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Anyone running the "new" generation Milltronics

welderboyjk

Cast Iron
Joined
Nov 22, 2006
Location
south west michigan
The new generation of vm3018, vm3018il and the vm4222il look interesting. Anyone out there with some real world feedback? The IL series look to be a little more robust than the standard VM's.
 
After watching the video, not sure I would want one to replace my fadal with one. Each video is at the time stamp of the issue.

Few issues I see
1. Dark color enclosure. Makes it hard as shit to see things. A lighter color would have helped alot with that

2. Tool changer. Seems like a version of the Geneva drive. I could be wrong but no reason not to have a servo driven or something faster.

3. Stuttering with code produced by conversional code. Not looking good if you load a long program onto the controller.

4. Spool down time on the spindle is really long.


Seems the price for a TRM 3016 is $57,500 from a blowout sales flyer they had on the website. Just things I noticed when having the video play in the background in the garage.
 
Interesting observations Duc...especially the stuttering and spool down time....curious shortcomings for a modern VMC in 2022. OTOH I love the turret on the Milltronics lathe...so fast and quiet compared to electric turrets of yore.
 
I watched those video's as well, and have had an older Milltronics for years. As for the stuttering, that comes from the g-code, I never used conversational and for what it's worth, it's supposed to be for quick and dirty stuff from people that don't program offline, so some stuttering there is pretty much of no consequence in my opinion. I've written lots of programs offline and had smooth, fast moves as long as the code didn't get into the .001 long 3D moves that something like Fusion is prone to generate, but remember, my control is from clear back in '92, processing time on the newer controls should be worlds better.

The spool down time looked overly long, again, might have to do with conversational. On mine I program spindle stop on the same line as the Z plus move, so it's stopping as it moves up and never had to wait for the spindle to come to a stop. Some of that could also be attributed to the parameters in the VFD. This is a "tool room" mill, not necessarily their heavier duty "production" machine the 3018, which has a whole lot more spindle hp and might get with the program better.
 
ive ran a VM8434XP for the last two years and really like the cat 50 big plus makes a huge difference the only problems ive are with drive faults when the machine rapids too much and the coolant system can't seem to keep up
 








 
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