Hello to you all, I am a new Langmuir Customer, just ordered the Crossfire XR. One of the main reasons I decided on Langmuir is because of this incredible forum. I owned an aerospace CNC machine shop for many years, and hired many younger guys who were up on all the new technologies. Since I’m older’n dirt, I cut my teeth on engine lathes and Bridgeports over 50 years ago which we were able to start our machine shop with. I never became knowledgable about CNC myself since we were able to hire the top guys in our area that saw the potential in our small shop when we expanded. At 76 years old now, I have decided I missed out, and hopefully you all can help this old dog learn some new tricks. I still do a lot of welding, building quite heavy duty welding and fixture tables (up to 3,500 lbs. each) as a hobby. This is a “just for fun” venture, as is this purchase, as are my welding table designs. I truly appreciate you all who have contributed your experienced on the Crossfire, Crossfire Pro, and the new XR. It made my decision a lot easier. Thanks. Terry
Welcome, Terry
There are a bunch of super-smart young bucks here, along with a collection of old guys who started just like you. My Bridgeport is a 1957 model, and my Cincinnati 12.5 is from 1955.
I still use them almost every day. Just let us know if you need anything.
We even have a plasma shop owner who is a plasma savant.
Bigdaddy2166
Thank you kindly. I lost track years ago of the number of Bridgeports and Lagun milling machines I’ve owned. Same on Hardinge lathes, etc. What an amazing thing it was for an upside down kid just home from Viet Nam in the late '60’s to get into, then be able to find a new career with. I haven’t been that enthused for a long time, but that feeling came back when I ordered the XR. Thanks. Terry
Welcome to the forum Terry! And, congratulations on what sounds like a very successful career.
Thanks Brett. Looking forward to this new XR adventure and meeting as many of you as possible as time moves along. That was the best part of owning our great little company, the people we hired and our customers. I’ve missed that. We always ran it like an old fashioned Mom and Pop shop, on a very personal level. I looked forward to greeting every man and woman that worked for us, every morning.
@TLD1948 welcome to the forum!!
Thanks for your service! My dad is a two tour vet of Viet Nam one in 68 and the other in 73-74.
We went on a tour of Vietnam with my dad last fall. Such a great experience!
Looking forward to seeing what you create with your new toy!
Thank you.
Welcome to the forum!
Lots of us are past the 60 year mark. I am working my way to 68. I am getting a taste of the aging process. “It is not for sissies” as they say.
As for this community, they really got me on track and now I try to give back. Don’t get overwhelmed, or if you get overwhelmed, understand that it will pass.
I had trouble with the terminology and all of the programs to learn. There is a minimum of two programs and possibly three or four based on your needs and desires.
A great thing about the XR is that you can literally design the entire sheet in a program, like Fusion 360, and load the sheet and cut what you want. Remove that sheet and do something else. Design more for that very same sheet and load that specific sheet again on the table and the design will know where metal is available. (Don’t know if I am describing that very well and not sure how many people do that.)
Welcome Terry!
Thanks for the encouragement, Jim. Programming anything when I was so busy way back in the machine shop was not a possibility for me, which I came to regret. I have the time to focus on just this now, and truthfully, I’m pretty pumped about getting back in the saddle. Thank goodness I’m not trying to put food on the table, get my kids through school, and raise a family now, so can really dive into this.
Are you in Lake Chelan area? I have a good buddy over there that used to be one of my machine shop competitors, a great guy. Terry
Thanks Johnny. Look forward to talking with you again. Terry
That is a good point. So often these new guys implode with the learning because they already have commitments/obligations for products and it stresses them to the point that they are totally overwhelmed.
We vacation there regularly. We have a small place on the Columbia river that we stay at. We couldn’t afford Chelan prices and taxes.
Tell you dad semper fi for me. I was there in '68-'69.
Terry, welcome to the crazy world of CNC plasma. I’m one of the retired folks here, also just learning the ways of CNC. Getting much better at it for sure. My learning curve wasn’t as bad as a lot of folks as I was an IT geek before I retired. I’ve always had a thing for metal fabrication so lots of experience there al be itt not professionally. I found the most difficult part was the design part. I’m not a fan of Fusion 360 (I call it Confusion 360), I use LibreCAD for drawing, SheetCAM for the CAM part then feed that file into Firecontrol.
The neat thing is this stuff is fun!
Brad
Thanks Brad. Just ordered a step by step book on 360 for beginners. I hadn’t heard of LibrreCAD, so will look at SheetCam too Any other suggestions would be welcomed and appreciated. Terry