Vortech Router info

[rcs1010]

Has anyone had has any experience with the Vortec, h router, or knows about this company.[B] They seems to have a good price and the machine looks strong, I talk to couple of guys that own the router and they are please with the machine and support but I would like get more info about this before buying one.


Ramos

[hondaspeder]

I am also interested in this machine anyone have any feedback?

[silverpearl]

Same here... Can ANYONE vouch for them in any way.. good bad or neutral?

Eric

[cabnet636]

in all fairness


i have found one person who has a sonic/vortech/tribal marketing router, he says that while it was a hassle he is operating the router, i do not feel i should post him here with out his permission but i have seen work he has produced.

i saw the router in the background of a shop when my fellow poster was showin me his work, i asked him if it was a sonic (older name, same router)this is the text of the response i recieved

"It is a router from Keith. It's called Vortech now at least that is what I made the check out to.

I had a bunch of trouble with mine when I first got it but Keith was pretty good about getting parts to me.

I had to change out two of the drivers and a power supply.

I don't think they know their routers very well. I finnaly got mine going and have had good results so far. I'am new to CNC so it was a big jump into learning session for me. I don't think you can find a router this cheap with all the accsories that comes with it. I have $15,000 in mine and it's 4x8 with a 6hp water cooled spindle and 10 hp vac table.

Even with the problems you can't beat it, at least thats just me."

here would be my strongest suggestion (when you are dealing with this router the goal is to save a lot of money) take your money and someone who you trust about operating a cnc and go to new hampshire, test run your router, pay for it and load it on your truck, expect minimal if any support and that way your expectations will not be unrealistic.

http://vortechrouters.blogspot.com/2...c-routers.html

[jeanyes]

I've been hesitant to post anything publicly about this company because I've been waiting to see how things "turned out." It's been 4 months now so I think it's safe to assume that not much will change. A lot of what I write below is negative but if you get to the end I do have a few positive points worth noting. Below is my experience:

I ordered a 5'x10' machine with ATC, servos, vacuum table, and upgraded 6hp spindle in April. I originally wanted to finance this machine through them as I felt it might help protect me in case something went wrong. To make a long story short, I could not find a financial institution that wanted to assume any portion of the risk so I ended up having to pay for the machine entirely upfront. I received the machine in the middle of July.

Crating was very poorly done, the plywood used as the body of the main crate was only 3/16" thick which did not hold up well. It took us almost 2 hours to remove the machine from the truck because the crate was too damaged to use a forklift, we had to very methodically disassemble, support, and move the machine onto our dock. The metal covers for the spindle and gantry motors were not attached to the machine and were either never secured or broke free from the crate. They were all scratched and banged up pretty good. The housing for the 10hp vacuum motor was also damaged and had to be hammered out. The rail which supports the bundle of cables running from the spindle, across the gantry to the main control box was also damaged and had to be bent back into working order. All of this was "fixable" but I have certainly been left with a machine that does not "look new." Not a big deal but felt it should be mentioned.

I soon realized that the machine did not include servo motors. When I emailed Keith asking about this he basically ignored my questioning. When I pressed again about this in a later email (including a "copy and paste" from my original order request) he again ignored me. I have learned that Keith's preferred method for addressing any issues which he does not have a positive answer to - is to simply ignore the issue. I've experienced this treatment many many times. I'm sure I have a strong legal case regarding this issue but I'm not sure the legal fees would be less than the cost of the servos...

The vacuum table does not include the necessary connections going from the table to the motor. This would not be a big deal except everything is metric. I live in Dallas which is obviously a large city yet the needed connections could not be found. Keith did acknowledge this issue and said he would try to order the needed connections which I never received. After a few days of running around town and visiting every pipe and hose supplier I could find I eventually "rigged" some fittings together which do the job. Not ideal, but it does work now.

Dust collection is something you will need to work out on your own. Routing a 4" flexible hose so that it can move freely over a 5'x10' table is no simple task. No documentation is included to point you in the right direction. I'm still in the process of tweaking my current setup for this. Also, I was told a common shop-vac would suffice as my collection unit. My instincts were correct in this area and have now installed something more appropriate.

The documentation provided is far from sufficient. I still have not gotten the touch-off plate and ATC working. I will get there but it will be entirely on my own. NO documentation is provided for these items at all.

