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IndustryArena Forum > MetalWorking Machines > Uncategorised MetalWorking Machines > Chinese XK7130 a complete experience Review!
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  1. #1
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    Aug 2008
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    Chinese XK7130 a complete experience Review!

    Hello all,

    I have decided to document my experience (for others) in purchasing a machine from an overseas company and include all information from initial contact straight through to having the machine in use and running making parts.

    To start, a little history... like many others I began with a small G0704 which I quickly converted to cnc and almost as quickly outgrew. I decided to go with something bigger and more geared towards light production capability. The options as you all know are limited at best and come with a variety of hurdles. I looked at the Novakon and Tormach but ultimately I knew these would not be the step up I wanted to take and the prices were hard to stomach for such a small machine. They certainly have their place, just not in my shop.

    So I turned to looking at comparably priced used Machining centers. While these certainly were capable of my machining goals, they also have their own set of issues. For one the gap between hobby and industrial machines goes from John boat to battle ship with very little in between. I didn't want to deal with a 15k lb behemoth and being restricted to Rotary phase converter power output, spindle horsepower needed to stay reasonable.

    So I set my sights on smaller vmc's such as the Fadal 3016, TRM, etc.. but the pricing on these was still higher than my set budget and when I ran across machines in my budget they looked completely abused and unmaintained and I didn't want to be Doritos with hefty reissue build making my investment much higher then anticipated.

    So I continued my search. All the while my G0704 was requiring more work to keep running then it was worth. So I knew I needed to make a decision and soon.

    I expanded my search to overseas companies to see if any new machines were being released that would fill the gap. As luck had it I found Tengzhou Runfa machinery company and a very well spoken customer service rep named Fred Lee. He and I spoke at length for a few weeks on a machine bigger then the Tormach/Novakon, but not quite vmc sized. The only issue was the travels were a bit small for my goals. No problem he said we can customize it. So I thought great, affordable, new and customizable. Well, after working with their engineers we decided it wasn't a good idea to try and push the machine out as far as I needed, but they were in their second revision of a new product that may better suit my needs. They sent me a picture and I immediately thought... this will be out of my budget.. picture below:



    After some soul searching on my end, I started adding up time lost in building an enclosure for the smaller machine, tool changer added on, and costs of upgrading an initially cheaper machine to get what I wanted and decided it wouldn't be any cheaper and decided to go with a machine closer to being ready to go. So we worked out pricing and to my surprise it was much more reasonable then I anticipated it being.

    I opted to have them ship it CIF (Cost Insurance Freight) in which they pay for all costs for it to be delivered to my port of choice in the USA and they have responsibility for it arriving in good shape. I did a ton of research on costs to bring it into the country and my research arrived at the costs being around $900 for taxes and import duties for this type of machine. For those interested there are specific fees and percentages charged for various machine types and a VMC is one of them making calculating the import costs relatively simple. There is always the chance I missed something.. (hopefully not as I import other products regularly and know my way around the process very well. However, If I did, It will certainly be part of my review and information supplied here.)

    For my machine, I knew I would be upgrading to a 4th and 5th axis down the road, and I wanted a control system that was programmable. I chose LinuxCNC for it's excellent performance ease of use and expandability.

    The machine will be shipped with all electrical installed except the actual control box. They will install all motors, drives, ATC, auto oiler coolant system etc and leave all leads to the controller unterminated, tagged and clearly labeled for easy installation of the LinuxCNC controller hardware.

    Spec's for the machine are as follows:

    - Linear rail machine 35mm rails
    - P4 ground double nut ball screws
    - Counter balanced head

    - Travels:

    X - 28"
    Y - 15"
    Z - 18" (4" - 22" spindle to table range)

    - Table size 40" x 12"

    -BT30 6000rpm ATC spindle (BT40 is standard but i opted for the 30 taper for tooling costs being more reasonable)

    - Motor Power Ratings

    Spindle - 7.5hp spindle servo 6000rpm with rigid tap capability

    X & Y - 1.8kw, 6 N.m 110mm frame servos

    Z - 1.5kw, 10 N.m 130mm frame servo

    - Full Enclosure with food coolant

    - Machine weight 3900lbs

    - Automatic lubrication system

    - Stainless way covers

    - 0.0005" Positioning accuracy

    - 0.0003" Repeat accuracy

    (These are worst scenario figures. And can likely be made better with screw mapping and backlash comp in Linux CNC)

    - 230v 3 Phase power required (25hp rotary phase converter required if single phase is all you have available)


    So I'm sure I'm leaving out information, but please ask if you have specific questions on something or if I missed listing something.

