CNC Express SQ

I have purchased a CNC Express SQ from this company.
My first visual impression was the thing looks like garbage.
It seemed to have been used before, chipped paint, dirty, not a nice shiny new mill I would have liked to see. That said mills are about performance and not show pieces.
I haven't gotten the mill running, this is my preliminary post and will add performance feed back accordingly.
I have next to zero milling experience so keep that in mind, I do have a strong mechanical (AC/R) and industrial plant level background.
The casting looks terrible IMO, like some China man poured in his back yard and then afterwords painted it in the same spot. Again does it mill accurately, that is all that matters.
As for the control system, it seems very good and seems that quality parts were used in that area. I think MicroKinetics is a is mainly an control system designer and supplier.

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Originally Posted by NH3.R717

I have purchased a CNC Express SQ from this company.
My first visual impression was the thing looks like garbage........I think MicroKinetics is a is mainly an control system designer and supplier.

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My guess is that you are correct about the machine being pre-owned. Microkinetics frequently offers "slightly used" machines (probably returns) on Atlanta craigslist.

Microkinetics seems to exist on inertia. They were one of the first to build a hobby control and have little going for them other than length of time in business. Even so, it amazes me this company still exists.

You will be less impressed with the control when you remove the top cover. Mine was a rat's nest of wire and incorrectly placed components. The amplifiers are installed without heatsinks and will cook if you run them above half power.

I had to send mine back three times to get it working, each time incurring shipping charges and shipping damage. The last time they pinched a wire when replacing a drive which quickly fried that drive as well.

The software had no acceleration ramps in jog mode, making it impossible to use with the supplied NEMA 42 motors. Also, two of the motors were defective. One didn't even have a bearing installed at the rear of the armature.

I finally tossed the software and interface card and completely rewired the box to run on cncpro. After the third amplifier failure it went in the dumpster.

I hope you have better luck than I did.

Doug

Status update on my machine: Haven't gotten it wired electrically yet so I have not been able to run it. Some sort of wound spring has broken and the sales lady I spoke with said she would fwd the info to tech/parts, I haven't heard back. I will call tech on Monday. I have spoken with a tech guy there before and seems less than enthusiastic about doing his job, maybe he need some coffee. Also the gear case sight glass leaks, I will request a replacement for that.

So far I have degreased everything with massive paint peeling everywhere the degreaser solvent touches. I plan on cleaning everything and re-oiling before I start using the machine.



Thanks for the feed back Doug. I did pop the cover off of the controller and posted the image on here. Let me know if this one seems like an improvement over yours. How did you reconfigure yours to run on a different software?

Really I needed a CNC machine in my budget and with little advice and experience I had to chose one. I will be more informed on my next purchase.

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Originally Posted by NH3.R717

I did pop the cover off of the controller and posted the image on here. Let me know if this one seems like an improvement over yours. How did you reconfigure yours to run on a different software?

Really I needed a CNC machine in my budget and with little advice and experience I had to chose one. I will be more informed on my next purchase.

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Your box is virtually the same as mine was ten years ago. I bought mine on the promise that a windows version of the software was only months away. It was years away and when it came it was not a free upgrade as promised.

I've not used the newer software. If you have problems you can rewire the computer interface to run Mach3, TurboCNC, or CNCPro. These do not require the interface card which, I'm betting, is still full of bugs.

Admittedly, I'm being cynical of what may now be a better system. My experience was so costly and frustrating that I tend to speak my mind about Microkinetics.

Doug

Gentlemen,

I'm the owner of MicroKinetics and we have delivered literally thousands of milling and lathe CNC systems over the 25 years in business.

To Doug: Your experiences date back to 1998/99 and a lot has changed. We've made significant improvements every year and we continue to innovate in CNC and release new features about twice per year. During 1999 there was a production issue with one of our subcontractors building the amplifiers and this was solved completely by 2001. We now have a much better supplier and have enjoyed very high reliability over the last 10+ years. As for the software upgrades, we generally do not charge for most upgrades but occassional on major upgrades, like going from DOS to Windows, we do charge a nominal fee.

To NH3.R717: Rest assured that your investment is an excellent one. The photos you include do show professional wiring and quality as well as the machine itself looks nice and inline with industrial standards. This was your first experience buying this type of machine and as you stated you have no point of reference yet. Rest assured we do not sell used machines, however, because we do set up and physically test each machine with all it's components, this can cause the occasional minor blemish. Whether this happens in testing, packaging, or shipping, we do supply or make available to you at no charge, touch up paint to correct this with minimal effort.

