Fully assembled ETA

MR-1
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I know its only 4 days into April, but also only 22 days away from the 1 year mark of me putting down a deposit.

Just curious if anyone has heard any word on when the fully assembled units will be shipping?

Im not in a crazy rush, but I’m also looking forward to making some parts since the weather is finally warming up.

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Hey there- first off we apologize for the massive delay that folks who opted for an assembled unit have had to endure. We simply underestimated the challenges associated with offering this service, and have admittedly prioritized getting unassembled units out the door since we’re fully equipped and staffed for it.

While the epoxy granite solution offers unique logistics and performance advantages, there are complexities associated with mixing it in bulk quantities. We were unsuccessful in finding an off the shelf batch mixer that could mix EG and instead have had to develop one ourselves. That mixer is currently being built now and is expected to be operational in about 2-3 weeks.

The crates and packaging is all on order and is expected to arrive to us around 3 weeks from now.

I would love to say that we will meet the April deadline, but there’s just too many unknowns at the moment to be confident in that target. Once the mixer is on line, and we’ve been through the assembly process on the first 10-20 machines- we’ll have a much clearer idea of the schedule.

If its any consolation, we plan to raise (probably double) the price of the assembly service for any new deposits received.

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I appreciate the update. Keep us in the loop and I’ll be happy.

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Thanks for the update. I too am patiently waiting for mine.
I can understand that there will be hitches with new processes.

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Hi guy i was looking out my unit since Dec 22nd 2022 but it did not come so i am having a MR1 sent to me so i can do it myself .This forum has helped me to make up my mind to do the DIY thing a ton of good info that helps a the you tube also set me on the right track. I will post when the unit gets to me

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My unit came I was going to unbox it and start the build

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Hey Daniel,

Figured its been a month here. Just wanted to check in and see if you had any updates on this?

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I emailed them today and they told me May/June is the new projected date. Who knows how accurate that is though

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@langmuir-daniel Its June, any updates for us?

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We’ve got the first 10 machines on pallets ready to ship. We’re just waiting for our freight carrier to update our contract with them and give us shipping rates on the large crates before we begin contacting the first 10 customers with balance payment requests.

A few notes:

  • As stated previously, all bases are constructed using epoxy granite (mix of epoxy and cleaned/dried blast sand).
  • Gray epoxy top coat is installed by us well
  • To increase overall coolant drain flow, we’ve added a fifth drain behind the baseplates that has a 1" drain hose down to the sump. No additional charge for this.
  • The baseplates have not been surfaced, but we have aligned and shimmed the Z axis to be square to the XY plane of the machine. In addition, the Y axis limit switch stops have also been adjusted so that, after homing, the X axis is square to the Y axis. This means, the only ‘adjustments’ the customer should have to make is to deck the baseplates, raise the spindle up two inches, and then shim as needed to correct any tram issues.
  • Each machine has undergone an 80 point in-process and final inspection checklist. This includes executing a test program that rapids each axes at various speeds, homes the machine, runs the spindle up and down through its speed range, etc.
  • The machine arrives ready to run. Hook up a PC or install the control kit and go.
  • The machine arrives ratchet strapped down to a 5’x5’ custom pallet. This pallet can be picked up and moved using a pallet jack.
  • Forklift brackets are secured to the legs and should be used to lift the machine off of the pallet. However, there’s no issue with operating the machine on the pallet if desired. You’ll want to level the machine on the pallet after moving it into final position in your shop.

Again, we apologize for the incredibly long delay. Mixing epoxy granite in mass quantities has proven to be a huge engineering challenge. We built a fully custom mixing and pumping machine here and have cut it up and modified it multiple times in order to achieve the mixing efficiency thats needed to produce these machines in production. We appreciate everyone’s patience who have been waiting for so long.

If you placed a deposit at the original $950 price, we will honor that. However, based on the cost and complexity to provide this assembly service, all new orders will be at a higher price ($2000-$2500 somewhere in that range).

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Thanks for the update.
Will the carrier provide liftgate service?

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Yes, liftgate service will be provided.

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Do you plan to provide instructions or a recipe for the epoxy sand mixture, for kit owners?

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At this time we don’t plan to offer official instructions. Concrete works supremely well, is more affordable, and far easier to work with. Additionally, if the concrete is done incorrectly, it can be redone with a bit of work. The stakes are a bit higher with EG… that being said, we mix 90% blast sand to 10% epoxy resin by weight.

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https://www.cnczone.com/forums/epoxy-granite/30155-epoxy-granite-machine-bases-polymer-concrete-frame-16.html

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Thanks for the reply. I appreciate that you don’t want to lead customers in a direction that’s more likely to cause expensive assembly failures.

I’ve been (slowly) planning my build using an epoxy mineral casting, since before LS announced the move to EG. The reason is that I’m concerned about developing cracks over time with freeze-thaw conditions. I’m sure some folks will say I’m over-reacting, but that’s just my experience with cheap Portland cement concrete, and I don’t have the experience to mix a cement concrete that that I would have absolute confidence in.

My epoxy-silica formulation is uses a slightly higher mass fraction of epoxy, but decent flowability under vibration with fillers sourced locally here in the PNW. I measured E on some cast test bars at around 25 GPa, although I expect it could be higher- I don’t have the right instron fixture for to get proper shear modulus numbers. Here’s some data on some very affordable fillers and my candidate EG formulations, in case anyone wants to improve on it.

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@jamesdhatch I’ve seen this video. Perhaps it doesn’t matter for an MR-1 with the stock config, but my intention is to make a properly strong and rigid table that can be upgraded with higher-end hardware down the road. No disrespect to the creator, but the epoxy granite used in that video is not properly graded for rigidity. It seems like he optimized for ease of casting and appearance above all, but there isn’t enough interparticle contact at that loading.

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Amazing update thanks!

Interesting to hear we can just operate it on the pallet. That sounds attractive to me since I have a very small shop and minimal heavy moving equipment as well.

Looking forward to getting ours!

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Is the MR1 that big, or did you find the shortest guy in the shop for the photo op?

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That’s me! Lol- I’m 5’10.

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