Has anybody been able to get in touch with John? The number I have goes to a voicemail with no name (listed on the site) and emails are not getting returned. He sent me a wrong part and I am screwed if I don't get the right one quickly.
-Keith
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Has anybody been able to get in touch with John? The number I have goes to a voicemail with no name (listed on the site) and emails are not getting returned. He sent me a wrong part and I am screwed if I don't get the right one quickly.
-Keith
I think I caught him at just the right time. LOL I had to email him about something else and told him people were asking about him. This is what I got back.........
Everything is fine here. I am building a new shop and more time consuming is a modified torus pro. We are going full Siemens controls and will be UL certified. The new mills are being built in China now, but will not have the cabinet on the back side. The cabimet will instead be on the side of the stand. We will have a kit form for older mills, but we have to complete the first kit we are working on now. The new mill will have rigid tapping and a more powerful spindle motor and all servo axes. Fully commercial and a little more expensive also. I am not sure if we will have a stepper version, depending on interest mainly.
We also just finished a contract yesterday to build a US CO2 laser with our own design. A lot of new features not on the imports we represent. I will still sell Bodor, but pushing US built, though slightly higher in price. Demo will be started next week and should have pictures for the zone starting in a few weeks. We will have construction shots as we go. Should be interesting.
We will also will be releasing the mill announcement about the same time. We will be limited to conceptual drawings for a few months before the mills show up.
You can share this info if you like since we will release it anyway very soon. Days are long with work!
Regards,
John Sandstrom
353 Jonestown Rd, Suite 144
Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27104
Novakon
Financing
No need to panic Keith, we do get the messages and respond as quickly as we can. It was only a few hours since you called in when we returned your call, later in the early evening...and being a holiday, end of week leave early day....
Just a note, we did some changes to the office phone system a few days ago and we did miss the message forwarding feature. All corrected now.
Your flex coupler was sent out so you should have it in a few days. I also made arrangements for the spare Torus PRO casted parts you wanted. I will keep you posted.
John
Definitely we will be starting some new threads on the revised mill and CO2 laser very soon. We still have to gather up more information to better represent the new machines but I am sure all will be interesting to follow it's development. Schedules tend to slide, but having the laser built and assembled locally, it is a huge plus. We will have production pictures as we move along and I don't anticipate a very long waiting period before we have production lasers ready.
John
John,Quote:
Originally Posted by Novakon
Any progress on the new mill and co2 laser?
Scott...
Hey John, havent heard from you in a while. Whats up?Quote:
Originally Posted by sagreen
Scott...
it doesn't appear anyone is awake at novakon .
I ordered the wrong drawbars . I immediately sent an email to sales but that got bounced back saying email quota has been reached . Sent 2 to support and haven't a reply .
Anyone know how much longer the bars are for the power draw vs the standard hand wrench ? If I have to huck em in the bin when they get here then whatever , but if it's the difference of stacking a few washers then I can live with that . For now I'll have to look at getting some ready rod until I know wtf is going on
Without disassembling the PDB, I estimate .6 - .75 " longer. That is the height of the base.Quote:
Originally Posted by metalmayhem
right on thanks . I can work with that if I need to
I had something similar happen......I didn't check for any length difference, but the manual bar's head was square instead of hex. Since it's the hex that is needed for the PDB, the other is just sitting on a shelf, somewhere around here. lol
Welp , we got that sorted which is good and he's got square heads on hand which is even better since the hex strips out over time .
one thing I'll say about John is theres no bs when talking with the guy
Did John mention anything about the updated Torus Pro with Siemens Control?Quote:
Originally Posted by metalmayhem
We discussed it briefly but didn't get much into it . I can't speak for the guy but I got the impression that he's got a few things to sort , otherwise he sounds pretty confident in the new setup
The novakon site is loaded with siemens gear (no prices) so I'm assuming that he's close to a release
The Siemens gear has been on there without prices for several months now.Quote:
Originally Posted by metalmayhem
I've sold my PM932 CNC conversion and am now in the market for another mill. A Novakon Torus Pro (I like the 15" of Y travel) is on my list as is a Tormach 1100M and a used Haas Mini Mill. After reading through this thread I'm concerned about post sale support. It seems a few of the posters here have had trouble in that area. I plan on calling them this coming week but wanted to get your opinions before doing so.
I've also read that Novakon may not be offering the stepper version anymore. Is this true? According to their website both options are still available. I'm also confused about the style of power draw bar they are selling. Is it an air operated cylinder type or a torque drive type. The website isn't clear on this.
Has anyone modified their mill for higher spindle rpm? I'm thinking a pulley change or a VFD parameter change will do it. Your thoughts?
Thanks
John has been there for me on the occasions when I've been in dire need . The cable on my x axis crapped out a few days after I posted on here. I did another quick fix to it but I knew it wasn't going to last . I contacted John and explained my situation and a new cable was here the following afternoon . Obviously that comes with a premium cost of shipping but I can't have any delays so I'm willing to pay it . It's been pretty much the same scenario on a number of other occasions .
I haven't seen anything about steppers being done away with , and it wouldn't make sense to do so .
As far as mods go I've only changed the limit stops on the y axis . The stop bar that come with isn't very good and home position has varied in the .015" range . I'm also running pathpilot which in my opinion blows away all the windows softwares . The improvements on performance were immense . I'm not sure why John hasn't attempted to configure these mills with linuxcnc , the machines would really shine performance wise and reliability .
Choosing between tormach novakon and haas is sort of like the kids game "which one doesn't belong " . The haas is a completely different beast compared to any of the hobby class machines
MetalMayhem - Thanks for your response. I agree a used Haas Mini Mill is not really comparable to a hobby machine, except for price. That's why it's being considered.Quote:
Originally Posted by metalmayhem
In regards to using Path Pilot you say, "The improvements on performance were immense." Can you expand on that.
Thanks
compared to mach and uccnc for example , they are far slower and more jerky when doing surfacing which is 80% of the machining I do . Pathpilot is much faster and smoother and the mesa cards are bullet proof . I've got 4 mills running pathpilot and they run flawlessly .
My mills run a minimum of 40 hours a week and closer to 60-80 in my busy times , and the change compared to the other softwares is immense . The jerkiness meant that the mills were never reaching the programmed feed rates on complex surfaces . The change has improved my cycle times as well as the surface finishes
though I keep the rapids somewhat low on the torus , The acceleration is much more responsive and reliable , something that would have given me problems in the past
A lot of the code that I run would have a mini mill bouncing off the floor if it didn't have the high speed machining option . I know this because I've run many haas and I saw to it the options were added to the mills to give similar improvements
Thanks for the Path Pilot feed back. I'll keep that in mind if I go the Novakon route.