Cmm Info

[VADER]

Hi All,

I need some feed back. I am currently using a very reliable B & S 7-10-7 XCEL with 3.207 beta and have found it to be the best version for my needs. My boss is interested in a secondary small CMM to place by the CNC grinders for conical gage angle inspection. He has found one that is going to be in an auction in a few weeks and wants my input. It is advertised as follows : 2000 Starrett Model HGDC-2018-16 CNC with Starrett Apoget software.
I know absolutely nothing about this software. Is it out dated? Is it user friendly? Has it been discontinued due to Sheffields acquisition of Starrets CMM interfaces?
Does anybody have any idea of a price range for this particular CMM and software?

Thanks for any feedback.

[Wes Cisco]

I have only a tiny bit of info for you, and you may already know, but Hexagon has purchased Sheffield/Starrett cmm, so if you are going with a software upgrade for this machine it will be pc-dmis. HTH

[Matthew D. Hoedeman]

Even thought Wes will probably SLAM me for this, have you looked on the B&S web site? They have used machines, there might be one better suited for your needs. There is a 600x650x500 with Pcdmis for sale.

http://www.brownandsharpe.com

Oh, and if you leave the 'E' off the end of Sharpe, you get a totally different site.

[VADER]

Thanks Matt,

But unfortunatly its not was is best for our needs, but what the boss thinks is cheap and easy. You know how it is.

[Wes Cisco]

Thanks Matt,

But unfortunatly its not was is best for our needs, but what the boss thinks is cheap and easy. You know how it is.

Oh so tempting. . . Seriously, you should point out the ramifications of software you know vs. software you will have to learn.

[Matthew D. Hoedeman]

AND, until you check, you have NO IDEA what the price might be. ALSO, most (if not all) will be re-conditioned from B&S AND calibrated. What kind of a piece of junk are you going to get at an auction? AND, does the owner have a shill in the croud to drive up the price beyond what it might be reasonably worth? Hey, it might just be a HUGE paperweight you are bidding on and that won't do you a bit of good, even if you can get it for $15,000.



My $3000 worth, or whatever the SMA's are going for these days.

[VADER]

Matt,

I totally agree. I just wanted to justify my thoughts before I told him my opinion.

Vader

[craiger_ny]

Starrettt got into a little trouble with their machine a few years back that resulted in a lawsuit. In a nutshell the machines were not within stated accuracy. Is this one of those machines? Do you have any way of knowing if it is one of those machines? You might want to research that incident and the impact on their CMM bussiness. Or you could gage the impact by the fact that they are no longer in the CMM bussiness.

Craig

[Matthew D. Hoedeman]

If possible, you can inspect something on YOUR machine in YOUR shop and take it over there and have them check it and see how much difference the results are. BUT, I am speaking from experience. Not with a CMM, but with a different machine. They saw it, bought it at an auction, put it in the shop and it could not do what they bought it to do. So, after sinking even MORE money into it, they were finally able to get it to do what they wanted it to do and probably at a much higher cost than they could have bought a used one from a dealer.

Seriously, buying a used CMM at an auction could be just flushing money down the drain after you poo on it.

[Mike N.]

Matt is correct in every way

I used to work for a Co. that did just that....bought one from a 3rd party seller and we had to end up calling B&S in to fix hardware "issues" with it and heard alot of flack for not going to the source in the first place.....yada yada yada.....then they fixed it anyway.......and we paid the piper

[Matthew D. Hoedeman]

Have your boss look at the thread, or whoever is the one who will write the check for this machine and ask them if they want to take this kind of a chance. In today's business environment, once bitten, bankrupt.

[bob mappes]

yeah, Starrett had an issue withone of their models, but I don't know which one.

we have a Starrett Aurora model,,,had Apogee....now have PCDMIS

Apogee is ok...depends on what version as to its capability...mine was OLD v1.xx....couldn't do any cad stuff

with PCDMIS I am much happier now....and our parts are getting harder and harder to inspect...

if you just need to check basic features...Apogee will work fine

bob

[Ravenmaniac]

Listen well to much of the advice here on "outdated" and older software used in conjunction with used machines sporting thar ever so attractive "cheaper pricetag" My boss thought along the same way a few years ago when I informed him of going to the new software/machine vs getting a bigger used one with older software. Oh, it's got pcdmis in it now but we paid thousands on controller issues to make it work and the d*mn thing still doesn't run quite right. My smaller Mistral runs rings around it. During tours and "walkthroughs" it's shown off for it's large measuring envelope, but power and capabilty wise it's still a 2 ton boat anchor to me......B

[Randy Sparks]

Need to purchase conical gages and grand master.

Do you mfg and sell.............

Please reply to [email protected]

[dwade]

Go to the CMMTalk forum look under CMM Hradware > Starrett. There are 2 or 3 postes in there concernning the lawsuits against Starrett.