Anyone familiar with MicroKinetics?

[arpieb]

I'm considering purchasing a MicroKinetics CNC Express GTS as they are local to Atlanta, GA, but haven't seen any traffic on the forums about that manufacturer or model. I did talk to their salesperson about the unit, and have scheduled a demo to check it out next week. They have been in business quite a while, and sound like they are on par with some of the other manufacturers out there.

Does anyone on here have a MicroKinetics product? If so - what has your experience been with the machine, operation, performance, and support?

Thanks!

-R

[rosco]

Microkinetcs is a small company in Kennesaw, GA. They are the ones I first found when I got into CNC 5 or 6 years ago, they are extrmley nice pepole, the only problem I had was they got outdated very fast. They still use an ASA board for there main controller, you can't even buy a computer mother board with an ASA slot anymore (okay you maybe can find one but it would be real slow).They do have a PCI and maybe even a Parallel interface now but it only accepts there software (last time I checked there software was very anaquated) They are also very costly. As time went on I went to Xylotex boards and motors, my next move is to Geko Drives and USB or Ethernet conection. Get something that is adaptabel and can be used with any controll software such as my favorite Mach 3.

I am also in Atlanta and if you want some more info leave me a message here and I will get back to you soon.

Thanks,

Matt

[arpieb]

Thanks for the reply, rosco! I'm actually going to a personal demo of the equipment tomorrow morning, and wil be sure to ask about those key points. Maybe they've caught up with the rest of the world as of late...?

Did you ultimately go with a machine from MK, or did you get something else?

-R

[arpieb]

I met up with Maurice, the founder of MicroKinetics, for a demo on Friday and was very impressed with the demo and what they are doing/where they are going with their equipment.

The "demo mill" was actually their internal toolshop mill used for prototyping, testing, and some production work for their custom components. They have moved up to a USB interface (about 2 years ago), and are constantly updating their software to add new features. The quick-change tooling system is nice and simple to use, and the 8" 4th axis has good rotation speed. The rapids are quick and precise, and the 2HP Taiwanese motor had no problem taking off 0.1" hardened steel per pass on facing work.

Since they design and build their own electronics, they have a 5-year warranty that they directly support without referral to a 3rd party vendor - and most of the electrical components are "plug-in" so they are easy to swap out if the occasion ever arose. They also have a 1-year warranty on the mechanicals, but claim to have not had any claims made in the 8 years the CNC Express unit has been in the market - or the past 25 years they have been selling controller systems for retrofits or other applications.

I did find out that part of the reason they are not showing up on the "hobbyist radar" is that most of their customers are either corporate accounts or government entities, which has been their core focus.

They also have a new turnkey "Bridgeport-scale" model in the works that is going to be VERY reasonably priced, leveraging their retrofit kit equipment and experience.

I was very impressed with their ability and willingness to field any question and make suggestions for my usage, including down-selling me to the base model if getting 220V into my garage is not an option, or I just want to save $3K initially on the software-controlled variable-speed spindle since most all my initial work will be with aluminum and steel.

Last and not least - they are within 10 mins of where I live and the office, so if I have any concerns or problems I'm not stuck with only a 6-month warranty and phone support from Wisconsin on the Tormach which seems to be a work in progress with each new machine being different from the last...

-R

[rosco]

arpieb,

That sounds great, as I said it has been a long time since I used them and they are very nice people. The only other concern I may have is the software for controll, from there site the software they offer still seems to not have a lot of features, can you use other software such as Mach3 with there equipment?

You also say you are ten minutes away, I live in Acworth and my office is in Powder Springs, I lease a building to a friend who has A machine shop that is very modern (all cnc and bought in the past 5 years) he is also expecting a large machine which we are preping for to arive in January. This macine will be abel to park a Jeep on the tabel and mill the tiers on the Jeep.If you are intrested let me know and you can come over some time and have a look.

I am not a machinest but a hoby machinest and my main hoby is building new machines (mainly router tabels) I do have a fairly good knowledge of cnc programing. Just let me know if I can help. And thaks for the update on Microkinetics, sounds like they are worth looking into again.

Thanks,

Matt

[cnczoner]

Interesting comments. I first found them a few years ago when looking for a CNC lathe and could never contact anyone or they never responded when they said they would. So I can't comment on the machines, but I realized that being new to machining, it would make no sense for me to purchase a machine where I could not even reach people in the company. I later found other machines and realized that their pricing is on the high side for other similar-spec lathes.