Originally Posted by
todd werner
Hi Mark,
I think one or two bad experiences spread on the web can bias an entire board, so companies need to be very careful not to let that happen. ShopSabre, at least in my minimal experience, hard sells their product as the ultimate, which always rubs people who do their own research the wrong way. As an example, because they know I'm comparing their machine to CAMaster's, someone there said they heard that CAMaster is moving to all ball screws on their top of the line machines, implying that clearly the SS-23 is better since it uses ball screws not rack and pinion.
It's also bad to copy someone else's design and then say something like, "they're always chasing us on innovation and quality". I can look and see who copied who based on when a machine was introduced. The web makes it easy to figure stuff like that out, so it's bad practice now days.
The people there do seem very nice, but it feels like someone is trying to sell me a timeshare, and I don't get that from CAMaster.
None of what I just wrote means the CAMaster is better than the ShopSabre or that the Shopsabre is better than the CAMaster. It just means I don't like their sales style, but I'll choose based on the machines.
So I'm still trying to figure out which is the better machine for me. Both are good, and nobody here has ever said a specific component on one or the other is inferior or superior. Someone did imply the ShopSabre rails are Chinese and cheap, but it's so off-hand, I don't know how to take that. It's not like anyone said: ShopSabre uses 25mm Chinese rails and CAMaster uses 15mm rails by _______ which are better. I wish someone would be that clear.
I still don't know which uses a better stepper motor, or higher quality rails or controllers or such. Maybe nobody here does either.
But I'd still like to hear opinions on whether the fixed Z touch plate is better than the Z-touch switch. Does a fixed plate it ever break small bits because there's no give to it?
Or will the gantry flex more if I order it with the 7" or clearance?
Both use Mitsubishi VFDs and the same spindles. Both look really solid and well engineered. As of now I'd be deciding between more surface area vs more height and a pneumatic counter balance (since that sounds like a plus, not a minus as I initially thought).