Little known policies regarding the CW spindle upgrade process

[qsligh]

First let me say that I love my CarveWright CNC. Having said that, I decided to upgrade my machine to the new spindle assembly. I chose to allow the factory perform the upgrade due to not having the time. I recieved my email informing me of my order being process (Sunday 1/2/11). Today Wednesday (1/5/11), I arrive home to find a UPS sticker on my door indicating that they attempted to pickup my machine. I called the company and spoke to a gentleman who informed me that this was the process for returing the machine for upgrade. I was puzzled because I didn't feel easy leaving my $2K machine on my front step, going to work in hopes that UPS would come by and pick it up. I voiced this concern to him and he agreeded and told me my other option was to take it to UPS for shipment and all I needed was the tracking number. I called UPS and they told me that this was not the case. I then called CW again and had the pleasure of speaking to another gengleman who told me that the first gentleman was mistaken and that if I'd complied with his suggestions, my machine would only be insured for $50 max if something was to happen to it in shipment. He told me the only way to get the machine insured for it's full value is to have it picked up at either your home or place on businesss. Like most hobbist, I work and UPS hours are not inline with my work schedule, meaning I'd have to take a day off from work to complete this transaction. My only complaint is that CW needs to make this process known either via email or as a note on the website so that anyone who is thinking about having the company provide this service will know fullly what the process will be to accomplish this task. It is still a great product, but we can surely improve on the communication aspect of the process. Othere than that CW still rocks!

[Dan-Woodman]

qslish
Please keep us informed about this venture. In reading the description of this upgrade , it states they will change to carvetight spindle , rubber belts, calibrate, AND-------- inform you of any other items or parts that need to be updated ( of coarce at an additional expense if you want it) Sounds like a person could be getting close to half the price of a new machine .
I still thing CW sould have a recall for the known vibration problems on the power supply board
Just my 2 cents.
later Daniel

[qsligh]

Dan,
I will be packing my CW up tonight and shipping it off tomorrow. I did not know of any issues with a vibration problem relating to the pwr supply board. I will let you all know what I encounter with my system that has less than 30hrs of run time since I purchased it if I get any communication from CW after they recieve it in a couple of days.

[qsligh]

Well my CW is now at the factory and it seems like I also have a bad boar sensor and board tracker to the tune of $70 for starters. Having contacted CW regarding issues I was having with my CW not being able to properly detect the thickness of the boards, I was told to "help" the bit contact the striker plate which I found strange. I later got a message while uploading a file to the memory card stating that there was some diagnostic data that needed to be downloaded to CW so that I could get some assistance. After many attempts to download the data I contacted CW and was told to disregard the data as it was left over from when the engineers ran diagnostics prior to shipping. I found this odd as it did not pop up on any of my other carvings. At any rate, there must have been a high mean time between failures in the beginning, but I would be curious to see some of that engineering data to see what parts failed the most. I think now that they've worked out most of the bugs is the reason for now selling the extended warranties. This is great for the those who are just purchasing their machines, but for those of us who have older machines, it will be a touchy process. I hope that is all that was wrong with my machine. I will keep you all posted on my adventure with the spindle upgrade.

[qsligh]

Well I got a call on Monday informing me that my machine was ready for return! I was last told that they the repairs would cost me an additional $70, but to my surprise, they were free! I could not believe it. I asked the rep why was I not charged and he told me that they used some "pulled" parts for the repair. Personally, I'd have liked to have paid for new parts, but I think that it was a good gesture on CW part to give me the parts at no additional charges. I must say that I now feel like I've not only purchased a machine, but more importantly a relationship. It will be back in the shop hopefully by next week's end. Once I have it, I will let all know what I think of the repairs and upgrade.

[Dan-Woodman]

Did you get your machine back and if so , how's it running?
later Daniel

[qsligh]

Well I just got back in town from overseas, and took my newly modified machine out for a test run and I must say that this baby is SWEET! The upgrade was worth every bit of the money. The overall process could have been smoother, but I figure that as time goes on, the folks at CW will refind the process. I'm working on one of the projects of the month that I got last year (Teabox). I'll let you all know how it turned out. The CW is quieter, and that in itself is a big improvement. I guess this teabox project will test the overal heat reduction as well, seeing that one part takes over 4hrs to carve. Like I stated earlier, the craftsmanship is great, it's the process that I had a problem with in the first. I do wish that CW would offer some type of maintenance agreement for us 2nd gen owners. You could stand to make more monies in warranty work if you offered some of us with sort of manint agreement that we could purchase based on machine hours. I'll keep you up to date on how this first carve comes out after the upgrade.