My spindle is out of square. When I try to mill a spoilboard down there is a distinct stair-stepping. Of course this is one of the issues which I received no reply to so I now have an a technician scheduled to come out and square this for me. He is also going to help me set up and calibrate the machine in general. I am currently not able to hold the .002" tolerance the machine is specified for but I'm hoping this will be resolved after calibration. I may post more on this after tuning by the technician. By the way, it took me a long time and a lot of searching before finding someone capable and willing to help me with this machine...

I never received the Vectric software which I purchased with the machine. I've contacted Keith many times regarding this and have been told he's "working on it" every time. As I mentioned above, it's been 4 months since I received the machine...

I could write for hours about the issues that have come up but I think I've touched on the major ones any potential buyer should be aware of. I'll take a moment to write about the positive aspects now.

When I first got the machined hooked up and turned on I had some really erratic behavior which I eventually traced down to being caused by one of the gantry stepper motors turning at a different rate than the other. On this issue Keith immediately sent me two new drivers for the motors and a new power supply to drive them. He sent these overnight and I was running smoothly the next day. (it's interesting to see that someone else above posted having the same issue with a 4x8 table...)

Although I'll know more once I've had the table "tuned" I have to say that overall the table looks fairly solid. None of the technicians that have seen the table have noted any obvious flaws. It remains to be seen, but I'm optimistic that once I get everything calibrated properly I will have a reasonably solid machine in relation to its' cost.

Bottom line, would I recommend this? The answer is yes and no.

If you are very well versed with CNC machines and nothing I mentioned above scares you then this machine may be an option. A person that might fall into this category is a serious hobbiest/engineer that has built their own CNC machine in the past and is looking for a head start on building a larger one. I don't think you could acquire all the needed parts and assemble them yourself for what these machines cost unless you factor in nothing for your time.

If you are a wood shop and are looking for a "ready to work" solution then find another company. Although I bought my table without a NEED to have it running right away, I never imagined the flow of information and support would be as slow (and often non-existent) as it has been.

If someone else out there happens to own one of these machines in the Dallas area please feel free to contact me. It may be beneficial for both of us to exchange information as we figure things out.

[cabnet636]

with a small effort he could do somthing with this router!
jim

[cabnet636]

could we see some photos of the machine?

[Buzzy233]

yes please post a picture

[cabnet636]

buzzy do you have one of these routers?
jim

[jeanyes]

[cabnet636]

wow that is an obvious change from the other routers, thanks for posting as so many people try to flame cnc companys here, i hope all works out for you, keep us informed!! i'd like to see a photo of the driver that is on the floor?

jim

[jeanyes]

I've had a very knowledgeable tech helping me all week with my machine. I'll try to keep various aspects of what I've learned about my machine broken into separate posts based on topic. Here's what I learned about my spindle alignment:

The spindle was out of square by .07" in one direction and .08" in the other. By this I'm talking about the "step depth" caused by attempting to level a sheet of mdf using a 2 1/2" fly cutter with a 1.25" path overlap. No adjustment for this (in either direction) is "built in" so to correct it on one axis we had to bore out the holes on the z-axis rails enough so that we could align them properly before securing them. For adjustment in the other direction we inserted machinist shims behind the guides which secure the spindle to the gantry.

The cause for the first adjustment needed was simply simply poor assembly/quality control. The holes which were drilled into the main block which supports the rails appeared to be made by hand and not machined precisely. Even the holes in relation to themselves were not in a straight line. Had the holes been drilled exactly parallel to the edge of the main block itself, the alignment in this direction would have been correct. The main block was perfectly perpendicular to the table, it was the guide rails mounted to this block which were poorly aligned.

The cause for the second alignment problem was most likely due to the main gantry surface not being machined; therefore these main gantry rails are slightly off as compared to each other. Machining down the main gantry surface could have fixed this or simply using shims as we did could have fixed this as well.

My spindle is now perfectly aligned and I have no stair-stepping between each path when attempting to level a sheet of mdf to use as a spoilboard.

jim: The driver on the floor is one of the bad ones which I had to replace. It is a Leadshine brand driver which came in a box with the website www.leisai.com on the box. If you'd still like a picture or the exact model number I can get that for you.