Questions for Smithy

[jmg]

There's a lot of info happening here...
"your best consumer is the best informed consumer" (somebody else's quote)

Thanks Peter for your efforts to find out what the scoop is! It certainly is appreciated. Thanks to all others involved as well.

jmg

[pjensen]

Hello all,

I went down to the Smithy showroom today and spoke with Michelle Rowe, who was very helpful.

The machine on the floor did have the motors installed, but no control box so I could not see it actually run. With that in mind, all I could do was look it over without running it.

The finish on the machine was good, and I could not see any quality problems. The amount of metal under the X axis ways may have been a little less than I would have liked (the space left for the ball-screws was more than strictly needed) but I can't say that this would actually cause any problems without running the machine.

My guess is that you would see some stiffness issues only when running the machine under very heavy loads. I wouldn't expect much trouble if the cutting loads are kept to "normal" levels. I haven't viewed an IH or Tormach, so I can't directly compare.

The Z-Axis ways were also lacking a cover, so the ball screw was exposed. Michelle correctly pointed out that the head itself will usually block chips/coolant from hitting the screw, but I think a user of this machine may want to rig up some kind of cover for the Z axis. The X and Y axes were well covered with a plastic bellows.

Those were the two potential problems I saw with the machine. One is easily fixable, and the other may be minor (we won't know until somebody can actually run the machine and make cuts...)

Overall the machine was well put together, with some attention to detail such as wire conduit and covered connection points for the wiring placed on the back of the column. Fit and finish was good, including the stand. Certainly a hobby user, Smithy's primary audience, would be very happy with this machine.

As it turns out, the inspection sheet I received earlier was incomplete, as I suspected. I will attach a scan of the complete inspection sheet.

In other news, Smithy's future plans include a line of light-industrial machines (which should have Servo's) sometime in the next couple years. Also, they are in the late stages of a quick-change tooling system similar to the Tormach tooling system.

I hope this information is helpful.

Best Regards,

-Peter