[norvil1]

"Wonder what the motivation was for that"

the motivation was simple. i wanted that piece of **** out of my shop, and i was willing to give it away to accomplish this. jt and i will settle up later.

[sharpshooter90]

the motivation was simple. With little time or patience to adjust out the backlash it was probably best to just move on to another project,

maybe jsmith can get it up and running- Another option would have been to donate it to a local vocational school as a project and take a tax credit. A friend of mine was an instructor and he used to find old mills and have the students restore them as part of the curriculum. He said it gave the kids a better understanding of how machines are made.

[norvil1]

maybe jsmith can get it up and running- Another option would have been to donate it to a local vocational school as a project and take a tax credit. A friend of mine was an instructor and he used to find old mills and have the students restore them as part of the curriculum. He said it gave the kids a better understanding of how machines are made.

i am not interested in tax credits, all i wanted was a mill that cut to specs
and i did not get it. end of discussion.

[digitalmdj]

So sharpshooter90 you admit that the machine needs to be rebuilt after you purchase it so a bunch of students should rebuild it . So Norvil simply got shafted is that what I am reading here. Now some students can call JT and get shafted also. I think the buck should stop here and JT can forget making any more money off of us or helpless kids for that matter.

[sharpshooter90]

Yes, but they had been cut off and the ends were welded onto the ball screws. I will have to fab some new ends and I will be in business. So far there seems to be little evidence that there is any thing wrong with the machine. Once the screws are replaced it should be up and running.

Keep us posted on the progress- even if you just keep it as a spare parts machine, you made out like a bandit. I'll bet you could sell it on E-bay for a good price too.

[norvil1]

sharpshooter buy you 2 of them, then you will be twice as happy.

[sharpshooter90]

sharpshooter buy 2 of them, then you will be twice as happy.

Actually I'm on the third one- the first one belonged to uncle Sam, but I ran it. Then I bought a used one and made enough with it to buy a new Patriot.

[smallblock]

Actually I'm on the third one- the first one belonged to uncle Sam, but I ran it. Then I bought a used one and made enough with it to buy a new Patriot.

Ditto- my old 17-20 model made me a lot of money over the years. The patriot is a lot nicer and has a lot more features.

[digitalmdj]

Maybe I should post all my pictures of the badly machined parts off my tripower to remind everyone how cheap it its made.

[fastlanecafe]

Maybe I should post all my pictures of the badly machined parts off my tripower to remind everyone how cheap it its made. Having said that, it must be admitted that at under 2K there is a lot of iron for the $. With some imagination and a little massaging these machines can be pretty nice.

Any pictures of your work would be helpful.

[norvil1]

fastlanes why do you keep adding to the quotes things that where not said?
just curious

[digitalmdj]

He doesn't want to accept the facts so he has to add things that were never said and pretend we meant to say something else. A pure act of denial.

[instructor37]

I posted a while back that I took advantage of a deal Shoptask was running on "new" Tri-Power Bridgemills with the DRO and 3-axis CNC. This is a new machine, but is produced at their old factory in China. Not the new ISO facility the patriots are done in.

I took delivery a few weeks ago and got it somewhat uncrated. A serious injury (shattered femur) has kept me from really getting into it, but I can already see some updates have been done to the machine as compared to the posts, descriptions and pictures I have found of the "old" machines. The first thing I noticed was a lack of the old black plastic caps on the handles and levers. All of the handles are one piece, chromed with knurled ends instead of those caps everyone seems to hate. There is a spindle indexer on the lathe. The drawbar seem to be centered when it is tightened and the milling vice seems to be of much better quality than what I've seen previously. I can't wait to really tear into it and see if I'm gonna regret my purchase or if I'm gonna be pleasantly surprised as I have been thus far.


I thank everyone in advance for your anticipated help and patience with all of the posts and questions I'm sure I will be posting as soon as I get into the thick of things!

