Shop Task Gunmaster 17-32 XMTC Worth getting?

[strykerakamack]

Hi All
Have the opportunity to get the Shop Task Gunmaster 17-32 XMTC
3 in 1 for around 1500 dollars is that a good price ?
Also does anyone have the companys web homepage address?
I cant seem to locate it thru live or google .
Thanks

[norvil1]

if you are interested in talking to john taylors lieing ass the web address is shoptask.com. tele# 1-800-343-5775. good luck

[Lemo]

Norvil1, I noticed that you are bashing shoptask in pretty much every post here, can you supply some facts to your rage? I am thinking about a shoptask machine and would love to know what I get into. So, what's your problem?
Lemo

[norvil1]

lemo i am glad you ask about my apparent displeasure with shoptask and in
particular with john taylor,the ceo. when i inquired about the qualities of the
tri-power, i was promised that the machine would hold a positional accuracy of
.001. after taking john's word for that i paid john 9,987.00 us and the machine was delivered about three months late. the quality of what i was sold was poor at best. then i had to go about the task of correcting the most glaring problems first. after about ten minutes of operation, the wires burnt to the lathe motor
requiring the motors to be rewired. next the spindle had to be removed to correct the pin height for the collets to even seat in the spindle. the drive chain arrangement had to be repaired so the chain could be adjusted, which by the way is probably one of the noisiest drives i have ever heard. when the backlash was measured the lash was as follows: x axis .012, y axis .008 and z axis .013., hardly the promised precision and accuracy the webb site glowly talks about. next we found that when the bed travereses right to left it shifts .011 rocking motion, hardly a condition for accurate work. within 30 minutes of operation the control board starting blowing fuses requiring the replacement of
a servo motor, meaning more delays. after about 6 months of reworking,repairing i have the positional accuracy down to about .0015. in my opinion a brand new machine, after being advertised to be of the highest quality
to require that much work. john simpley got my money,ship me a piece of
sh-t and left it up to me to repair. to make a long story short i feel i was ripped off, and i dont feel like shoptask uses a ethical or trueful adervertising to
sell and support their product. as a result of my dealings with shoptask i will
spend the remainder of my life telling anyone willing to listen of my dealings with shoptask, and how i wasted 10,000 dollars on john taylors word about
their tri-powers quality.

respectfully yours
robert williams
601-584-8450
8-5 est.





respectfully yours,robert williams
petal,ms 601-584-8450

[Lemo]

I feel bad about your experience. Did you buy that Patriot Model? The standard one has known issues and as I understand pretty much everybody knows that they have to replace a few tings on the way to go from a tolerable machine to a very good one.
Lemo

[norvil1]

if you think tolerable machine has a backlash of .008 to .012 on cnc ballscrews
then buy 2, im sure you will be happy. and by the way the patriot model is a tri-power with a purple paint job.

[Lemo]

No, that is not alright on ballscrews. Acme or comparable yes, and that would go along with the cost for them... but for ball screws that is disappointing. I probably end up buying a mill and retrofit it...
Lemo

[turboman]

Hi all,
I too, listened to Johns lies. I bought a Gold around 2000. I've been rebuilding it ever since. I designed a new milling head lift from scratch because the one he sold me was crap. Only the castings spindles and gears remain of the original machine. Don't by ShopTask. Note that John is now trying to sell the company! He sent me an invite to purchase it. I could say much more, but my blood pressure just goes up!

[sch]

The 17-32 is an elongation of the basic 17-20 design, to attract the
gunsmithing crowd. It was sporadically offered in the approx '98 to
perhaps '03 or so time frame. Be aware that the absence of a
half screw and gear box makes speed changes and threading a non-
intuitive endeavor (real PITA). The OEM tool holder is also a bit of
additional PITA to deal with. The $1500 price is only a few hundred
to $500 below the original sales price. All in all if you want to gunsmith,
you would do better to get a 12x36 manual lathe. The HF version
used to available for $1700-1900 at the store, but now is more
like $2200 or so. It is well worth the price differential in terms of
functionality. The mill on the 17-32, being the original 17-20 design
is likely MT3 spindle and not very rigid.

As a counter point to the somewhat valid complaints noted above,
Shoptask has always been a small, hand to mouth operation, and
as noted there is little evidence to support the claim that the Patriot
has been upgraded mechanically from its immediate predecessor.
Finally, John Stranahan had a magnificent blog that started about
10yrs ago documenting his efforts at improving the 17-20 and
doing amazing things with his 17-20 (gunsmithing), but unfortunately
this treasure trove disappeared when AOL shut down their communities
last year.

[billmill]

I am also looking at the patriot and have been trying to get ahold af Shoptask but it has been two weeks and no reply? I was wondering if they were still in business. It would be nice to have a combo machine but now I am thinking I should buy two used cnc machines?

[smallblock]

Originally Posted by strykerakamack Hi All Have the opportunity to get the Shop Task Gunmaster 17-32 XMTC 3 in 1 for around 1500 dollars is that a good price ? Also does anyone have the companys web homepage address? I cant seem to locate it thru live or google . Thanks

You can go to www.shoptask.com for the web site.
I have dealt with them for 15 years- first bought a 17-20 machine and then a new Patriot. For the money they are a good value- my machines have made me good profits. Despite some claims, the Patriot is a whole different animal from a different factory and is much better quality. The Gunmaster was a short lived design from a different factory and JT dropped it after they began selling to other companies- You can still buy them from Grizzly or Harbor Freight for around 1300.00 new.
They have a new machine out now with VFD drives, and I suspect that a couple of these negative posters are just popping up again to throw cold water on this. Look in the links part of the website for the John Stranahan guy who builds .50 calibre target rifles with an old 17-20 like I had. When you see his work you will be amazed- reminds me of the old German saying " Its a poor workman that blames his tools" My suggestion is to go see one somewhere and make your own decision as to whether its the right machine for you.

[billmill]

I have been to the website requested info, left emails and called the number listed and have also searched high and low for recent / any information about these machines. I have only seen one guys video of making motorcyle parts but nothing else except words of warning. I am currently searching for something similar in size but in a cnc mill. I would really like something in a 20"x12"x12" range.