rklopp
Diamond
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2001
- Location
- Redwood City, CA USA
I took the plunge and replaced my tired 1986 Deckel FP2NC with a DN Solutions DEM4000. The machine showed up in light drizzle yesterday. Vierra Trucking out of Castro Valley handled the shipping and rigging. They did a great job and I highly recommend them.
May garage ceiling is max about 103" and I knew going in that I had to chop a notch above my garage door. Fortunately, the structural beam is above the notch. The worst part of the job was lifting and lowering one side of the roll-up door while it was in the open position, without the door coming off the tracks. Garage door springs are a PITA even when relaxed.
I chewed on the choice of replacement machine for months before settling on the DEM 4000. I was looking for a machine that would be partly for model-making, partly to support my engineering consulting job, and parly to help educate students on the local high school robotics team. I wanted to get away from the Deckel's gear noise, poor chip containment, mist coolant, Dialog control speed limitations, and lack of ATC. I considered:
Hardinge Bridgeport V710 - compact and I got a great price quote on a heavily-optioned machine, but it was too much machine for my garage utilities and my needs, still above my budget, with 12k direct-drive spindle with chiller, and the direct-drive spindle made it tall.
Hurco VM10i - would have been a great choice for my needs, but SF Bay Area dealer support is non-existent. I met a local shop owner at IMTS, and he warned me about poor Bay Area support. He has a couple Hurcos that have been down waiting for service. I also never got any follow-up from Hurco even though I talked to them at IMTS.
Haas VF1 - great control that I know how to run, good local support, good price, but they're tall enough to require adding a skylight in the garage ceiling, plus you get what you pay for. That is offset by good resale value.
Haas Super-Mini - Not enough Z travel and umbrella tool changer.
Haas TM-0P - Even I can find the rigidity limits of a TM, and they are also tall.
Fryer MC-L - nice size but not popular enough to get a warm & fuzzy feeling about buying one.
DN Solutions DEM 4000 - not too tall, compatible with my utilities (but might have to buy a bigger compressor), 20-tool side-mount ATC, chip auger, and Renishaw probe receiver. I saw one in action at IMTS and liked what I saw. Ellison was good about following up afterwards. Funny thing, the machine looked small at McCormick Place but looks huge in my garage. The control is a basic Fanuc Oi-MF, so good for teaching and consulting, but maybe not as good as a conversational control for model-making. (The 1986 Deckel Dialog control was amazingly good for one-off work, and very user-friendly despite being 37 years old. I owned the machine for 16 years.)
I am very impressed with the apparent DEM built quality. Fit and finish are excellent, fittings are top quality, and the frame seems really beefy. It makes the high school's open Haas TM-1 look like a toy in comparison.
The next steps are to hook up the DEM's utilities and get the Ellison tech to come in, stick on the chip auger chute, take off the shipping brackets, level it up, and show me the basics.
May garage ceiling is max about 103" and I knew going in that I had to chop a notch above my garage door. Fortunately, the structural beam is above the notch. The worst part of the job was lifting and lowering one side of the roll-up door while it was in the open position, without the door coming off the tracks. Garage door springs are a PITA even when relaxed.
I chewed on the choice of replacement machine for months before settling on the DEM 4000. I was looking for a machine that would be partly for model-making, partly to support my engineering consulting job, and parly to help educate students on the local high school robotics team. I wanted to get away from the Deckel's gear noise, poor chip containment, mist coolant, Dialog control speed limitations, and lack of ATC. I considered:
Hardinge Bridgeport V710 - compact and I got a great price quote on a heavily-optioned machine, but it was too much machine for my garage utilities and my needs, still above my budget, with 12k direct-drive spindle with chiller, and the direct-drive spindle made it tall.
Hurco VM10i - would have been a great choice for my needs, but SF Bay Area dealer support is non-existent. I met a local shop owner at IMTS, and he warned me about poor Bay Area support. He has a couple Hurcos that have been down waiting for service. I also never got any follow-up from Hurco even though I talked to them at IMTS.
Haas VF1 - great control that I know how to run, good local support, good price, but they're tall enough to require adding a skylight in the garage ceiling, plus you get what you pay for. That is offset by good resale value.
Haas Super-Mini - Not enough Z travel and umbrella tool changer.
Haas TM-0P - Even I can find the rigidity limits of a TM, and they are also tall.
Fryer MC-L - nice size but not popular enough to get a warm & fuzzy feeling about buying one.
DN Solutions DEM 4000 - not too tall, compatible with my utilities (but might have to buy a bigger compressor), 20-tool side-mount ATC, chip auger, and Renishaw probe receiver. I saw one in action at IMTS and liked what I saw. Ellison was good about following up afterwards. Funny thing, the machine looked small at McCormick Place but looks huge in my garage. The control is a basic Fanuc Oi-MF, so good for teaching and consulting, but maybe not as good as a conversational control for model-making. (The 1986 Deckel Dialog control was amazingly good for one-off work, and very user-friendly despite being 37 years old. I owned the machine for 16 years.)
I am very impressed with the apparent DEM built quality. Fit and finish are excellent, fittings are top quality, and the frame seems really beefy. It makes the high school's open Haas TM-1 look like a toy in comparison.
The next steps are to hook up the DEM's utilities and get the Ellison tech to come in, stick on the chip auger chute, take off the shipping brackets, level it up, and show me the basics.
.
