Multicam, Techno or Axyz

[granto]

I'm just about to purchase a new router (72" x 144") for cutting plastic. We will be cutting acrylic, polycarbonate, delrin, nylon, HDPE, PP etc. etc. I've narrowed the choices down to

Multicam 3000
Techno Premium Class
Axyz 6012

All the machines are within about $15k of each other.

Any opinions on my choices?

[Dan.antes]

I would talk to some used machinery sales people. Kirt at MLS Machine or someone at the CNCRouterStore. They can give you a good idea of what works and is reliable. I hear multicams can be down as much as they run. Techno makes a meaty machine. Axyz is a glorified shopbot or shopsabre and cost too much for the features. Have you looked at Flexicam Stealth or CR Onsrud panel tech? They are more expensive but built for the long haul. Good luck shopping!

[granto]

Thanks for the input. I will definitely look into your other two suggestions. Unfortunataly my budget is less than $90k cdn.

[manhattancnc]

Having purchased a Techno LC a few months ago from John D'Angelo, I have a few things to say about this company:

1) Consider yourself lucky if you get someone on the phone the first time you call.
2) Consider yourself extremely lucky if you leave a message and they call you back within three days.

If you have an issue with your machine you need to be on the phone calling multiple times a day before you get even an little help. These guys make a good product but do not run a good business. I don't even have my own father's phone number memorized but I can rattle off John D'Angelo's number like it was my SS#. I'd say the ratio of phone calls placed to phone calls returned from D'Angelo is about 6 to 1. Go ahead and complain to Roy Valentine, the head sales manager but he doesn't really care and won't do anything.

Maybe it's because they have a lot of orders coming in and we purchased their lowest cost machine, but we would definitely not purchase from these guys again if we knew it would be a full time job just to get a response from this company.

Our machine arrived more than a month late while they had enticed us in the sales pitch with "good possibilities" that they may even ship it earlier than the stated date. We didn't even find out our machine was going to be late until we called a week before it was supposed to arrive. No courtesy calls, no updates from the salesperson.

They are good company but their correspondence and organization is horribly below par. It took an irate letter to Roy Valentine to get our machine when we did a month. Response time was good for about a week, but then they forgot about us again.

Since getting the machine here, the salesperson hasn't even been by to check everything out and it's been almost three months.

They forgot to put the "Techno" stickers on the machine before they shipped. The greatest part about it is that we have an primetime network filming the machine in operation right now and Techno is missing out on the free advertising. Oh well, I guess that's how it goes....

[granto]

manhattancnc,

I appreciate your input very much.

I just finished a demo with Axyz today and they seemed to be having problems with their machine. I was a little dissappointed but I'm sure the problems they were having can be resolved.

I'm probably going to fly out to New Hyde Park next week to see a demo of Techo's Premium Class machine. I'll certainly mention your comments about poor customer service.

Thanks,
Grant.

[RandK]

Manhattancnc - sounds like you are dealing with a distributor.

I bought my my Gantry III machine directly from Techno 2+ years ago and have had totally the opposite experience in dealing with them but my sales engineer is Tim O'Connor, who is exceptional. I haven't needed that much support but I usually get somebody on the first try, or they have ALWAYS called back within an hour. Bob in support is awesome. There isn't a question he can't answer about their machines or s/w. The folks I've dealt with are very professional and nice people because it's surely not the $20K I spent that makes them treat me like a valued customer. Good luck with your quest.

[manhattancnc]

I have to agree with you that there are many people at the company that are helpful. I have received quality assistance from Bob, Charlie, John(another one), and Leon. Most of my problems are stemming from one person - John D'Angelo. He is the worst, most unprofessional sales representative that I have ever worked with. He must go way back with some of the people at Techno because otherwise I really would wonder why they are keeping him around.

Make sure when you get to the facilities that you wish to work with anyone except John D'Angelo. In spite of all this bashing, I have to admit that he is a nice fellow and I'm sure he has good intentions. He's just not acclimated to how fast the world turns these days.

[georgetam]

I have had 2 Technos and had had no problems with their Tech Support at all.
If I did not get a live person I have received a call from them the same day, if I called early in the day. If not early in the day the next day I called again if I did not get an call back before noon.
I have a 8 X 10 with stepper motors and a 48 X 48 Aprox with servo motors.
I have run the servo CNC MAchine for 24 hours at a time to get a job out 4 days running. It did the job.
No problems at all.
I did have the power supply burn out on the stepper unit and it was my fault.
I did not have a surge protecter and it got hit durning a storm.
I have since learned to use a surge protector.
I know of over 5 Machines in the Fort Lauderdale area and no major problems with them at all.


George

[xjdubber]

So who actually owns a multicam and can comment on the downtime?

[granto]

I ended up ordering a Multicam 3000 and expecting delivery in mid March.

I'll post any downtime issues if I have any.

[rbevan]

hey guys, we have owned a multicam pro102 for almost ten years, we had some spindle problems about 4 or 5 times, but found they were due vacuum
system, after they were corrected we have had no problems with colombo 10 hp spindle. we have had a few minor problems but overall down time is minimal. now this being said our machine is one of the first mulitcams here in memphis and like i said its almost 10 years old so i dont really know about the newer machines.

i have programmed and run it since we bought it so i hve seen everything that goes on with it, due to a good tech guy i have learned to repair it myself
when things happen, mechanical that is.

overall i would say that we have had a good machine and it was money well spent.

what software are you going to be using?

hope this helps, Rich

[xjdubber]

hey guys, we have owned a multicam pro102 for almost ten years, we had some spindle problems about 4 or 5 times, but found they were due vacuum
system, after they were corrected we have had no problems with colombo 10 hp spindle. we have had a few minor problems but overall down time is minimal. now this being said our machine is one of the first mulitcams here in memphis and like i said its almost 10 years old so i dont really know about the newer machines.

i have programmed and run it since we bought it so i hve seen everything that goes on with it, due to a good tech guy i have learned to repair it myself
when things happen, mechanical that is.

overall i would say that we have had a good machine and it was money well spent.

what software are you going to be using?

hope this helps, Rich

Thanks, thats what I like to hear. I'm a tech for a multicam distributor, and yes I do know that they can have their little hickups now and then. But i do believe that they have made a very good machine. Multicams biggest problem is that right now they just sell to many machines, they cant produce machines fast enough. If you ever need any help let me know!