Our vacation travel plans allowed a visit to PwnCNC in Lowell, AR. The Dominator is shipped from two places; one is the distributor of extruded aluminum, and the other is the Lowell headquarters (the complicated pieces). So in addition to picking up that second part in person, I met Daniel and Scott who taught me tips about the new machine.
More than just picking up pieces, the visit gave me insights that other customers might like to know. What follows are my observations, not issued or approved by Daniel or his company.
First was a remarkable service. Last month I sent them my Hitachi VFD, which has been connected to a Mechatron spindle on a Onefinity CNC (Buildbotics Controller). Let me emphasize: I sent them equipment and configurations from three companies whose products compete with theirs. With nary a word about PwnCNC VFDs or spindles, these folks connected the specific terminals on my VFD to wiring and aircraft connectors so that I only have to make a dummy-proof connection. They pre-programmed the VFD to marry with the Masso controller (which uses different signaling than Buildbotics).
We all have CAD/CAM programs that need to know how to speak to our CNC. Vectric has already inserted names and some info for dozens of CNC makers, and PwnCNC is among them. For VCarvePro, the “Post-Processor” set-up options are “Masso Arcs” (inch) and (mm). You can use either. The software also asks what the acceleration is. Tell it 200 ipm.
With other companies, we often check on options at long intervals. But PwnCNC is adding choices faster than any other company I know. Where a spindle once meant only air-cooled, you now have air or water-cooled, and different collet sizes. I use “purge air” on mine, and that’s now an option with PwnCNC too. (Keeps dust out of the bearings). Four years ago, I bought a German spindle because the only other choice was Hunyuang (sp?) about which everybody complained. PwnCNC does buy Chinese-made spindles. The difference from 2022 is that they test them and sell only certain lines.
The business is both a manufacturing/assembly site and a laboratory. Tests of spindles from dozens of companies sit, waiting to be returned because they didn’t pass Daniel’s standards. Dominators undergoing assembly sit next to prototypes, where ideas prove their worth.
The Dominator I bought only exists because the company listens to the customers. My Journeyman sits on a cabinet that couldn’t take a 4x4 machine. The 3x4 went from idea to my hands in a few months.
I asked about the materials chosen, and whether time has shown that lighter or smaller aluminum members would suffice. Answer: that idea has been explored and rejected.
I asked about cable management on a cabinet without an open-air bottom. Daniel will invent a printable file so I can secure to the cabinet side without snagging loose cables.
Scott was a wealth of information on ways to secure the hardware and ways that don’t work as well. He showed me metal shims to ‘dial in’ certain mating components, ways to fit the nuts into the slots on the extrusions, and the connections from the power source to its dependencies.
PwnCNC has been reading the same forums as the users of Onefinity and Shapeoko. They know how the companies have handled product development, firmware upgrades and tech support. I heard no discouraging words about anybody. But I can read facial expressions when discussing such topics and came away with even more respect for PwnCNC than I had when I arrived.