The Machine Shop and my VCI -100 Mod
The Machine Shop and my VCI -100 Mod Posted on: 30.07.2009 by Elba Kipp After having received the DXF files in the arcade mod kit, I took the faceplate to the largest machine shop in my major city www.denvermachineshop.com they've been around for a hundred years so I had some faith. Boy oh boy was that faith misplaced. Their CAD guy says the holes would be in different places depending on which DXF file he used that they aren't exact. In addition to that he says my faceplate isn't the same size as the file says it should be and rambled on about how its meteric and a pain in his ass.. wtf is going on here.. Is he incompitent? Are their slight variations in the size of the faceplate? Does it matter? I told him to cut it using the small hole above the jog wheel reference point and not to modify the design at all. And now im sweating bullets that its gonna end up incorrectly cut and a paperweight, I can't afford to replace my 100. This is terrible. Those DXF files in the kit are 1000000000% correct right? Anyone have any issues at all with milling and or the provided files in the kit??? | |
| Britteny Fondacaro 05.08.2009 |
Originally Posted by BodegaBrad
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| Penni Rigor 05.08.2009 |
Originally Posted by DJMOO
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| Camelia Busbin 05.08.2009 |
Originally Posted by Fiffi
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| Kenny Edeburn 06.08.2009 | djmod, go and get a round file and give it a go - if you don't like it you can try the nibbler or go to a machine shop. Look for a file made for metal work. I bought a Bahco Ergo 10 mm round file. Pin-Up shot of the file and the finished result attached! Be careful and take it slow and you should be ok. |
| Jonna Groskopf 06.08.2009 | Has anyone tried using a hand nibler? One could just nibble out a hole, then finish it off with a file. |
| Sharolyn Narramore 05.08.2009 | i agree fifi's way is alot cheaper and works just as well. The metal is a soft aluminum so the file cut through it with ease. You get the satisfaction of doing it yourself and you save a pretty penny! |
| Kerri Tendler 05.08.2009 | these prices some people are getting quoted is ridiculous, thanks to fifi's pics and advice i went out and bought a roundfile, can't recommend doing it this way enough. took me an hour to do all 8 holes. and you get the hang of it real quick. i could probably do it now in well under an hour. don't bother with machine shops... just spend $10 on a roundfile! |
| Eli Hergonz 05.08.2009 | bottom line I will do as FIFFI did it http://djranking s.com/community /showthread.php?t=6323 because its soft aluminum it shouldn`t take long and it doesn`t have to be perfect holes. I believe you cant f*** up, just be gentle. |
| Britteny Fondacaro 05.08.2009 |
Originally Posted by BodegaBrad
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| Roberto Viccione 05.08.2009 | Another note. If you're giving over your gear, you should have an agreement signed with the establishment expressing rules for each party. The machinist will return the part with you AS SPECIFIED in GOOD CONDITION and you will pay an agreed amount. They should account for all work, provided on an itemized receipt if you are paying hourly. If they fuck up you don't pay and they replace the parts. If you don't pay you don't get your VCI. This is all about insurance. If they won't guarantee their work in writing then you shouldn't trust them. You should have time stamped photos BEFORE you give it to the machinist, and time stamped photos after if you are not satisfied. Also, there is a level of expectation you have when you go for services like this. If they ruin your gear they should be held responsible to replace it, which should also be in that agreement. *shrug* If they won't you can take the establishment to small claims court. |
| Penni Rigor 05.08.2009 |
Originally Posted by DJMOO
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| Bernardo Hallman 05.08.2009 | Your in Denver, so call the Troubleshooter Tom Martino and see if he can help! |
| Britteny Fondacaro 05.08.2009 | I had mine done last Friday and didn't get a quote. They said it would be ready this Wednesday. They ended up calling me the same Friday saying it was ready and it was gonna cost me $125. Needless to say I wasn't happy about the price. But I was pretty satisfied with the job and the 4 hour turnaround time. Strange thing though, I was checking my bank account online and they voided the charge. Maybe they also realized they ripped me off. So I guess they did it for free as no charge is even pending clearance. |
| Lilliana Perris 05.08.2009 | I just got a quote for R285. Thats about $36 COST price! Still scared. |
| Camelia Busbin 05.08.2009 |
Originally Posted by Fiffi
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| Lilliana Perris 04.08.2009 | Thats a tough break dude. hopefully you will be able to patch it up! |
| Elba Kipp 04.08.2009 | As far as www.denvermachineshop.com strong arming me, it worked. Im 6'4 300lbs with priors and the lady behind the counter was at least 55 and scared. Im pretty sure I woulda got the short end of the stick with the pigs. They won, my asshole hurts. Just learn from this... Get a fixxed price before you hand over any parts. Insist it is milled at a extremely low speed. Make sure you or your machinist is ONTOP of the plate during milling. Don't let a "Im really busy" or an ego cause extra damage to your part. |
