Height Adjustable Grates!

[weldguy]

Joe....you may have an addiction....but hey it's a good one

[Dirtmotor]

Table junkie !

[weldguy]

Table junkie !

[Joe Jones]

Perhaps. but I AM going to sell these 4x4 tables with the grate elevator system installed, and they will be sold with the various DesignEdge licenses that are assigned to the tables. I might ADD some upgrades, to make sure they all have "The Big Three" at least. Or I may just sell them with their existing licenses, and let the new owners decide what to add.

The nice thing about the grate elevator is that it eliminates the need to purchase the $998.00 Customizable Size Upgrade from PlasmaCam, because additional grate to gantry clearance is built in! It also eliminates the need for the $2,000.00 pipe cutting attachment and software upgrade as well. So these tables will already save someone around $3,000.00

I hope to combine at least four of them into TWO 4x8 tables as well. Right now, I have a helper who will assist me in disassembling all of them and cleaning and stacking the various parts onto shelving. Parts is Parts! I MAY clean off all of the grate slats too, or I might sell the tables with NEW grate slats, or WITHOUT grate slats. They are easy enough to fabricate in a shop, so why spend the money to clean and ship the heavy metal?

Meanwhile, I am struggling with TWO brand new 23,000 BTU LG Air conditioners from Home Depot that DO NOT WORK "Just bring them back and we will give you two new ones!" I told Home Depot that I did NOT buy small appliances, and if I have to return TWO 130lb. Air conditioning units to the store in Bowling Green, I will have then air lifted by helicopter and drop them through their roof in the dark of the night.

NINE HOURS of telephone calls later, I finally convinced LG to send a repairman to my shop, rather than require me to remove the units from the second floor of my FrankenBarn to return them to Bowling Green. I had to remove a window and raise them up with my forklift and drag them inside! So I am NOT anxious to remove them again, just to discover that it was only a blown FUSE or a disconnected WIRE, or a hidden reset button, or something equally stupid!

Joe

https://www.homedepot.com/p/LG-23-000-B ... /322850190

[Joe Jones]

The problem has been discovered. Sheesh! When I built the FrankenBarn back in 2013, the power company came to replace the transformer on the pole and to connect the 400 Amp service, split between two 200 Amp panels. I have never needed to plug anything 240 VAC into this building. So I naturally assumed that the power was available, but just not used.

A neighbor is an electrician. He kindly came over to troubleshoot the situation, and he discovered that the building does not HAVE 240 VAC power. Someone connected the transformer incorrectly, and the entire building is only 120 VAC.

So I am off to the East coast today to go get that 4x4 table. Then I will return and get the power company out here to correct the situation, so that my building is wired properly.

And people still wonder why I am so fed up with humanity in general. You have to CHECK EVERYTHING YOURSELF! You cannot rely on anyone else, even "professionals."

Joe


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[Joe Jones]

I just returned from a 24-day, 6,450 mile trek to Seattle where I picked up the 3D printer and an E-bike (quite by accident.) Now I have to get to work ....
Joe

[Joe Jones]

The first set of synchronized linear actuators has arrived! $1,613.00 for everything.

I HOPE to have this installed onto a DHC2 4x4 table before Christmas, for sure.

[Joe Jones]

America has produced a generation of brain dead mutants.

My missive to the company ...
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Hi,

The actuators arrived and they are going to work well, EVENTUALLY.

$1,613.00 is a lot of money.

The actuators arrived with four small bags of hardware inside, evidently just TOSSED into the box. They did not fare so well, as the flimsy shipping box was bent. Not the actuators, but the physical box itself.

HINT: A BOX OF AIR THAT CONTAINS HEAVY CONTENTS ABLE TO SHIFT AROUND FREELY INSIDE IS NOT STRUCTURALLY SOUND.

The shipping box was broken open at one end, with some of the small hardware broken out of the small bags and rattling around inside, IF pieces had not fallen out of the torn box edges that I could slip my hand through. I have not counted pieces to see what, if anything may be missing.

Also, although this does not affect MY requirements at this time, the actuators had black plastic tabs molded to the pieces at the motor end. They look like cord retainers or something. They were molded to the end pieces FOR A REASON, RIGHT?

The box, probably due to the weight or flimsiness of the cardboard box itself, had been DROPPED on BOTH ENDS, and all four actuators had broken bits of plastic tabs rattling around inside of the box that had broken off of the black end pieces that comprise the lower motor casings. Whatever you designed into the end pieces by adding those plastic tabs was thwarted by those small tabs being broken off during shipping, due to VERY POOR PACKING of the product.

