When will we see more working videos?
For everyone else please like and upvote this comment. I understand that deciding to put resources on builds and shipping is priority over making videos but for the group who has laid down hard earned $$ on the PRO early offer and for folks like me still on the fence with an April 2020 shipping date and deciding to drop over $3K Canadian it’s a bit much to ask on faith.
Langmuir please drop more videos of the PRO in action.\
Thank You
Hi Pinchio,
We understand- we are a small company that has all of our resources devoted to three things:
At the same time, we realize that is important to ensure that our customers are as confident as us about the performance of the product and in the shipping schedule. And part of that is to show some more cutting footage and to dive into how the THC works. I can’t make any guarantees, but I think we can get something out next week.
We have a bunch of footage taken on our cell phones (nothing glamorous) but I’ll ask the team if we can post some of that footage.
Simple enough, if you don’t think thousands of people who got the original Crossfire including the ones who bought it as a pre-order before anyone had one, as well as all of those who bought after there were thousands delivered and lots of folks posting, Instagramming and YouTubeing their Crossfire experience aren’t Exhibit A proving Langmuir’s trustworthiness and ability to deliver; then yes, don’t take it on faith and wait until the January delivery of the Pros to decide. Waiting only costs you time & money but requires no outlay of faith.
On the other hand if all of that does indicate Langmuir will pull off the Pro, then there’s no real faith required because it’s been proven to the satisfaction of thousands. Your call as to whether that’s enough for you.
Personally I prefer them sticking to their focus on current customers and getting the Pro out the door than on making videos that somehow will “prove” something. After all I grew up watching Star Trek, Star Wars and Harry Potter videos and I’m pretty sure we’re not able to voyage in space or hex muggles. Videos don’t necessarily reflect reality.
The basic machine is already proven, quite a few users, including myself, have proven a Z axis and thc are possible and we are garage mechanics. I didn’t buy a pro, yet, but I have every bit of faith that the PRO will be a good machine. The only thing I would do different, use proximity sensors for the IHC. Probing thin metal has it’s down falls, that’s why I’m switching my setup to prox sensors… Touchless is the way to go… When probing metals, if it’s warped, the tip of the torch will push the warp out of the metal until it hits the slat and can’t travel any further. The probe thinks it’s on the top of the metal and it is, with spring. When the probe travels back it’s distance it zeros, then retracts to pierce height. So if your probe retract/set zero height is say .25", and you have pushed the warped material down .375"
your torch tip is going to be on the metal with an interferance of .125" when it sets zero. Now the probe is going to retract to a .125" pierce, and the tip is still going to be touching the metal when you start… Thats the only downfall and it’s easy to work around, but… The slide mechanism I use has virtually NO drag, so it’s just the weight of the torch itself that flexs the metal. This is usually on 14g or smaller.
Even if/when I buy the pro, thats the first thing I would change.
One thing that impressed me with Langmuir was the quality of their videos. In the ‘budget’ world of commercial CNC plasma tables I’ve seen a lot of crappy videos that left me less than inspired by the manufacturer. If you’ve ever made your own videos you know it can take a significant amount of effort to pull off. A 5 minute video can easily burn a day or two of time from shooting to editing. Langmuir not only put the effort into the sales video, they also did the same for the many many tutorial videos.
Anyway… as for faith have you done any research into CNC plasma tables? What province are you in? In Ontario there’s three companies offering 4’x4’ tables: plasmaTECH over $10k CDN (No THC), over $13K for pro model with THC; fab-cut 4’x4’ “compact” fold up table over $10k CDN; tracker nitro over $10k CDN.
Or you can buy a 4’x4’ ‘kit’ with no THC (http://www.motiontek.ca/cncplasmakit.html) for $3700, no frame, it’s less a kit and really just a bunch of parts. If you have ever built a CNC machine of any kind, you can appreciate there is a big effort to take those parts and turn them into a functioning system.
Do those compare one to one with the Pro? No there’s going to pluses and minuses to every table. All of these systems uses steppers without feedback. Unless the machine is poorly built, cut quality will have more to do with your plasma source than whether the machine has linear rails vs bearings, or ball screws vs rack and pinion.
When I saw the Pro announced and the intro pricing I knew there was no way I could build something of similar quality myself for the same price/effort. For the money I don’t think you will do any better.
The crossfire pro is probably the only big ticket item I’ve ever purchased without thinking on it for days.I seen the first video and that was all i needed.The excitement of the new bigger table even outweighed the fact I just bought the exspantion kit for the 2x2.
I didnt try once to try and talk myself into buying the Pro. But i tried many times to convince myself I didnt need it. Well I really dont need it, but want it.
Thanks everyone for taking the time and responding. My primary concern was related to dropping $$ 7 months in advance of shipping with little information shared (my opinion).
In the end I will need to make a decision.
Cheers
You don’t have to drop the money now, you can wait till they ship.