Day two, has gone by and no reply from MAXNC, although I was promissed that someone would call me and let me know the status on my controller board yesterday. I think I am just going to have to be patient and wait till tomorrow when the owner is back so I can deal directly with him. Meanwhile, the part I was cuttng is dead on the table and I am a bit frustrated and I also don't sit iddle well.
I have a control box from Griffin CNC controls that was running another machine but since It is iddle, I might take that controller and attach it to the MXNC Router and load Mach 3 on the PC.
I hear what you are saying about the cutting corners on the MAXNC machines and myself have made some minor retrofits to the MAXPATH42 router so that it operates smoother. Fortunately, I have not had any issues with the couplers so I am leaving them as they are, for now, but the thought of the machine possibly vibrating if things were not aligned properly did cross my mind when I bought it.
However, I have twice repaired the BSA nut in the Z axis and drilled amd tapped the mount to hold the nut in place more securely with 2 small screws because this nut was coming loose from a semi-threaded pocket on the Z axis nut holder block. Here is a perfect example of cutting corners, it qppears they miscalculated the CL distance of the thread to the edge of the nut holder block clearance and didn't have enough alu material on the screw block to fully tap it and have enough material around to hold the nut better. IF you take your MAXNC machine appart look at this area you'll know what I mean. Maybe this is just on thier routers?.
The other thing I did was to replace the dove tail alu tensioner bars, the parts that provide some friction to hold the sliding blocks, with ones I made from Delrin, and this improved the sliding of the axis mounts better. I suggested this to MAXNC Monday to the Vice President lady, when I was there droping the board. I also think, that the original alu tesioner bars are a potential problem for trapping chips and debris easier than the delrin ones I made.
Also I had to replace the original bearings on the all Axis with better ones at my expense.
If only MAXNC could spend a little more money and time and improve these areas on their machines, so let them charge a bit more, they would have more supportive fans. I personally like the router because it is of a size that fits my applications, no issue there, I don't care for whether it is anodized blue, more important is a solid machine. But it is the lack of attention to details into the assembly and even into the particular design that bothers me.
One thing they did improve on, is the Y axis on their newer router, the Y rides on Thompsons round rails, not dovetails like on thier original machine , the one I have. But they should also put the same rails onthe Z axis to make it more precise and more consitent in design and appearance so that the machine doesn't look like it was pieced from smaller machines.
"good luck dealing wiht Art and his wonderful team" is this a warning? which Art? from MAXNC or Artsoft? confused?