    After pulling the trigger, I sent a 30% deposit via bank wire to fulfill the proforma invoice acceptance for them to begin the machine build. I was quoted 30 days from the date the deposit funds cleared to the ship date. I held this up by ordering motors and drives from a company there to bed installed since the machine company only installs complete GSK motors, drives and control systems and the GSK drives are surviving to there control system. So they are currently waiting on the motors to go further with the build before installing the guards.

    The transit time was quoted at 40 days to my port of choice.

    .......Tooling.....

    I also ordered a complete tooling package (from a separate company) with two 6" vices, 48 BT30 tool holders of various types, 48 tool bt30 tool cart with tool tightening fixture, 60 various size er collets, 8" rotary table and a few other odds and ends.. being they can all ship with the machine, it's like free freight. Another plus for my decision in my opinion.

    So to date, I am at the beginning of week 4 of the build and my customer service rep Fred Lee is readily available via Skype every evening starting at 8pm est and is always quick to reply with a friendly greeting. He has been emailing me weekly progress update pictures which I will share in subsequent posts below. To date I am still very pleased with my decision and wanted to share this experience with others who had not considered this path due to a lack of information and stifling fear of the unknown. It was a relatively simple process so far. The big questions will be answered in the near future when the machine arrives and I can physically inspect it and run it and of course logistically after all of the customs clearance is completed and accrued fees settled.

    So I will leave this small novel here and post pictures of the build directly!

    Thanks all!

    Chris

    Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

  2. #2
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    Re: Chinese XK7130 a complete experience Review!

    Here are the progress pictures to date..

    Week one:

    Week one consists of machining of the castings which are aged. All of the machining to the critical surfaces is completed on their large scale machines which I will get some pictures of soon to post and maybe some video of possible.

    Then any final fitment and scraping is performed to ensure all of the linear rail mounting pads are true and parallel in multiple planes.

    Then installation of the rails is performed along with any additional clearancing or removal of carrying flash required.













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  3. #3
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    Re: Chinese XK7130 a complete experience Review!

    Week two:

    In week two of the machine build.. Further refinement and fitment of the linear ways, ball screws, ball nut mounts etc is done in progression for the major components assembly. Items such as lubrication lines are run and further scraping and precision fitment is done.

















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  4. #4
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    Re: Chinese XK7130 a complete experience Review!

    Week 3 build progress:

    In week three, the machine is starting to take shape and resemble a completed frame. Further fitment and scraping is performed to ensure perpendicularity and parallelism between the moving axis's are accurate and true. Surface treatment and grinding of the table is performed to reveal a beautiful finish that's tough and durable. The column, counter weight system is installed along with the head stock and spindle and further alignments is performed.











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  5. #5
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    Re: Chinese XK7130 a complete experience Review!

    Week 4 build progress:

    In week 4, final assembly of minor components is performed and the iron gets a coat of paint. I have requested the painting be made better as I don't want to have rust occur on critical components and was assured that this was an unrushed job still and the final product will be very nice. I will update pictures to verify if this is true. All in all it is beginning to really take shape. I should have additional pictures sent over tomorrow from the test of the weeks work as I received these midweek before my Rep Fred took a holiday.

    Enjoy..








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  6. #6
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    Oct 2010
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    1189

    Re: Chinese XK7130 a complete experience Review!

    Question about power 230v 3 Phases ! Dös it mean really 400 v in 3 Phases Where you get 3 Times 230 v i am a Little confused ,..


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  7. #7
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    Re: Chinese XK7130 a complete experience Review!

    Most industrial power is 3 phase power and most residential power is single phase power.

    Single phase usually has (2) 120v legs and a neutral and can be either 120v between one power leg and the neutral, or 240 volt using both power legs which are 180 degrees out of phase to each other.





    3 phase power uses 4 wires.. (3) 120 volt legs that are configured as a Y and each leg is 120 degrees out of phase to the next.. 0, 120, 240 degrees out of phase to each other. In aY configuration it is considered 208Y/120v. Or also 230v 3 phase. 3 phase power is more efficient and components usually run much better on 3 phase then single phase due to the increase in power from the tighter phase split (120* vs 180*).




    Most bigger equipment use 3 phase power for this reason and it's cheaper cost due to smaller gauge wires being acceptable for the drop in amperage requirement and list of power due to resistance which is lost as heat.

