OK, the 3016FX here it is.

[elaganis]

The following is my (and my co-workers) honest review of the machine so far that is both accurate, detailed and unexaggerated:

**Let me disregard all the BS our Vendor put us through with their lies, lack of knowledge, and poor response and just focus on the 3016FX machine.

1. I’ve used (to its limits) many machines such as Mazak, Brown and Sharp, older Fadals, Pratt and Whitney, and a couple of others. I currently use several Haas Machines and I am NO rookie when it comes to machines, their controllers, or operation. I must say this one ranks pretty low.
2. Build quality at first appearance is low. Paint quality is standard but all the exposed black oxide cap screws and button heads make the machine look like it has a disease. Almost everything about this machine screams cheap. Like seeing daylight thru the corners of the cabinet-which leak if you blast the coolant too hard. Or why not use lexan for removable side doors instead of sheet metal that rattles. None of the buttons light up (nope not the on/off). The cycle start and feed hold buttons are tiny keys on the keyboard and are on the opposite side of every machine I’ve ever used. Speaking of the buttons- CHEAP! They are nothing more then clear plastic caps snapped on top ink-jet printed labels. NO JOKE. Three of them fell off in the first day of typing. I had to glue those back in. (see attached pic.) The list goes on and on.
3. The controller w/this new data server is so new on this machine that Fadal in CA could not get me on my Network. I had to call, on my own of coarse, Fanuc support and try to get my $6800 worth of controller options working. I got worried when Fadal couldn’t tell me where the RJ45 plug was? I found it inside the operator’s panel (after removing 10 button head screws and sheet metal cover) behind the LCD screen mount. “OOP! Did we forget to move it to the outside of the machine?....or put a knock-out for it??” Needless to say after 8 hours of phone and IT support I was able to drop a 10meg file on the machine drive, which is just a 1gig flash card. I can test the surfacing, machine speed, look ahead, etc. Now the only problem, the data server is always dropping my connection (which done only through an FTP connection-silly). I have to reboot the machine to reconnect. Fadal has no clue and blames my network. Meanwhile my Haas machines run 100+meg surface program day and night as regular mapped network drive without fail.
4. Ok. So my program is there. Let me setup now. Tool offsets and G54 setting is just as archaic as the 1980s controllers. You may not have to enter the values or back figure manually anymore but getting to menus are a waste of keystrokes. Here is a good one! Want to load a tool? press two, not one, ½”x ½ ” square buttons on the controller and then stick your arm in the machine. There is no coolant proof button at the spindle (ie.Haas). Be careful those buttons have a delay.
5. The next tool button does not work nor does the manual coolant button. Fadal service is going to fix that.
6. Navigating the menus and controller is comical. I feel as if I’m in Apollo 13 but with a pretty color LCD screen. It’s 2007 people, do we still need to call things “FWD, RWD, PUNCH, READ, etc.” anymore? When’s the last time you saw a paper tape reel? Why so many blank fields? It makes tabbing thru menus more time consuming. I can’t use the cursors to scroll down the lists of almost anything. After all, this is your LATEST? I’d laugh but my wallets hurts too much.
7. WHY WHY WHY did Fadal combine the federate and Rapids control into one knob! This is not just stupid but dangerous. I was never a fan of the 120% max overrides on the spindle and federate to begin with but this horrible. Especially checking on drilling routines.
8. FYI, there is no door switch override parameter. Even though I was fooled by the button that said DOOR-OVRD, I broke a carbide end mill when the spindle and feed stop to check something. Nope that’s a useless button which I was told does not work that way.
9. Forget using the Manual guide i….it’s as intuitive as PC BIOS compared to Haas or Mazak systems. I can write G-code faster.
10. SO now let me cut a waffle surface as fast as I can. First with AI on and with AI off. It did, yay! Only took two full day of playing with this boat anchor. AI on: nice finish but slower than I thought-about 150in/min avg. AI off: OK finish, tolerance affected, of course as with any machine it stuttered. However I can’t get the machine to cut faster than 350in/min. Why? The service guy told me the machine was factory set to a max of 8900mm/min (about 350in/min) at all axis. YES, they did claim 800in/min in the brochure and there demo cuts at 500in/min (I don’t know if its real-my speed judgment is not that accurate from the video). Our Fadal vendor is looking into this.
11. Time to go home and fight this battle tomorrow. Shut the machine off. Wait? Why does it sound like it’s still on? That’s because none of the cooling fans ever turn off- EVER. They’ll last right up until my warranty goes at which point I’ll need to replace them on my dime. Hit the main breaker. What a sh*tty experience this has been. Did I just buy the YUGO of the machine tool world?

Bottom line: I made the wrong choice for us and what we do in this shop. I want a refund and should have bought something else.


Yours Truly
-E

[Scott_bob]

elaganis,

I am sorry for your bad experience... A lot of us here on the zone are wondering:

What more could we have said that would have made you hear us?
Did you read the older posts here in the Fadal Forum? I ask only because you don't have that many posts, and your 1st dates back to 06/15/06

One way of seeing the most viewed posts is to sort by views, did you ever try that?

My advice to you and your company:
1) Remain anonymous if you can at this point. That way you can be brutally honest and not worry about offending your supplier who is watching this site by the way...
And this is good advice for anyone writing their honest opinions on the Internet. No one here is any more respected because they have revealed who they are in this forum. It is the quality of your ideas that gets attention.

2) Make Fadal take it back. You cannot keep equipment intended to make you money around that will only get worse... Trust me.

This is the best free advice you're going to get. If you would rather pay someone to give you more reasons, I'd be glad to help... PM me.

[elaganis]

Scott_Bob.
Thanks for the advice.
First, at this point I don't care about offending our supplier because they won't return our calls (at least the salesman won't) since they are aware of how upset we are. We feel like we were fooled by the nice website, brochures, and sales pitch.
Second, yes I am new to the forum because I didn't know of it. I mostly use it for purchase research, programming tricks, and minor questions with some of my other machines. I honesty don't have the time for it these day.
Lastly, no one on this forum had this machine so I couldn't get feedback and I went with my gut because I use to run an old VMC20 and was happy with it. Besides a box way machine is nice for steel. Can Fadal take it back? this is a question for our lawyers but I doubt they will. At best they can promise updgrades immedately? It's another day now and I can't load a program for parts I need to run-I'm getting too backed-up because of this.