Hi everyone,


I'm a newbie here to the forum, but I've been a veteran on many other forums - and know how valuable real, accurate product reviews can be, so I wanted to share my experience with a particular manufacturer (even though it was bad), in the hopes it'd save someone else time and hassle.


About a year ago, we needed a new CNC machine to replace our aging Robodrills, which we purchased used. Our company was growing, so we knew we need something fast. As a growing company, price is still important, but performance is key.


Being unable to afford brand new robodrills, we looked at some alternatives - one of which being the Chevalier QP1620. On paper, it meets what we wanted - lower than Robodrill pricing, yet "good enough performance."


However, what we received were totally different than expected. For example:


- Distance from Spindle to Column called for 15.7" - but it was only 14.5" in actuality, as it physically CANNOT move into the last 1.2" (This results in a significant loss of usable work envelope.)


- The claimed chip-to-chip time was a couple of seconds, but was more like 4 seconds on average.


- Travel time was slower than expected.


In fairness, Chevalier did send one of their technicians - on their own dime - to optimize the system. However, the actual performance was still nowhere near the printed specs.


Even after optimization, each of our ~15 minute cycles is actually SLOWER than our old Robodrills. Seriously.


Bottom line, try as Chevalier might, we ended up having to pack up the Chevalier piece, and eat about $3000 in shipping costs. Getting the return done was painful.


Just wanted to warn others about Chevalier and the inaccuracies of their claimed specs. You simply CANNOT trust the published specs - the actual performance is terrible at best - and the experience was just a complete, absolute WASTE OF TIME!! >


You're better off saving your money and buying a used Robodrill, or buy brand new "Siblings" (not sure if mentioning other brands directly are allowed) here - which is exactly what we did right after, and they're performing BEAUTIFULLY.


Hope this helps someone out there save some of the aggro that we experienced!

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