It has been a long and rocky road for me and this table. I began negotiations with Brandon @ ez-Router back in late February of 2009. From the sales end, these guys were great answering all of my questions in a very timely manner and working with me on the price and table options until I was completely satisfied.
Finally, on April 2, 2009, I placed the deposit for my table with an estimated lead time of 3-4 weeks. I checked in with Brandon about every 10 days just to get an update and see if everything was moving along okay. On April 30, 2009, I was told the machine was just about ready and would be tested the following week as they all are prior to shipment (more on this later). Two more weeks pass and I don't hear anything so I send an e-mail to inquire about the status and am told it is still another couple days off. Two more weeks pass and still no word - so I send another e-mail to figure out what's going on and it looks as though the table is finally ready to ship about a month after the estimated lead time. No big deal, really, I understand that things happen and delays are inevitable, however, I like to be informed of such delays so I'm at least aware of it and can plan accordingly.
On June 3, 2009, I received my tracking number for the shipment and the table was delivered on June 12, 2009. It could have been delivered on the 9th, but I wanted to do it on a Friday so I could take the weekend to set up my machine and get cutting (hah, yea right!). I was informed by ez-Router that the pallet could be removed with a standard 4' fork - which may have been true at one point, but the shipping crate had been through hell and all of the 2x4's that were originally intended for the forks were long gone or busted up too bad. We had to back my fathers flatbed truck up to the FedEx Freight truck and use the on-board winch to pull it off the delivery truck and onto the flatbed so the FedEx guy could be on his way and complete his deliveries. He even said that he's never handled anything quite so large before and they had a hell of a time loading it on the truck at the shipping dock.
After some repairs to the shipping crate, I was finally able to use a forklift to get it off the flatbed and into my shop, where I immediately began to give it a thorough inspection. It had some scratches here and there and the ez-Router sticker logos were torn up pretty badly. Still, not a good enough reason to reject shipment and have it returned to the manufacturer as everything else seemed intact. Before powering it up, I had to remove the gantry (this unit comes pre-assembled) to get it into the dedicated CNC room in my shop. Disassembly was straightforward as was reassembly and I was able to get the thing powered up, but not hooked up to the computer because I wasn't provided with any cables at all, just a box with the THC logic box, THC sensor board, BobCAD software, and an ez-Router setup disk with all of the software that comes with the machine - and their licenses (well almost all of the licenses...more on that later). I decided to ignore the THC for now and see if I could just do some basic movement with the X and Y axes. I installed Mach 3 and used the profile on the CD that was custom-built for MY machine. Used an old parallel printer cable I had lying around in my old PC parts bin and opened up Mach 3 with my custom-tailored profile. Hit reset and nothing - "external estop requested." Long story short, the BoB that came with my machine wasn't supplying 5V to half of the board. My limit switches wouldn't work, nor would my estop. I was able to figure this out by troubleshooting with the ez-Router guys on the phone. They were to send me a new BoB ASAP, which they sent me via UPS Ground - no sense of urgency required, I guess. Had I been a legit shop, this would have set me back a few days. Also, wasn't this table supposed to be tested before it left the factory? I was also supposed to receive the missing cables with my replacement BoB – those never came. I wound up just purchasing a set off of Monoprice at my own expense.
So, with my new BoB in place (we're now at the end of June), the machine seemed to be behaving the way it should, so now it was time to get some test files in Mach to see if the thing would move. Using the provided SheetCAM software, I created some G-code to send to the machine. However, I was only getting the first 100 lines of code. Strange, I thought...wonder why that is. Turns out I only had the trial version of SheetCAM and was limited to 100 lines of code. I browsed the provided CD that came with my machine to find the license - nowhere to be found. Called up ez-Router and had them send me the license file. Finally, I should be able to get the machine to do some dry runs - and it seemed to work fairly well, so now it was time to get the plasma torch hooked up and running.
As I opened the case to my Thermal Dynamics Cutmaster 52, I knew I was chartering into foreign territory, even moreso because there were NO instructions whatsoever provided with the THC. I got a nice THC logic card w/box and a sensor board. Great, what do I do with these? I noticed that the sensor board was originally made by Sound Logic and rebranded as an ez-Router product. This was my first clue to getting this thing to work. I browsed the web and found Jim Cullins Sound Logic website, complete with installation instructions and other helpful material. The ez-Router THC package was nothing more than a Sound Logic THC-300 with an ez-Router nameplate attached. Unfortunately, the instructions are made to be universal for all plasma machines so I made my best effort to do the wiring myself.
It was around the end of June 2009 when I walked away from the machine in disgust since it did not seem to be working at all. The THC sensor board did not seem to be detecting an Arc, the torch would turn on, but would not turn off (this was a recipe for disaster!), and the THC was not moving the torch up or down. I knew I had likely wired something wrong between the THC sensor board and the plasma machine, but I didn't know what. I was able to run the machine hap-hazardly with some interesting work-arounds, but it definitely wasn't operating as it should. I essentially left the machine alone unless I had a piece I absolutely needed to cut, then I could limp it along and get it to work.
After about five and a half months of infrequently using the table (I used it more as a welding cable than a CNC cutting table), I turned to ez-Router for some assistance. In mid-December of 2009, I sent them an e-mail of the problem with the THC I was having and tried to describe it as best I could. Note: I am a hobbyist and I work a full-time job which coincide very nicely with ez-Routers hours, so phone conversations are generally not an option otherwise I would have taken that route. They answered my e-mail fairly quickly and were able to steer me in the right direction but I still needed additional guidance. Unfortunately, my follow-up e-mails must have gotten lost in cyberspace because I never heard from them again. I even sent another follow-up e-mail on 1/19/10 and have yet to hear from them. Luckily Jim Cullins from Sound Logic is who he is because despite him knowing full well that the product I was having was bought through ez-Router, he was determined to get me back on track. With Jim’s help, I was able to get the machine running as it should. I still have some tweaking to do here and there to get offsets and cutting speeds right, but at least I’m past the stage of having to troubleshoot and tinker with the machine.
So, my final thoughts: ez-Router makes a very robust machine and their prices were the best I could find on a fully assembled 4’x4’ machine. Working with their sales guy, Brandon, was a pleasure and he was able to fully answer all of my questions. Their tech support has been adequate at best. They did walk me through a trouble-shooting procedure on the BoB and send me out a replacement, but I feel this should really just be standard practice as the machine was supposed to be tested from the factory. They started to help me with some of my more recent troubles with the THC, but those help requests seemed to have been brushed under the rug. They seem to be very helpful on the phone, which is great, but I’m not always in a position where I can make phone calls – I work in an office where personal calls are frowned upon unless it is an emergency so e-mail always works best. In this day and age, tech support via e-mail is crucial – it’s way easier for me to converse that way than it is over the phone. Also, ez-Router makes claims on their website which state “Just plug and play.” I will wholeheartedly disagree with this statement in relation to the experience that I had. If you do not use a THC, then yes, it would have been very straightforward, but with the THC option, there NEEDS to be more instruction provided on how to connect that to your plasma machine.
I hope that I did not offend anyone in any way – especially those at ez-Router. I’m one to give the benefit of the doubt 9 times out of 10, but I also like to recount my experiences as accurately as possible so that anyone looking to travel down the same path that I have will be educated and not run into any surprises.
