would deliver it already done. Quick would not do it because they did not consider the chinese BOB's good enough but offered to deliver it without any controller at all so I could finish it off.
They may be right, the chinese BOB may be rubbish but it does look OK and I have a PMDX 126, 107 and an ethernet smooth stepper to take over if there is a problem. I will just throw the smoothstepper on their machine and if I have any issues then I will replace the chinese board with the PMDX board.
At least this way it is documented as the mach3 BOB they use is all documented and it will be easy to remove it and rewire all the switches, steppers etc. Something that may be a bit harder with a bunch if wires hanging in the control box.
I have read a lot of the threads re Taney and Quick, most of them are positive and everyone is correct that he is on to it and fast to repond to queries. There have been a few more recent issues though, some would be pertinent to me, for instance paying for door to door and then not getting it.
I was lucky that I am able to see an omni machine in New Zealand. It was a bit of a drive but it was worth doing and in the end, seeing the machine, their ability to proactively make changes for me has seen me make a deposit today.
Only time will tell and I was ask for some build pictures along the way and tell you all how it goes!
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Thanks Jason. Look forward to reading your report.
Sounds like you know exactly what you need and are going to get it. The DSP is pretty easy to operate but it definitely has it's shortcomings. Inability to read S-code is a gripe. Also I have found that I have to get pretty creative in file names, since the display will chop off anything over about 6-7 characters, lol!
It sounds like it is about a week away from completion. Looking forward to things nowI got some of the first photos today, but they said they would send better ones shortly.
Doesn't really matter about the quality of the photos though.
You can see that as I went for the PC cabinet that the buttons for controlling the vacuum zones are on the front. Looking tidy so far and they put in enough stepper motor drivers so that I do not have to disconnect the X axis to use the rotary axis.
That VFD looks huge compared to the one I had with my 2.2kw spindle and if I didnt mention it in my first post the manual for it is excellent. Very good english, it's made in taiwan and from what I saw it has been done by a native english speaker.
So a few and by the sounds more to come.
I had another couple come through today. Nice to see the gantry on it. With the table finished and the sides on the gantry it's going to start to look like a bought one
I can't believe how many things I have been wanting to do with it. Leaving myself without one during the upgrade wasn't the best idea after all..
There have been a few stories on the zone latey about purchases that have not been turning out so great so I am keeping my fingers crossed. Pretty happy I am going to get what I paid for though.
My machine leaves the factory on wednesday. The only photos I have asked for now are when it's all been put on the palette before the walls have been put on. I want that so I can figure out how I will unbox it to minimise the time I am paying for the machinery movers.
In the mean time I got a few more of the finished machine.
That 4th axis is a lot larger than I had imagined. I wonder how much it weighs! That base plate looks like it is at least 3/4" solid aluminium.
When you get that router, show me how they hold tails stock on the plate.
I did wonder that myself but now I see on the last photo at the end of the rails are two spilt blocks that clamp on to the rails. So it seems that you position the tailstock and then position the split blocks behind it and secure.Originally Posted by asuratman
gweike reply
looks very nice
good luck
tina from Gweike
email: tina@wklaser.com
Thanks Tina, if it goes as well as the laser I got from you guys I will be very happy!
My machine turned up two days ago so I am very happy to have received it.
I have spent the last couple of days doing some things to it amongst the other things I have had to do. I ordered a lot of 3 phase wire with the machine because it's so bloody expensive in NZ. The first thing I needed to do was get it all wired up. The pump did not have it's own switch so I had to go and get a 3 phase switch for that. No big problem though.
It was all set up for mach 3 and came with a mach3 configuration file. There is a BOB that comes with the machine but I wanted to replace it with a PMDX 126 + a PMDX 107 spindle controller and an ethernet smoothstepper.
In fact because I dont have a parallel port or the right cable to attach the smoothstepper to their board I just pulled it out and put mine in before I ran the machine for the first time. I would have liked to run it first to check but I would have needed to wait days for the correct cable.
After studying the wiring I managed to replace their board with mine and setup mach3 based on how I had wired it. I still have to wire in the homing switches.
So, after half a day of moving very carefully it is all done. One main advantage with the board I put in is that I can run x, y, z and the 4th axis all at the same time. How it came I needed to press a switch which would turn the X axis in to the A. The machine came with drivers for all motors including the 4th so given it was possible it was worth doing.
Anyway, first dry run doing something simple. Nothing too fast yet either.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nK01KuM_0A]First dry run of the OMNI cnc router - YouTube
Excellent Thread jasonharris22, Have enjoyed your explanations as well as the photos and video.
I am guessing you are quite happy with your purchase?
Please keep posting and show us what you can do with your machine.
Rocket.
Thanks Rocket, I have been working away but the sensors have really stumped me.
They were running off 24V. They are NPN proximity switches. There is a bundle of wires coming from a single sleeve that has 6 wires. +24v, ground and 4 sensors. X, y, z, cutter (the touchplate).
The sensors are rated 5-30V so I ran the 24v off my 12V on my pmdx board. this way I was powerering them within the 5-30V they needed. When I turned on the machine I heard a sound I didnt expect. I found that the wire marked 24V which I thought was just for the sensors also provided power to at least one fan. Possibly more and possibly also the temp probe and display.
I decided that I didnt want to draw that much current off the pmdx board and siwtched it off. I have since provided power off the original 24V psu and using a common ground between the psu and the pmdx's ground.
