FREE Lathemaster Mill with IH cnc kit - You Haul

[CNCPlastic]

Please delete this post.

[kimoyo]

I'll take it. I have an exam on wednesday but I can get it on Thursday. I live in NYC and have no problem driving to get it. I sent you an email.

[CNCPlastic]

I just got off the phone with Kimoyo, he's picking up the mill later this week.

[wildcat]

Was this a serious thread? It looked like from an earlier post that CNCPlastic has an earlier kit. Are his problems present in the later kits? Kimoyo - how is your new mill? Calling dibs on the next one

[kimoyo]

Hey Wildcat,

I did meet up with cncplastics but I didn't take the mill. He still gave me most of the electronics, motors, power supplies, cabinets, encoders, etc. But he decided to scrap the mill and the ih mechanicals. I would have liked to get the entire thing to convert the mill back to manual (which isn't possible anyway) but I'm pretty happy with what I did get. I've spoken with cncplastics and Aaron and they both seem like nice guys. I'm still buying a mill and kit from Aaron and as long it looks as nice as whats in the pictures I'll be happy. I'm not taking sides nor have I spoken to Aaron about the situation because it doesn't include me. Speaking face to face with cncplastic his frustrations seemed reasonable but I've only heard his side. Had he explained himself online how he did in person I think the thread would have had a different tone and been more fruitful. He's not a member of the site anymore so I don't think he can answer your questions but I can try to explain from his point of view what he told me some of his issues with the kit were and what I can see different from the current kit.

Cncplastics got his mill around 3 years ago when IH was selling V0. He got a lathemaster mill (with wrongly advertised travels) because IH wasn't selling a mill at the time but IH is selling a mill now. He had to lap his ways but IH's mill has ground ways now. His kits had clear plastic motor housings which crazed (cracked) and coolant damaged one of his servos and encoder which were replaced at his cost. Currently, IH's motor housings are anodized aluminum and everything looks watertight from the website. He got a stepper motor on the z-axis which lost steps and minimized his speed because of it but the ih kit has a servo on the z-axis now.

When I get my mill, if I can get a tolerance of 0.001" from the machine and my machinists experience I will be happy (please understand that I am a machining novice). From what I've read I think this is possible but at the same time I understand that I won't be producing parts as fast as a commercial machine (but probably the fastest in its class). Had cncplastics gotten the newest ih mill and a V3 kit (assuming its as advertised) I think he would have had a different opinion but for his time constraints (production) and precision it still probably wouldn't be the machine for him which he's learned from experience.

Looking at today's kit versus what I've heard about V0, V3 seems a lot better and I'm happy I'm getting a V3.

Paul


Edit: One thing I forgot to mention. Cncplastic had some computer issues possibly because he didn't use a breakout board. Even before I spoke with cncplastic, Aaron had told me recently using a breakout board wasn't necessary and it probably isn't. But from hearing other peoples experience and recommendations (which may not have been available years ago), I know it would be a lot easier for me at my level to just use one.

[BobWarfield]

FWIW, a little more information is available online. Originally, "CNCPlastic" was called "MetDetect". Here is one of his last posts as MetDetect (one where at the end he is posting as CNCPlastic) wherein he says he was quite happy with the mill and it was worth the trouble to get it running:

Lathemaster/Industrial Hobbies CNC Retrofit Complete!

Here is an earlier post where MetDetect (aka CNCPlastic) is in the throes of his troubles:

CNC Retrofit - Kit verses turn on and go

Aaron drove 500 miles at his own expense to get the mill working, and got it working. Note the comments from MetDetect such as:

"I recommend the electrical kit route for peole like myself who can wire a 110 outlet but have minimal electrical experience."

or

"I fired up the mill, Y seemed to move pretty good but X sounded like it was about to bust a part off, being a newbie I thought the ball nut was spitting chunks of metal it sounds that bad, the preload is too tight, its jamming on the wiper, etc. Turns out that was not the case at all, all that racket was actually coming from the servo motor and the motor wasn't bad, it was the electronic signal the motor was receiving that was the cause, the motor was just reacting to a poor signal by starting/stopping and otherwise complaining.

