Ohh gol dammit am I going to regret buying a Milltronics bridgemill

[IAMATT]

Or not? I am looking to pickup a 80x150" bridge mill for some huge weldments that need dusting. I tried to call Milltronics a couple days in a row to talk about a longer X axis than offered as I heard they will do 20 plus feet. But I could not get sales, tech or parts on the phone to save my life.

 

[HWElecRepair]

Here is the tech support line that I always call when I am working on a Milltronics, maybe they can help you out with getting someone.

952-442-1401

Jon

 

[moonlight machine]

That's a bit strange, I have not needed to call them for a year or so but I used to call them once in a while and never had any problem getting hold of them.

 

[Mickey_D]

A lot of people take two weeks of vacation (wish I could) around the 4th. July and Thanksgiving to Christmas are the hardest times of year to get anything done. Lazy bastards wanting a day off...

 

[IAMATT]

Thank you Milltronics and thank you Joe W for getting ahold of me. I think a BR would be a great fit for what we are doing. I will be interested to hear what plus sizes can be available.

BTW I think its great Milltronics actually cares and I think they could definately benefit from a stronger web presence.

 

[Hirudin]

I've tried to call them several times in the past couple weeks but I haven't reached anyone yet. What's going on?

Sales 101, day 1: respond when potential customers try to reach you.

 

[Mud]

I've been hearing that Milltronics has changed policies and has stopped direct tech support, referring customers to local dealers for tech info and parts. If that's true, that's unfortunate because their great tech support was one of the best arguments for buying Milltronics, I hope it's not permanent.

 

[IAMATT]

They would sell so damn many more machines if they

1. Had a better online presence
2. Updated the sheetmetal
3. Did some paid advertisements

I have probly spent 1/2 mill buying equipment online. Some used and some new. We are in a digital age and they may be super busy right now but to soar you need to spread your wings. The new machine specs are fantastic...get the word out..dammit

 

[charlie gary]

I've been hearing that Milltronics has changed policies and has stopped direct tech support, referring customers to local dealers for tech info and parts. If that's true, that's unfortunate because their great tech support was one of the best arguments for buying Milltronics, I hope it's not permanent.

I truly hope that's not the case, because the last time I had to work on a Milltronics with a dealer technician I had to show him how to fix the machine.

 

[moldcore]

You won’t regret buying Milltronics. I have had 3 over the years, my newest was purchased 18 months ago. They could use better designers but for the money they can’t be beat. Try calling Rudy Reznicak at 952-442-1458. Or email him at [email protected] He helped answer a lot of our questions. We went through our local distributor who turned us over to Rudy.

I agree with some of the concerns about better web presence and more advertising. They’re a pretty small company compared to most other machine makers so be patient.

 

[IAMATT]

You won’t regret buying Milltronics. I have had 3 over the years, my newest was purchased 18 months ago. They could use better designers but for the money they can’t be beat. Try calling Rudy Reznicak at 952-442-1458. Or email him at [email protected] He helped answer a lot of our questions. We went through our local distributor who turned us over to Rudy.

I agree with some of the concerns about better web presence and more advertising. They’re a pretty small company compared to most other machine makers so be patient.

Local reseller jumped up so I will be getting my answers through him. But if the need arises I will contact him

 

[John Welden]

It's funny how hard it is to buy stuff that isn't really for consumers. You'd think if you were going to spending 10's and 100's of thousands of dollars on equipment, the sales people would be great. Nope.

And no one stocks jack shit anymore. Even relatively inexpensive stuff like a five or ten thousand dollar air compressor, they won't have in stock. Well…. I guess we could get one here in a six weeks. They have to ship from Germany, you know….. Plus with the built in line dryer option that adds a lot of time… I do have a 900 CFM ,200 amp, machine in stock, would that work for ya?

 

[gregormarwick]

It's funny how hard it is to buy stuff that isn't really for consumers. You'd think if you were going to spending 10's and 100's of thousands of dollars on equipment, the sales people would be great. Nope.

And no one stocks jack shit anymore. Even relatively inexpensive stuff like a five or ten thousand dollar air compressor, they won't have in stock. Well…. I guess we could get one here in a six weeks. They have to ship from Germany, you know….. Plus with the built in line dryer option that adds a lot of time… I do have a 900 CFM ,200 amp, machine in stock, would that work for ya?

A couple of years ago we were in the market for an all singing and dancing multitasking machine, talking half a million pounds sterling plus.

Went to Mori Seiki, Mazak, DMG, and Okuma.

Mori sent us a quote two months after the whole thing was done and dusted, Mazak didn't bother, DMG didn't bother initially but finally gave in after about a dozen phone calls.