Things are decidedly strange though. After a couple days I have given up. I dont know what the issue is. The sensors are behaving and changing voltage as they should when switched. I just cant get consistent behaviour in mach3 and I am not sure that the information is getting through the pmdx + smoothstepper combo back to the pc and mach.
Noise is not an issue here. It may be that the easiest way is to replace the limit switches with something else that I know will work with my electronics.
The wiring in the omni cabinet was excellent. Proper grounding all over and every wire was marked at the ends. It made the conversion very easy. I had trouble with my last build even controlling the chinese VFD from mach with my pmdx 125/107 combo but this time it was a breeze.
The Delta VFD that came with it is a big step up I feel and although I didnt get an individual price for it I imagine that it is a _lot_ more expensive. Also the manual could have been written in england, a big step up from the vfd manual that came with my last 2.2kw spindle.
So for now I have given up on the limit switches, which will double as home switches. I will have a break from it for a couple of days and try to cut a few things making sure there is no chance I go out of bounds
Today I did cut one small thing. A 50mm diameter pice of 10mm acrylic using an oflute that came with the machine.
I screwed that up as well by not having a pause to let the spindle get up to speed. When I saw it was about to plunge right after turning on the spindle I hit the 'hold', too slowly sot it did start. There is a pause in the video then I let it go.
Still, its something. More than that it's the first something on this machine
I do know from taking off a cover that the X beam on the gantry has an 8mm thick wall. Thats going to be heavy yet it moves quite nicely at the 18M/M I have it set to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA9VNpA-l0c]First cut with omni. - YouTube
Jason, Maybe you could find the answer to your setting up problems over on the Machsupport Forums?
Machsupport Forum - Index
Would like to convert our machines to Mach3 at some stage. Love that Mach screen - lots of info!
Your first cut looks great too. May it be the first of many thousand to come.
Rocket.
Jason, I am following this thread with interest. I'm particularly interested in what you had to do after the sale to get it working with Mach 3 and to your liking. Do you think that the after purchase expenditures still saved you money compared to a full machine locally of the same caliber?
Dman, as it came mach3 ready all I had to do was replace the break out board with my own. As the wiring for these boards a basically identical it was not a hassle to do so. Just some study of the wiring to ensure it was all OK.
The omni machine had every wire marked at the end so it was a lot easier than I expected.
In total my expenditure was ~ $250USD to replace their board with a pmdx 126 + pmdx 107 spindle controller so it did not cost a lot to do it.
To buy a machine locally I got a cost of around 100% more than my cost and I had to wait longer for it to be built and arrive from china than mine did. I talked to them about the pricing and the pricing I had received from china and they were quite open that their costs are in providing support, the importing, the warranty etc. They did try to knock off a lot of the cost as I said I could forgo most of that being able to fix almost any problem myself. Even then they still have to make a profit and their margin was still to much to save me any inconvenience of ordering one myself. Other companies had similar prices.
As it was shipping I could have plugged it in to a mach3 computer right away but I didnt have a machine with a parallel port to use their controller anyway.
I tried out the vacuum pump with a piece of old MDF. I put it down and surfaced an area of 400x400mm and used a piece of 300x150mm ply (12"x6"). A little on the small side I thought for the vacuum to work but worth a shot.
No doubt when I put it on the table and turned on the pump though, this wasnt going to move! I cut a sample from vcarve to test and it didn't move.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh2Fer4c1aY]More testing with the omni. - YouTube
Jason,
I saw that video earlier, very impressive.
I have an opportunity to buy a basic Weike 1325 with a 3kw spindle for about $6000 US, and wondering if that is a good price or ripoff compared with getting a new one from the manufacturer?
These machines look very well built for the price. I've built one from scratch and it works for it's intended purpose, but cost me about $3,500, not to mention countless hours of reading, and piecing it together. It was a great experience but seeing these Chinese made CNC machines for these prices makes it irrelevant.
I can't help you with the G.weike router has I have not seen one. I dont think it is a ripoff price though, probably consistent with the prices of other 1325 machines in the basic configuration.
I can say that I ordered a 90W co2 laser from g.weike with a 1500x1200mm bed and the laser is very good so I am confident that the quality would be OK. I looked at them for a router but for various reasons I wanted one like mine, one reason was I had easier access underneath to put things.
Basically, I was asking did you think a USED one here locally selling for $6000 is worth it, compared to ordering one NEW from a chinese manufacturer?
Oh , I see, I Still cant help you
I know to get one in to NZ it cost about another 20% the cost of the machine due to taxes, port costs etc. If you would have to pay similar costs to bring one in then a machine already there could save you some $$ but I am not familiar with the costs over there.
Yesterday I couldnt help myself to put down some aluminium and see what would happen. I put in one of the chinese o flute spirals that came with the machince and tried to cut.
You can see that there were two attempts prior to this. The first I stopped as I I did something wrong, the second I let go but it was awful so I stopped it only to find that the bit had gaulled up completely. that explained it.
Then I decided to just do a simple part, pocked out an area and cut out a disc. The feed went down a lot from 180ipm to 55 at 18k rpm. On this attempt I hooked in the mister to the compressor. There was no mist just air blowing on the bit.
the bit was cool afterwards so the heat was going in to the chips. The finish is OK, not as good as I would want on my parts. The machine is up to it, no doubt about that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTFHn1bXfKQ]omni cnc testing aluminium - YouTube
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