I purchased a Arty 36 at the end of August with a router setup. I changed my mind and requested a H2O spindle instead around the end of September. I finally received the machine at the end of December. The computer was supposed to be set up and tested with the machine. They have a special Mach screen and some changes to the macros that they use with their Mach screen. NONE of this was done. It looked like they copied a less than complete version of Mach to the computer without the modifications that they use. After I reloaded the latest version of Mach and the Smooth Stepper Driver I discovered that the Y-axis did not work. After looking at the connectors on the drivers I discovered a loose connection. That got the Y-Axis working. The Arty.XML file for the Mach setup was not in the Mach directory. I was able to copy one from the backup directory. I had to calibrate the X and Y axis. When I started cutting some simple flat circles, the machine had severe backlash on the Y axis. They tried to trouble shoot the problem over the phone after trying to convince me that it wasn't backlash. I took about a week until I requested a new motor. It took 2 weeks to get the new motor. So far 3 weeks dead after waiting almost 4 months to get the machine. Can you say frustrated with a capital F? Took the Y-Axis motor off and discovered a loose gear. No Loctite at all on the set screws for the motor gears. Tightened the set screw and it worked great. Also the water pump was not turning on when the spindle started. They want me to take a wire and touch it to another wire to see if that fixes the pump problem. I haven't tried that yet. I just bypassed the relay and run the pump constantly. I also found many screws that were not tight around the machine.
My ***** is that they did not deliver a working machine as they advertised. There production processes are flawed or non-existent. I asked for test records of the machine and they didn't have any. Not even a check list.
I think they have designed a good machine but do not have good production or engineering practices.
They do not answer emails promptly or not at all. They do answer the phone most of the time. I was told by a technician on the phone that he would not help me because I "rubbed him the wrong way" after he did not call me back twice. I got to talk to Andy then. One of the owners. He was somewhat helpful although I finally had to request the new motor. Better trouble shooting would have made the process easier.
If you call with a question, most likely you will get to talk to one of the owners as they have all the knowledge. Not a good support model. I think they have less than 20 employees. Don't expect any good customer service because they don't have any.
Their website needs help. There is some good information there but it is hard to find. They don't have a FAQ and the forum is not used much. They do offer online classes that are pretty good. Unfortunately they do not record them fully to access later. Most of the projects need special bits for ornamental milling. The turning looks like you can only use their proprietary software to turn profiles. I haven't used it much. The Mach turning may work also, I don't know. The Conversational Cam program comes with some very basic processes for turning. You have to buy other modules at around $100 a pop.
All in all I am not satisfied with the company in general. I think the machine is well designed but not produced well. It does work as they advertise once you get it set up. I think that if I was to do this over I would try and build a small machine for about half the cost and not worry about the turning. Build a CNC lathe long enough to do the profile turnings if you need them.