Good luck on your recovery- I think they did an excellent job on the Patriot machine. In comparing the 2, we found the functions to be pretty much the same, but the QC on the Patriot was much higher. We considered doing the " patriotizing on some tri-powers, but scheduling meant we had to be up and running as quickly as possible. For us, the patriots worked out well, as we were up and running within a day of delivery, and so far they are performing well.

[Fast01]

Instructor37, thanks for the well wishes! It's funny, I started this thread more or less to introduce myself and just give my first impressions on the machine. I haven't even been able to get it up onto the table yet. It's still on the garage floor with the legs bolted to the top of the table just like it came off the truck. I only removed the crating material to take a peek. It's nice to see guys trying to look out for each other based on their experience, but the bickering back and forth is actually kind of entertaining. I, as I would expect others to do, did a bit of research before I made my decision to buy. I understand the shortcomings all of the 3 in 1's seem to have, but I am limited on space and have no intentions of doing aerospace work on the thing. I intend on sharing my experience with the machine, good and bad, with the members on this board and others which I hope will help out someone else in the future.

[instructor37]

Instructor37, thanks for the well wishes! It's nice to see guys trying to look out for each other based on their experience, but the bickering back and forth is actually kind of entertaining. I, as I would expect others to do, did a bit of research before I made my decision to buy. I understand the shortcomings all of the 3 in 1's seem to have, but I am limited on space and have no intentions of doing aerospace work on the thing. I intend on sharing my experience with the machine, good and bad, with the members on this board and others which I hope will help out someone else in the future.

Fast,
As long as you have that realistic attitude you will probably be satisfied with the unit. We could have gone with the Tri Power as well and it was about 1/2 the price of the Patriot, but in our environment we wanted the later model. I read all the posts on this and other forums and after tossing out the obvious promotors and the equally obvious haters, I came to the conclusion that it was a good value for the money. So far I have not run into anything to make me think otherwise.

[locfoc]

After reading tons of posts and reviews on the Patriot I have decided to order one myself. I would like to thank DigitalDJ for helping me make my decision. All the bickering you did with no resolution to support it proves you either broke the machine by trying to retrofit upgrades or you work for the competition. And if you do and this is how the competition has to act to get sales, well then I surely won't be giving you guys any of my money. It's going to the Patriot, cheers.

[digitalmdj]

The San Francisco school district is selling their shoptasks. They just didn't cut the muster. Check Craigslist for details. Your business must be bad you have to stimulant this forum John. By the way I have some more pictures to show of the Y axis bushing that was filed out at the factory because the support plate was aligned and pined wrong . I am going to show it when its finished so to give a before and after photo. This is to show the right way and a wrong way to do something.

[sharpshooter90]

After reading tons of posts and reviews on the Patriot I have decided to order one myself. I would like to thank DigitalDJ for helping me make my decision. All the bickering you did with no resolution to support it proves you either broke the machine by trying to retrofit upgrades or you work for the competition. And if you do and this is how the competition has to act to get sales, well then I surely won't be giving you guys any of my money. It's going to the Patriot, cheers.

I think the competition is smarter than that, anyone can recognize his problem is way beyond the machine. The stress of the economy must be showing, as the meds are running out sooner each month.

[Roadster]

What is the normal shipping time for a Patriot? About seven weeks ago, I was told that they would be in the USA in 2 1/2 weeks. A week or two ago, I was told that the machines were in possession of the transporter. What time period should I expect for the machines to arrive in Nevada once they leave the factory in China?

[Fast01]

What is the normal shipping time for a Patriot? About seven weeks ago, I was told that they would be in the USA in 2 1/2 weeks. A week or two ago, I was told that the machines were in possession of the transporter. What time period should I expect for the machines to arrive in Nevada once they leave the factory in China?

I couldn't tell you what the actual transport time is, but when I ordered mine it took about 2 months to get. I ordered in October and took delivery the second week of December. Hope this helps!