looking for gorilla users/owners

[woodman08]

Gorilla is not able to be contacted ,they are not answering phones
Steve Stevenson has responded saying we have no warranties(he works with general now)
Myself i'm ok i know now where to purchase parts in USA and the electrics are not a problem, i documented my machine and could easily re-do it (did the 4th axis)
But others are not so lucky ,the software supplied with these machines was liscenced to ron baker the owner and no copies to re-install were provided to customers even the computer operating system(xp) has no install disks,so they are in a bad way ,like buying a car with no ownership.
I am very disappointed and we want people to be aware of whats going on ,support for these machines after purchase is very important in the form of documentation,parts list ,part numbers,cost of parts and where to go .This should not be a secret ,we all nick named the machine the gorilla kentucky fried secret recipe.

[squirly]

well after reading the first post, I called my General rep....then I called the distributor that I purchased through...and apparently my warranty will be handled by General as the manufacturer.

Unfortunately, that doesn't help those that bought direct from Gorilla.

I will try and get specifics from my rep when he gets back from holidays.

[cabnet636]

general has a tool rep here in the southeast usa, the internet is a powerful thing, call them back and show them this email, gorilla has been in bed with general for sometime and has been showing the cnc's off as such, when i met steve in atlanta in august o8 it was in the general booth at the iwf show, he represented that general and gorrilla were hand in hand at that time. i went to a tool show in sc and saw this presentation first hand so they were aware of selling you tools that would eventually have no warranty,
jim

[woodman08]

any info would be good and yes its bad for people who have just bought (a friend up my way ,his machine has very little time on it and now he has no warranty)
I am sure there are more people out there ,so much for buying canadian eh

[Horseman]

I just showed another teacher from the area how to start using the gorilla cnc machine he just bought. I have only been using mine for a couple months at my school too. I have burned out 2 routers and I think it due to not enough power getting to my routers from the plug in on the machine gantry. I have another router I am trying something different with now. So far I like the Gorilla. The service and instructions for getting started have been terrible. But since it is not my 1st CNC I was able to figure it out somewhat. I still have a lot to learn though and am very thankful for this forum and the guys that reply to questions.

[woodman08]

Use the 7518 router and run it at 16000 rpm or less ,its really hard to believe this but at a high rpm the bearing mess up ,i have also gone through about 2 routers but with a proper bearing chcnge and keeping the rpm down it helps .Secondly the manufacturer says its not a heavy duty cycle use,thats a shocker --but thats there answer to cutting back quality

[Horseman]

I am using the Bosch 2.25HP router. That was the type it came with so I thought it must be a good router. But I will try my porter cable on it and see if it works better. Thanks again for all the help.

[grogsroom]

thanks to this forum and all the knowledgable owners out there hopefully the gorilla cnc users can keep their machines going for many years to come , my machine is plasma and i appreciate all the tips i;ve received off this site , thanks , greg

[Kevin44]

I hear that Gorilla machine went bankrupt 2 weeks ago ?

[woodman08]

correct gorilla has closed its doors and steve stevenson(gorilla general rep) has told me there is no warranties on the cnc machines from gorilla ,there is a lot of us that are going to loose $$ invested.
And there are outstanding issues that are going to be difficult to resolve as each machine has no parts list no documentation no nomenclature on what you have so its going to be a nightmare for some.
Its more than a shame because we were led to believe this company was on the go ,but they were very poor on after sales help and charged a lot of money for little extras( i needed a grease fitting --they quoted the fitting ,grease,and a gun at 250.00)

[sunward]

This was a shock as I was looking at as a supplier.

Received the following email today:

General/Gorilla CNC update

As some of you may have already been aware of, Gorilla CNC closed it's doors
on November 16. 2009. As one of the founders of the company, this was an
unfortunate turn of events. When Ron and I started Gorilla in his garage we
had dreams of the company ruling the CNC jungle!

One of the great disappointments in this closing is the fact that we had
managed to partner with General Manufacturing to introduce CNC technology to
the woodworking industry. We were very proud of this accomplishment.
General's entrance into the CNC market has been a great success and they
have determined this is an opportunity they will continue to pursue.

I have been working with General since November 2008 to develop this
lucrative market opportunity and, while Gorilla's closing was a setback for
us, we are committed to continuing to serve the wood industry with a lineup
of North American manufactured CNC routers for both hobbyists and
professionals. General has already found alternative sources for electronics
and a technical support infrastructure has already been put in place to
insure that the equipment sold is fully supported. We are convinced that the
product and it's support will be greater than ever!

On a personal note, I want to assure all of you who I have met over the past
5 years that my commitment to helping all customers make their CNC router
the most profitable tool in their shop has not diminished. It has been a
pleasure to have had the opportunity to introduce Gorilla's "Wild
Technology" to the woodworking marketplace and I am looking forward to doing
so on behalf of General. Also, in my 30 plus years of marketing experience
(wow am I getting old) it is rare to find a company that has such integrity
and a commitment to quality and customer support. I look forward to a long
and prosperous tenure with General.

The Gorilla CNC website is still active www.gorillacnc.com and will remain
so until we have established a General CNC website. I will inform you when
this occurs. Meantime, if you have any support issues, want more information
on the General CNC product or just want to snoop around and see what we are
up to feel free to surf over to see us.

On behalf of me, my family and the team at General, I want to take this
opportunity to wish all of you and your families a very Merry Christmas and
a blessed and prosperous 2010.

Kindest regards,

Steve Stevenson
Director of Marketing - CNC Division
General-General International
(519) 282-9062
steve@cncsoftware.ca

[woodman08]

Very nice letter and if you can afford to buy and do it all over again yes its great,
But there are customers out there with warranties left ,machines that need some help ,maybe General should take over these customers, now that wouldn't be a kind gesture.
This dent will carry on in canadian manufacturing of the cnc machine .
We all had such poor support and now none .