I have been looking at these and the reports on the CNCZone forum but i
seems to me that once bought there is no support for these. One guy over on CNC Zone bought a kit and it has no wiring diagram an instructions and now he's asking all over how to go about it.
So after you have spent your money, at least in the UK, do you get an support and what level ?
P
-- P Riedi
----------------------------------------------------------------------- P Riedie's Profile:
On or around 17 May 2007 12:53:56 -0700, jontom snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com enlightened us thusly:
you need an "A". there were A, B and C, with A being full screwcutting gearbox, B uses changewheels and C doesn't do screwcutting, ISTR. UD was under-drive, so an A that's not an AUD is OK provided the under-drive bit is not essential, and while under-drive is tidy as an installation it can be a royal pain to change the motor - the round-head student has access to the motor from behind the machine, for example; so if you install it by a wall, you have to move the machine (a bit over half a ton) to get to it. Might be the boxford's UD is better in this respect.
Thats a major issue with getting into CNC - if the quality of support from your supplier isn't up to snuff then the users end up having to figure it all out for themselves. Which is fine if you are computer literate and own a PHD in fixing hardware after releasing the magic black smoke, but a bit of a bummer if you are your average garden shed model engineer.
Brilliant sales ploy. Part with three grand's worth of hard earned cash on a machine you can't see, can't try and have no idea if the photo even looks like the machine. No detailed sales literature that actually means anything, you have to read the Chinese site and the American site to get any inkling of what's on offer. What is on the American site is technically incorrect for a stepper driven machine.
The machine may or may not be up to scratch although there are issues on the Syil forum on CNC Zone as P Reidie points out for anyone to see but if you fancy parting with £3K sight unseen then I have a nice Arboga mill I'll take £2K for and even deliver it AFTER your cheque has cleared and even throw the rocking horse $hit collet chuck in.
Queue this side please...................................
Product support is about as pro-active as you can get. A look at the 'Syil products' on CNCzone would confirm responses from Richard of Syilamerica and Xushuo one of the directors in China. The big problem is getting supplies to the UK from China, the first consignment having sold even before it landed and it will be 2 months or more before any more arrive - hence the low-key advertising. Three of the first 5 customers chose to view the machines before committing themselves, liked what they saw and did the deal. The one issue raised by one customer was the lack of a cd,dvd, or video describing setting up - this is being addressed. Our friend Richard took the time and trouble to get things running via email, and he's coming to the UK next month and will hopefully be meeting with one or two customers.
John, Not quite the case, as you'll see from my previous post, three of the first customers came to see the machines first, and as they are Sieg Super X3 machines then that does give some reassurance. Of course, it might be better if they were being sold from a glitzy showroom with display models that you can try out, and with the glossy brochures that go with that - the price would then have to be 30-50% more. It suits some people to save that sort of money, not others.
Odie, maybe you're right. Super?? X3?? hmmm. Well, it is the Sieg Super X3, so there is a certain kind of logic, maybe we'll rename it. How about 'The Ratner'?
Unfortunately for me as I have a nice one for sale, I think the Myford secondhand prices are actually going a little "soft". I see that on G&M Tools list today they have reduced a reasonable looking ML7R by almost half of what it was in January. A look at completed listings on E-bay shows a long list of unsold or relatively cheap Myfords (compared to last year) over the last few months. I suspect that many in this area of the market are being tempted by the likes of the BH600. Ah well I'll just have to keep the two,such hardship.
Best regards
Keith
What is amazing is how quickly you get to the point of two lathes actually being useful!
A year ago Syil was very new and it's not unusual for there to be issues with new products although I'm not aware of any bad reputation. I do recall a US customer complaining on CNCzone about his machine being next to useless and sitting there for months on end doing nothing in particular. The response he got (from memory) is that instead of whingeing he should get onto the helpline. Some people do prefer to whinge and be negative - it take all sorts. Yes, it works - beautifully, as a lot of resources go into developing the hardware - the expertise coming largely from the US side of operations. As it's based on the Sieg machine, that part of the hardware speaks for itself. The ballscrews are of high quality and the software - Mach 3 is recommended - works well with the machine once the profiles specific to the machine are downloaded. The notice should now read "DON'T MISS" - but, of course, I would say that as I'm selling them!
Syil may be new but the host machine is the Sieg SX3 which has been around for a while and did have serious problems. Any one doing their homework on this would or SHOULD be aware of this.
Total and utter Bollocks, in fact double Bollocks. The SX3 wasn't released in the US until very recently. There was call for it but Sieg wouldn't ship to the US knowing they had a problem. A Yahoo group was even setup to bulk buy some SX3's and C6B's. Some were bought privately and the result was that about 3/4 had a motor fault.
The SX3 differs from the X3 only on the head arrangement and directly relates to the drive system. The X3 drives from a 600W DC motor by belt to a double reduction gearbox which can be noisy and has variable speed of from 100 to 1000 and 200 to 2,000 although they will get up to 2,200
The SX3 has a 3 phase brushless DC motor drive belt driven to the spindle giving
100 to
1700 rpm. Originally the board that drove this was not a good design and it was able to be stopped by hand at low speed. High speed of 1700 isn't fast enough for small cutters.
After a lot of development NOT IN THE USA the board has been redesigned so that it works as designed. Unfortunately low speed is still lacking grunt, it's a single speed and no matter what the electronic guys say you can't get more out than you put in and only gearing can increase torque necessary for larger cutters at low speed.
I'm rushing off to meet a customer in a few minutes BUT, I just had to respond. I can assure you that a lot of input is now coming from the US, Richard Lowe (Syilamerica) is responsible for a lot of the design work going into the machines - this is his background formerly and the best person to have on board the brand - he just visited the company in China with his colleagues. Spindle speed? check out your facts please - now upgraded to 3700, previously an add-on, now a standard feature. gotta go, but you can be a negative as you like but it doesn't detract from the fact that the Super X3 is a popular machine and maybe there were issues, but now?
whoops sorry John, in my rush this morning I probably gave the impression that Richard was responsible for the Sieg hardware - I was referring to the cnc-part, ballscrews etc. - he liaises closely with Syil.cn rgds Hugh
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