Problem- Zoller tool presetter

[manofsteel52]

We have a Zoller smile v300 tool presetter, in good condition, except the hard drive died. We installed a new drive, and winNT operating system, which was originally on the machine, but apparently, the Software for the presetter and the OS have to be installed together from an ISO image file, which we don't have.
Does anyone have any experience with anything similar out there?
Zoller is really no help at all, they won't sell the discs, they will only allow us to send the computer back to them, open ended, to pay them for diagnostics, service, and buy new software.
I'm considering putting this on ebay, as is, for a few hundred bucks, but it would be really nice to just have it working. It was about $25,000 new.

Does anyone out there have something like this, that the machine is trashed, but you still have the software for? Any ideas would be welcome.

[rcpilot82]

if you still have the old drive, chances are the info can be saved and transfered over to a new drive

[manofsteel52]

Originally Posted by rcpilot82 if you still have the old drive, chances are the info can be saved and transfered over to a new drive

Thanks for the idea, but the old drive was trashed months ago.

What I'm thinking at this point is Maybe I can find someone who has a Zoller V300 that has some other issue to either buy this one from us, or sell us the software/computer off it so I can get this one up and running again.

[BIGKaiserCL]

The best I can offer for repairing your current Zoller presetter is to replace it with a SPERONI tool presetter. You can take a look at what we offer at www.bigkaiser.com You may email me if you have specific questions on our machines.

[manofsteel52]

Originally Posted by BIGKaiserCL The best I can offer for repairing your current Zoller presetter is to replace it with a SPERONI tool presetter. You can take a look at what we offer at www.bigkaiser.com You may email me if you have specific questions on our machines.

Thanks, but I made a presetter using a digital height gage that is actually much faster and simpler to use than the Zoller... and $20,000 + cheaper. I just want to repair the Zoller to sell it and try to recover some of the money that was wasted on the thing in the first place.

[BIGKaiserCL]

Sorry to hear that Zoller has given you such a bad feeling about presetters. Sounds like you were sold a machine that was more than what you needed. This is why we have enty level machines that start at under $7k (Diasets). Nice and simple to use. This is something that Zoller just does not offer.

[manofsteel52]

Originally Posted by BIGKaiserCL Sorry to hear that Zoller has given you such a bad feeling about presetters. Sounds like you were sold a machine that was more than what you needed. This is why we have enty level machines that start at under $7k (Diasets). Nice and simple to use. This is something that Zoller just does not offer.

It's not just Zoller. The presetter was purchased long before I took over running the machine shop here. One of my predecessors loved to spend money.
I think the Zoller (if it was working properly) would be a good tool in a model shop, mold shop, aerospace, or similar environment, perhaps doing 3D milling, etc.
It was just way overkill for what we do here. Nothing closer than .001 to .0005 inches. I can setup tools faster with a gage block than with a presetter, and I can have all the tooling for a job setup with the one I made faster than I could turn the Zoller on & get it calibrated.

I'm still looking, if anyone out there has another machine or software.

[ToolWall]

Originally Posted by manofsteel52 Thanks, but I made a presetter using a digital height gage that is actually much faster and simpler to use than the Zoller... and $20,000 + cheaper. I just want to repair the Zoller to sell it and try to recover some of the money that was wasted on the thing in the first place.

I think you are overdoing it. If you can recover some money by selling your Zoller that is ok and that thing it is overkill for you anyway. There are some good budget presetters on the market, but they don't do much more for you than what you have built for yourselfs.
Your biggest gain comes from a presetter with an RS232 port so you can upload your offsets directly to your machine. No other wonderful things are needed for you. And a presetter like that can be had for about 4k. The software for doing the rest can be downloaded from the site below for free.

http://www.tool-wall.com/presetter.htm

[manofsteel52]

This is an update to the original post, in case anyone is interested.
I'll try to keep this short, even though it got a bit dragged out.

We had the presetter repaired, and then it went down again the next time I went to turn it on, sent it back to Zoller, came back , and it still didn't work. I was getting pretty fed up with it, and didn't do anything with the unit until I was contacted by Zoller after Eastec.

When they found out it still wasn't working, Christoph Zoller and Michael Stepke, the regional sales manager came into our facility to examine the machine. It turns out, that it was damaged in shipping,
NO fault of Zoller.
They took the computer back to their facility, repaired it, brought it back and made sure everything was functioning properly. Having this presetter working properly has shown us that there are some really nice features available beyond simple tool length measurement.

There was some mis-communication in the very beginning, but I have to say, that Zoller really went above & beyond in handling this for us!
They have done way more than any reasonable person would require to resolve the issue.