As the founder of MicroKinetics, I instituted our exclusive 5 year warranty and a 30 day money back guarantee since day one and I am proud to say that I will personally help any customer of mine to solve any issue that may come up. Just call 1-800-674-8419 x101.


Best regards,

I did a Bridgport clone conversion with Microkinetics-In 2011- It works very well
You must be sure to take the time and set everything up correctly.
The Millmaster Pro and Multicam software are easy to use for the begginer.

NH3.R717

Don't hesitate to call Maurice with any & all questions.
That's what I did in 2000, and my first CNC Mill is still running DOS.

MillMaster Pro was a very simple and easy system to learn and it also
introduced me to G code.
I've since installed both Mach 3 & EMC-2 on various machines and they
gave me fits at first! All the extra functions are a programmer's dream & this
user's nightmare, but; I'm only interested in Mill & Lathe.

Your Electronic Enclosure is nicely designed and assembled.
4 Drives @ 80V-10A will give you great performance for a long time.
Hang Tough...you'll be glad you did!

W. Smith, Mission Viejo, CA
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/bencht...including.html

What Brand/Model of Mill, is the CNC Express XL?

I want to use Windows XP PRO and Mach3. Is there any other conversion kits for this brand of Mill?

Please e-mail me [email protected] with any answers. Thanks.

Rich Gillen

In the past we have built and converted three machines to CNC, each time building our power supply and controllers from scratch and running Mach3 on them, a benchtop lathe, small mill and a Bridgeport Boss CNC mill. Needing a robust lathe and more productivity we decided on a Grizzly 12x36 gunsmiths lathe and conversion via Microkinetics.
Dealing with everybody at Microkinetics was really great. Lots of help and support when asked for. The CNC conversion kit was very complete and well thought out.
With Maurice's help we now have a lathe with:
-Full CNC control
-Variable speed spindle via VFD
-6 pos tool turret
-pneumatic collet closer controlled by software
-coolant control

The system has worked flawlessly, the learning curve switching over from Mach3 to Turnmaster was not difficult, just different. The more we use it the more we prefer it over Mach3 on the lathe. Especially getting it to work with the turret, collet closer or other outside controls.

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Originally Posted by CNCfun&games

NH3.R717

Don't hesitate to call Maurice with any & all questions.
That's what I did in 2000, and my first CNC Mill is still running DOS.

MillMaster Pro was a very simple and easy system to learn and it also
introduced me to G code.
I've since installed both Mach 3 & EMC-2 on various machines and they
gave me fits at first! All the extra functions are a programmer's dream & this
user's nightmare, but; I'm only interested in Mill & Lathe.

Your Electronic Enclosure is nicely designed and assembled.
4 Drives @ 80V-10A will give you great performance for a long time.
Hang Tough...you'll be glad you did!

W. Smith, Mission Viejo, CA
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/bencht...including.html

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CNC Express SQ is one of my list cnc mill - to buy soon . However, specs indicates ballscrews at .003" per foot max linear error , what does it means. My understanding if correct, this is a deviation of about
+/- 0.0762mm per feet of travel or 0.00635mm per inch of travel. Isnt it too big of backlash error? I intend to use it fabricating bearing holder and shaft. Please comment. Thanks

So, gents, the questions (presumably asked before) are as follows:

1) For lower-cost CNC mills, with, say, an X-axis travel of 20" or so, the only choices are the MicroKinetics or the Tormach; correct? (Roughly $7500-8500.) Or is there a third choice out there in the same (or lesser) price range?

2) Of the two machines named above, the Tormach is actually considerably more expensive, because they nickel-and-dime you for needed "extras"---but is the machine worth the extra money?

I've been keeping my eye on one of these which seem very reasonably priced:

IH CNC Mills & Machinery - Made in the USA

I have no experience with one though.

Inside of my Drive Rack... 3 axis DM810 Drivers using an external MN400E Controller!

Support so far from Microkinetics has been ok... I had to tear it down to get the proper pin-outs.

I am going to wire it up (Will post cable pin-out's and config i used in my post. Microkinetics will not give the cable pin-outs if they did support would be great to excellent) and check it all out but plan on going to mach 3 for the support system. I Have not found any online support for their Turnmaster/Millmaster software. And the documentation provided is is very lacking to the non expert CNC user.

What would be nice if Microkinetics wrote a plugin for Mach 3. I would drop a few buck's (not more then the cost of a break out board) to not go thru the hassle of changing things up.

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