The Okuma guy drove half the length of the country to visit us in person within two days of first contact. Some of them still care.

 

[IAMATT]

Every single sale is important. Those who really want to help are persistant and those that dont brush you off. But you need to know what your getting into, its previous record, support, strenghts and weaknesses. For what I need right now and the forseeable future a Milltronics BR definately fits the bill.

 

[IAMATT]

Just got back from a trip to Milltronics in Waconia MN. I have to say the newest bridge mills are impressive. I met up with Craig from Milltronics and Joe from Concept machine tool. Craig answered everything very well even the tough questions. They had some new 200" bridge mills that looked great. The bases gained in terms of strength, the bridge area, the ballscrews, the spindles, just about everything. Its a different beast than even last years machines. I am trying to get them to consider a 240" machine for us because we could use it. Craig brought me into engineering and we discussed the possibility. This was after hours and the staff that was working late was great to talk with. I made some constructive criticism to everyone I talked to about updating the website. They said changes are coming the end of this year...welcome changes. With what they have going on they should definitely advertise more. I got some teaser pictures I will throw up on here on some new bridgemills. I can say after the meeting and really getting into depth on the BR series my feelings towards Milltronics is stronger than ever. These newest machines rock the platform..I mean their is nothing like them on the market right now. When you can take a 40hp big plus spindle and hog away on a bridgemill that size in its price range there is nothing even remotely close.

 

[gregormarwick]

Just got back from a trip to Milltronics in Waconia MN. I have to say the newest bridge mills are impressive. I met up with Craig from Milltronics and Joe from Concept machine tool. Craig answered everything very well even the tough questions. They had some new 200" bridge mills that looked great. The bases gained in terms of strength, the bridge area, the ballscrews, the spindles, just about everything. Its a different beast than even last years machines. I am trying to get them to consider a 240" machine for us because we could use it. Craig brought me into engineering and we discussed the possibility. This was after hours and the staff that was working late was great to talk with. I made some constructive criticism to everyone I talked to about updating the website. They said changes are coming the end of this year...welcome changes. With what they have going on they should definitely advertise more. I got some teaser pictures I will throw up on here on some new bridgemills. I can say after the meeting and really getting into depth on the BR series my feelings towards Milltronics is stronger than ever. These newest machines rock the platform..I mean their is nothing like them on the market right now. When you can take a 40hp big plus spindle and hog away on a bridgemill that size in its price range there is nothing even remotely close.

Out of curiosity, what kind of price range are we talking about here?

The reason I ask is that at first glance that machine looks decidedly poor compared to most bridge mills in that size range on the market. Fabricated base and columns, 40 taper spindle, 24 station looks like an umbrella? tool carousel. And 11 Tonnes - our smaller 3m x 2m bridgemill (and I'd consider it a fairly budget machine) is very nearly four times heavier than that. In fact our machine can take 11 tonnes on the table...

 

[IAMATT]

 

[IAMATT]

Big 8200 200"

 

[Laurentian]

Looks like a Multicam MT series moving table router on steroids ! Nice !

 

[IAMATT]

Out of curiosity, what kind of price range are we talking about here?

The reason I ask is that at first glance that machine looks decidedly poor compared to most bridge mills in that size range on the market. Fabricated base and columns, 40 taper spindle, 24 station looks like an umbrella? tool carousel. And 11 Tonnes - our smaller 3m x 2m bridgemill (and I'd consider it a fairly budget machine) is very nearly four times heavier than that. In fact our machine can take 11 tonnes on the table...

Yes around 20,000 to 24,000lbs for these machines. Prices stat in the 150K for a BR50/100 up to 350K for a BR80/200. That's extremely cheap for the size you wont find that price from anywhere. Absolutely fabricated base and columns. Their engineering will gladly do a FEA analysis to tell you what to expect. Take a 80" bridge, park it in the middle of the travel and drill the biggest hole you can. Then park it in the middle of Y axis and mill down the X axis with the biggest cutter you can at the maximum depth. I know where they don't shine its no mystery but where they had weak points in the past they have strengthened those points. Enough to allow a 40hp spindle on these which is about the maximum of a big plus 40 taper. I would never say these are going to walk all over any bridgemill that would be the overstatement of the year. But when you don't need to hog 8"s of 3/8" titanium from a 10,000lb ingot you have an incredible value. I believe they have a table max of 5000lbs evenly distributed. And pictures do not do the scale of the machine any justice. The IKO roller rails and trucks are big. On a 150 machine they have 14 trucks under that table. On our VF10 we have 4 trucks for a 120" travel 50 taper machine.