The gorillas in your shipping department placed all four actuators into the box with the heavy motors at the SAME end. That is ridiculous. Your employees know absolutely NOTHING about how to properly ship expensive components.

There were NO foam inserts, or anything to prevent them from freely slamming around inside of the box, except for some pitiful small lengths of cardboard fillers that moved freely inside of the box and served literally no purpose, and the box as packed had a HEAVY END and a LIGHT END, which made it cumbersome for a delivery driver to handle. This probably contributed to the damages that the actuators sustained. With two motors at one end, and two motors at the other end, the box is BALANCED and far easier to handle.

Someone at Progressive Automations needs to change the way you pack and ship your expensive actuators.

I did not order a box of plastic table legs or wooden dowel rods. These actuators have black plastic motor casings that were designed with tabs that are INTENDED to hold things into place, but most of them were broken off from the motors being allowed to bang against one another with NO protection from impact INSIDE of the flimsy cardboard box.

These actuators are HEAVY, so they need a HEAVY, STURDY box, with REAL, FORM FIT FOAM INSERTS. The actuators inside which are shorter than the box used to ship them should not be allowed to slam from one end of the box to the other, nor side to side, nor ROTATE INSIDE, and they should not be able to bang against one another, shielded only by a flimsy sheet of bubble wrap, which is a COMPLETE JOKE. Quite honestly, you would have achieved the same end results by tossing the actuators into an old cotton pillowcase and wrapping them with some TWINE! That is ALL the protection these units had.

Depending on which end the delivery driver spilled the box off of the shelf onto the truck floor, (most likely the HEAVY end of the box) or out of the truck onto the ground, the motors hit the ground AND EACH OTHER, and the black plastic tabs predictably broke off at that end. The large HOLLOW BOX was crushed during shipping, since there was absolutely NOTHING inside to provide structural integrity.

Your guys packed these actuators to be stored on a shelf in grandpa's garage, NOT to be shipped across the country and handled by any number of people who RELY on the packing to protect the products they are tossing around from one station to the next.

I am reluctant to order perhaps as many as TEN MORE (4) Actuator sets of these same actuators, duplicating this first order, once the first set is installed onto a machine as intended, for proof of concept.

IF I DO order more of these, I DO NOT want future orders to arrive as if they were packed by brain dead zoo apes.

Joe Jones
Franklin, KY.

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[plasmanewbie]

Bummer that they are damaged, hopefully they wills till work for you. Not sure your email to them will provide you with any better service in the future! Braindead zoo apes!? lol

[Joe Jones]

Quick response, and at least potentially prioritized.

Joe

- - - - -



Hello Joe,

Thank you for your detailed feedback regarding the recent delivery of your actuators. I sincerely apologize for the poor packaging and the condition in which your order arrived. Your concerns are valid, and we regret that our packing methods did not meet your expectations or the standards we strive for.

We fully understand that the items you received are valuable, and it is unacceptable that the packaging did not adequately protect them during transit. The issues you’ve raised—damaged hardware, broken plastic tabs, and overall packaging quality—will be addressed with our shipping and fulfillment teams immediately. We also agree that proper packing, including form-fit foam inserts and more robust boxes, should be used to ensure safe delivery, especially for such heavy components.

Should you decide to place further orders with us, we will ensure your future shipments are packed with the necessary care and attention to prevent any issues like this from happening again.

Once again, we appreciate your honest feedback, and we apologize for the inconvenience this has caused. We are committed to improving and ensuring that your next experience with us is a positive one.

Please let us know if you require any replacements or if there is anything else we can do to make this right.

Best regards,

[djreiswig]

Might as well get them replaced. Then you'll know if they're going to improve their packaging without having to pay for the next shipment. And maybe they'll let you keep the broken ones. If not, you can ship them back in a pillowcase wrapped with twine.

[Joe Jones]

Might as well get them replaced. Then you'll know if they're going to improve their packaging without having to pay for the next shipment. And maybe they'll let you keep the broken ones. If not, you can ship them back in a pillowcase wrapped with twine.

[Joe Jones]

I don't know what the round thing with the two tabs is for. I will assume that something connects to it, to wind up a cord or a cable, but I have not tested it to see if it rotates during the operation of the actuator.

Joe

[djreiswig]

Maybe for an encoder?