[captianpattson]

Hi ya'll. I'm looking to get myself a mill and decided on the taig over the sherline. I've looked around and found a couple places to buy, taigtools.com has a complete kit with mill, motors, and control box for $2500, while deepgroove1.com has them for $1700. I noticed that the deepgroove1 mill says its "based" on the taig. From the specs and pics, I cant see a difference. Does anyone have any experience with the latter? Here's the link to the Taig

Taig Tools - Desktop Milling Machines and Lathes.

and to the deepgroove1

Cnc mill

[cameraguy]

Does anyone have any experience with the latter?

If you look there is an old and very long thread dealing with the misadventures of that particular 'dealer'.

However, there are several dealers out there - Nick Carter (Carter Tools) being one of the most reputable out there.

The reason everything is 'based' on the Taig is that Taig does not actually sell complete CNC machines. People convert them. Even the machine you saw going to the official Taig site is really not on their site - if you look its actually just a link to another site of someone who mods them into complete CNC machines. They are not the only one, either.

Its also possible to just order the parts yourself and assemble the kit from scratch in a couple hours or less. All Deepgroove does is drop ship you the same parts anyway (except they might be used merchandise, or stolen merchandise, or simply not get to you). But if they did get to you, you could have still bought the exact same ones and done it yourself for even cheaper.

[fretsman]

The reason everything is 'based' on the Taig is that Taig does not actually sell complete CNC machines. People convert them. Even the machine you saw going to the official Taig site is really not on their site - if you look its actually just a link to another site of someone who mods them into complete CNC machines. They are not the only one, either.

Really? Isn't Kurt Daley part of Taig Tools? He's the one behind Microproto Systems, is he not?

Dave

[fretsman]

Yep, same exact mailing address as well.

TAIG Tools, 12419 E. Nightingale Lane, Chandler AZ 85286.

MICROPROTO SYSTEMS, 12419 E. NIGHTINGALE LN., CHANDLER, ARIZONA 85286

[cameraguy]

Yep, same exact mailing address as well.

TAIG Tools, 12419 E. Nightingale Lane, Chandler AZ 85286.

MICROPROTO SYSTEMS, 12419 E. NIGHTINGALE LN., CHANDLER, ARIZONA 85286

Nice. I didn't know that. Whenever I talk to Taig they refer to Microproto as a different company, say they only want to stick to building machines. Interesting.

[awerby]

Microproto is the CNC arm of the same family-owned company. Kurt Daley came up with the control systems they use, so he's been in charge of producing them. If you get their CNC solution, then you get support from Taig/Microproto. If you get an aftermarket system like "Deepgroove" sells, then you're on your own when the controller doesn't work right (unless you can get support from him). Here are Taig's thoughts on the matter: Taig Tools - Desktop Milling Machines and Lathes.

Andrew Werby
ComputerSculpture.com — Home Page for Discount Hardware & Software

[updatelee]

I bought a deepgroove model, the taig itself comes straight from taig, taig just dropships it for deepgroove. The controller is a standard gecko G540, the enclosure looks like deepgroove made it, inside is the G540 and a standard Chinese switching power supply. The steppers are American made and seem to be pretty good quality, I havent had any issues yet and boy can I drive these babies fast, they'll move the deck faster then Id ever want to without missing a step.

Im happy with the service I received from deepgroove, I paid and everything showed up about a week later. He had a few videos showing how to assemble everything, although its really straight forward. I use linuxcnc (emc2) which has the G540 preset in a dropdown so it wasnt much to configure it, combined with the G540 manual from gecko's website it took me a few minutes to get it up and running, then awhile longer tweaking the settings and getting it running exactly how I wanted it.

[cameraguy]

I bought a deepgroove model, the taig itself comes straight from taig, taig just dropships it for deepgroove. The controller is a standard gecko G540, the enclosure looks like deepgroove made it, inside is the G540 and a standard Chinese switching power supply. The steppers are American made and seem to be pretty good quality, I havent had any issues yet and boy can I drive these babies fast, they'll move the deck faster then Id ever want to without missing a step.

This is a pretty solid setup. The Taig and the 540 are a good match. Other than putting the 540 and power supply (and maybe fan) in an enclosure (I am using an old ammo can, my buddy an old computer case), and cutting cables for the motors, all the same stuff you get from Paul (Deepgroove) is the exact same stuff you can do yourself for a couple hundred dollars less for maybe an hours extra work. (Keling has the 540 even cheaper than Gecko does, BTW. Offers them as complete kits, too) Considering Paul has NO after sales support and you still have to do all the set up, tram, software configuration, and tuning your system either way, there is really no advantage to not doing it yourself. You pretty much are anyway.

If you don't like putting the 540 in an enclosure yourself (its simple, but I know some people are terrified of wiring), then you can just get a 540 already in an enclosure, with or without steppers, from several reputable vendors.
Then just get the Taig itself either directly from the source, or from a vendor that does offer excellent after-sale support if you feel you need it.

Paying extra for support is a value-add for some people, and saving money by getting parts direct is also makes good sense for others. However, buying from a sketchy third-party vendor that adds cost to the parts and yet offers no support just seems foolhardy.

[captianpattson]

Thanks for all your replies. It seems more people than not have had positive experiences with him. But if I can do the same job for cheaper I think I'll go that route, plus I think I'll learn more that way. Thank you all again for all your help.

[Smertrios]

Out of curiosity how did the purchase of your TAIG and control system go? I've been looking at kelinginc.net's closed loop stepper system and wonder if you considered using them? It would be kind of like a DSLS Taig mill but much cheaper.

[speedtwin69]

I have dealt with Paul @ deepgroove1 many times and have had nothing
but good results so far. His drive box was plug and play, I just received my 4th axis the other day. He included alot of free stuff I wasn't expecting. A2z t-nuts and a .75 insert mill with 2 inserts /.375 shank. Horizontal ,vertical mount plate for rotary table.
By the by ,does anyone know what voltage it takes to run the servo motor out of a HAAS indexing head, I got a new servo in mine and didn't need it. Now I have a great spindle motor if I can drive it with some kind voltage supply.