I would not have thought a motor could make that kind of sound, I mean it spun then stoped dead like it jammed up, then spit, sputtered, forward a little more, then spun again until it jammped up again like it was driving down a gravel road. It had me thinking drive components not electrical signal."

I think Aaron gave good service here, and the best was done given the experience at the time of the user and the limitations of the mill they were working with.

I don't care what anyone says, kits are kits. Some assembly is required. I've spent a lot of time fooling with cars, and most of what I bought came from much larger companies than Industrial Hobbies, got installed on a piece of Detroit iron that is built to much more consistent standards than Asian mill drills, AND IT STILL DIDN'T FIT OUT OF THE BOX!

I remember fondly one late night grinding on a Hurst shifter I was trying to stick into my '72 Mustang to make it fit. I've had to grind, modify, shim, and otherwise cuss at intake manifolds, brackets, and any number of other things over the years on these cars. These were all "bolt on" kits. Guess what? It's all part of the fun, and making machines work is what machinists do.

This is no knock on CNCPlastic. He's just a guy that didn't want a kit, he wanted it to work out of the box. I just don't think we ought to knock Aaron for making a kit that seems to work amazingly well (even at times for CNCPlastic) on what is in the end of the day a very ornery, somewhat indifferently made, Asian mill. We just don't all have the money to go buy a Hurco VM-1 if we don't like dealing with these foibles. And most of these mills are fine. Mine certainly has been, though I am expecting when I install the kit to have to make some tweaks here and there.

I note that Tormach recently had listed on eBay a brand new mill. They said the clamp had slipped while the column was being milled, there was a taper in the ways, and the mill was unusable. Despite their extensive quality control, it had reached the customer in Sacramento before this was discovered.

Let's all recongize we're at the low end here, and things do happen. There can be a lemon machine. We need to be prepared to deal with it.

BTW, I had wanted to bid on that Tormach, but they pulled it, which was a pity. I was going to slap that column on my IH, mill off the dovetails, and bolt on some nice linear slides I got on eBay and thereby wind up with the world's cheapest Tormach. Would have been fun to compare the two mills as well as see how the linear slides performed. I am surprised more people haven't tried the mod, but of course you need two mills to do it, or you have to farm out the job to another shop.

Best,

BW

[Runner4404spd]

i was looking at that tormach on ebay as well, unfortunately it was just too far away from me and i don't need another project going on as well.

[Alan Ing]

Give Tormach a call about the Tormach on Ebay. When I talked to Greg this past Monday and if I heard correctly, it was still available. Wasn't really interested in getting one with a defect so I didn't ask why they pulled it off of ebay. I asked about the Ebay one to see if they had any additional comments regarding the number of defective machines. Said just this one had this type of problem.

[kimoyo]

I didn't mention this before but since IH is going out of business I wanted to mention it now.

Cncplastic's primary issue was with his z-axis stepper motor and he ripped into IH about it in this forum. I'm not sure if cncplastics knew this before his posts but when he gave me the stepper motor I was surprised to find out and mentioned to him it was a tormach stepper motor.

Since the stepper motor was tormach's I think it was unfair that IH took the blame for his biggest issue.

[Adobe Machine]

KIMOYO;How is your assembly going ? Did you get the IH kit ?..Post some pics !

Adobe (old as dirt)

[kimoyo]

Hey Adobe,

How are you, hope all is well. I should be getting my kit next week and I'm getting my stand made for it this week. I'll let you know how it goes.

Paul

[bill south]

kimoyo;
Did he mention why he was going to scrap the mill??? One mans junk is another mans treasure!!!
BTW, I have a lathemaster zay series and the Z axis is always causing problems even with a monstor servo installed. I'm considering powering the quill if I can find a decent design!


Again, just curious!
Bill