Bend Tech Dragon, Anyone Using It?

[Fl-Krawler]

For a owner operator a Gwekie is probably ok... but if you have a major failure do they have parts in the US? How long for you to get a tech on site if it cannot be diagnosed over remote? Who is going to install the machine? Who is going to offer you training on it?

When we were looking at lasers Camfive would do the initial setup and provides a weeks worth of training once the machine was set up. Tech support over the phone was m-f 8-5.. if the machine was under warranty or you purchased a service agreement through them, at the time they claimed they would have a tech at your location within 48hrs, which is comparable to what I have dealt with with my Haas/daewoo/adira cnc machines that I also have

 

[PAToyota]

Powered gate and thc were not available options when we purchased our A400 dragon. I believe the a150 uses an entirely different gate setup than mine. When it works it's awesome...but it constantly has to be babysat

I just looked on bendtechs site and it appear neither of these are currently offered now. I could care less about the powered gate, but THC would be phenomenal, especially when cutting rectangular or square tubing

Ok... I misinterpreted what you were saying. Took a look at the A400 and understand. I was thinking of the mid-gate just opening and not the front gate. And the A150 obviously has up-down control of the torch to do square tube, but that's in the programming and not actually THC. Yeah, actually sensing the profile of the tube would be a major improvement.

My understanding is that ours is one of the first A150s to be sold and Bend Tech told us that it would have no problems doing square or rectangular tube. We can do square with some babying and can almost kind of sort of do rectangular - but that really beats it up with the irregular forces.

It sounds like the bosses are considering "upgrading" to an A400, but from what I'm hearing that isn't going to be nearly what they really need. Then again, they don't do much of anything that we really need. I say the whole shop mentality is pretty much like a personal backyard garage shop - you do what you can with the tools you have available. Except that they're trying to do production work... You can make do with a hammer, some wrenches, and a lot of ingenuity when you have to do something once. When you're trying to do a hundred of them - and then another hundred - and another... - you should be looking at it in entirely different ways than once off. Nope...

 

[Talon2006]

Well… I ended up with a bend tech dragon a150 for 3k.

I am very thankful for my previous knowledge of building my own cnc plasma. :p

 

[jamscal]

JD2. CNC Rotary Tube and Pipe Cutter

CNC Rotary Tube and Pipe Cutter

www.jd2.com

We looked at the bendtech but I like the above design better....I've used neither fyi...just it looks like the jd2 would be better for our needs.

Local company is processing for $50/tube (parts that we use) though so not worth it right now.

 

[Talon2006]

JD2. CNC Rotary Tube and Pipe Cutter

CNC Rotary Tube and Pipe Cutter

www.jd2.com

We looked at the bendtech but I like the above design better....I've used neither fyi...just it looks like the jd2 would be better for our needs.

Local company is processing for $50/tube (parts that we use) though so not worth it right now.

The JD2 design is interesting… but I think there is a reason every other tube cutter uses a design more like the bend tech one.

 

[Grnd93]

The JD2 design is interesting… but I think there is a reason every other tube cutter uses a design more like the bend tech one.

I've used a travelling head plasma made by Lincoln Electric. ran into a lot of issues keeping the track clean. just a little slag and it would get hung up.