    Hope that helps!

    Chris

    Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

  8. #8
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    Re: Chinese XK7130 a complete experience Review!

    Ah ok i See in Europe it is similar but between neutral and line 230 v thx


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  9. #9
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    Re: Chinese XK7130 a complete experience Review!

    Let me know what final shipping weight is. Looks like a hell of a lot more.

  10. #10
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    Re: Chinese XK7130 a complete experience Review!

    Quote Originally Posted by G59 View Post
    Let me know what final shipping weight is. Looks like a hell of a lot more.
    Will do although with all the tooling I purchased it may be of a bit..

    Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

  11. #11
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    Re: Chinese XK7130 a complete experience Review!

    Very interesting, can you give us an idea of what "very reasonable" pricing is?

  12. #12
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    1523

    Re: Chinese XK7130 a complete experience Review!

    I like the clamps to hold the linear rails against the reference edge
    7xCNC.com - CNC info for the minilathe (7x10, 7x12, 7x14, 7x16)

  13. #13
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    Re: Chinese XK7130 a complete experience Review!

    Quote Originally Posted by PIVOTALCUSTOMS View Post
    Very interesting, can you give us an idea of what "very reasonable" pricing is?
    I will post pricing shortly, I had a few modifications made that changed the price for specific parts I make... I will post the standard pricing soon, just requested it from the manufacturer. But for what I received, it was less than the base model Novakon Torus pro and that included shipping.



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  14. #14
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    Re: Chinese XK7130 a complete experience Review!

    Quote Originally Posted by pippin88 View Post
    I like the clamps to hold the linear rails against the reference edge
    Yes, I agree, they do an excellent job locating the rails to the reference edges. All in all I'm excited to get this Nadine and out it to the test, is a rather beefy upgrade from what I've become accustomed too.

    Waiting for some updates, but I slowed then down due to my motor and drive supplier making an error.. They forgot to order the correct voltage fan for the spindle servo.. Ordered it with 220v 3phase... the fan they use is 380v, so they had to source the new fan and the machine manufacturer is waiting on the motors to finish installing the enclosure guarding.

    Will update as soon as the motors get there and some more progress has been made.

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  15. #15
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    Re: Chinese XK7130 a complete experience Review!

    What servomotors and drivers are you getting ?

  16. #16
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    Re: Chinese XK7130 a complete experience Review!

    I found this company who provided the servos drives and cables. They made all drives and motors 220v 3ph 60 hz for me as well..










  17. #17
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    329

    Re: Chinese XK7130 a complete experience Review!

    Very interesting.
    Joescnc 4x4 R&P Router, Minimill, Minilathe, CNC Foamcutter, laser cutter, Vectric Aspire. http://makermasters.com, http://themakersguide.com

  18. #18
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    Re: Chinese XK7130 a complete experience Review!

    Indeed.

    I see you didnt go with Hiwin RG series, was it a cost saving effort or just deemed overkill ?

    Mind sharing the contact info for the Tengzhou Runfa rep ? Im curious as to what options and priceranges there are.

    *EDIT* I was handed the info already.

  19. #19
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    Re: Chinese XK7130 a complete experience Review!

    Quote Originally Posted by ack1 View Post
    Indeed.

    I see you didnt go with Hiwin RG series, was it a cost saving effort or just deemed overkill ?

    Mind sharing the contact info for the Tengzhou Runfa rep ? Im curious as to what options and priceranges there are.

    *EDIT* I was handed the info already.
    Glad you got the info! Fred is a great guy to deal with, just be sure everything is clearly spelled out so there is no confusion on either end.

    The pin t roller your would be overkill these are pretty big trails at 35mm. Upgrading is possible but i didn't see that there would be much benefit considering these are rated for more then I will be able to throw at them.

    If it was a 10k lb machine I would have optioned the pin roller type.

    Chris

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  20. #20
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    Re: Chinese XK7130 a complete experience Review!

    Just a quick update...

    I ordered custom axis and spindle motors that had to be built to accommodate my voltage requirements which took a little time and the company had to source the correct voltage cooling fan fit the spindle servo which took several days to have built, but now is completed and as of yesterday has been delivered to the machine manufacturer.

    The guards are completed and looking good and the technicians will begin installing the motors electrical runs and guards now. I have been given an expected completion time of months end. They now have everything on hand so should go quickly they said. And if course some pictures for the update, not many but some none the less!






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