| Laraine Arceo 04.08.2009 | Dude... not only did they charge you for a service they didn't perform but they also destroyed your unit. I don't know how it works where you live but here, there's no way in hell you'd have to pay for that - they would have to pay you for a new piece and calling the cops would be ridiculous. |
| Britteny Fondacaro 03.08.2009 |
Originally Posted by EanGolden
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| Kenny Edeburn 03.08.2009 | Labobinne, out of curiosity - how much did you pay? |
| Camelia Busbin 03.08.2009 | Hi, I have done the cutting in a machine shop. The man who did it used a water+oil cutting machine because he said this is a soft alu. He had cuted 23.8 mm holes, but it is important to do this slowly. Before, he draw the plan on paper to be sure of the hole emplacement at a 1:1 scale and we check this with the overlay : it was ok for the cut. Bye |
| Adolf Hit 02.08.2009 | I would fully have them call the police, if they made all the fuss about making sure they didnt screw it up because they were worried about the dxf being wrong, and did not have you sign something which removes the blame from them, and then finally they screw it up from pure technical incompetence they should be asking for any money from you at all. You where paying for their skills which they obviously dont have. In regards to you repairs I had a similar issue when I modded mine last year, I opened the clamp before the tool had stopped spinning which flicked the chassis onto the bit and ended up with my vci being thrown across the room and warped with a large chunk of metal ripped out, I pressed it out, and put an overlay on, now it looks fine, actually better than before coz the overlays are leet. |
| Myrtle Billegas 02.08.2009 | i would contact a lawyer to see how your chances are to sue their asses. They damaged your property. I dont now how to say it better ( german ) they did not fullfill the contract between you two. As said, ask a lawyer, you might have a good chance. I know in Germany they would have to pay you for fucking up your property. |
| Doug Bieling 02.08.2009 | i would have let them call the police, they can't do jack shit but would have probably mad ethe shop give you back your plate as its your property. |
| Elba Kipp 03.08.2009 | Im working on the plate today. I have a compound called "all metal" its basicly an bondo type substance that is metal not apoxy. I will be filling in the oval and filing it back out by hand. Im also gonna fill in the in the gash and post hole and grind them flush before the overlay. Im gonna post pics of the repair start to finish when its done for others. If your machinist says the DXF files aren't correct or gives you any shit at all. They are wrong and screwing around with you. TAKE NO PRISONERS. |
| Lilliana Perris 02.08.2009 | My blood has just run cold! Faaaakin hell mate..........faakin hell......is all i can say. I have heard that Water Jet is the best way to go here. I have found a company that does Waterjet cutting and a mate can get it at cost. They use this guy weekly! I am still freaking out about it!....and RIGHTFULLY SO! I rate....if i can't get over it and send it in.....i will file it myself. I ordered the Overlay and a few doodaa's which should be here this week. What I will do is use the overlay to mark where the holes should be with a sharpi. Then get the machinist to concur that his machine is set to cut on my holes. When I first contacted them and sent them the DXF file, they said it worked out to be 9m long! WTF? So I sent them the dimensions of the VCI in order for them to get the picture. |
| Kenny Edeburn 02.08.2009 | MrM, check your Vestax service center if they can source a spare face plate. http://www.vestax.com/v/info/support...ce_center.html |
| 01.08.2009 | I 2nd the motion to create section dedicated to the arcade mod. Sorry to hear about your machine shop problems but thats the one part of the mod thats really hard to predictably reproduce. There are really only 2 reliable ways to cut the plate that we know of: waterjet or CNC laser wont work and using a bit is not going to produce consistent results. |
| Kenny Edeburn 01.08.2009 | Ouch! I don't know what to say... I feel for you. Your post made me cringe... It's an outrage that they would charge you anything at all. My recommendation is to try to reach an agreement with the machine shop. I would try to reason with them and offer them the $60 based on their initial estimate and ask if they can repair the post and the scratch and if possible fix the oval. Maybe a new overlay would cover the scratch? My machinist recommended water cutting (which they don't do) or manually filing the holes. They said drilling would probably damage or distort the plate. I went for doing it myself - am I happy I have a friendly machinist. I believe we need a separate community section for the DIY Arcade Edition. |
| Elba Kipp 01.08.2009 | So I got my faceplate back from www.denvermachineshop.com and let me say SCREW THOSE HOES. Their CAD guy obliterated my faceplate. They got paid by the hour ($90 per hour) they milked it out. They wouldn't just load the file and cut the plate. He had to first argue with me about the DFX file, and "measure everything by hand just to make sure its 100% correct". (because its their mission NOT to screw up my part! cool huh?) The purpose of which was obviously to run up the labor times. Not only did denver machine take my faceplate hostage for $135 after a $60 quote! THEY SCREWED IT UP. The machinist ran the machine way way to fast for the soft alumnium so when the bit made a little metal burr off one of the factory holes it caught and ripped the plate out of the jig. So... I have 7 holes and a oval, a huge deep scratch in the EQ section where the bit ran over it AND a popped out stamped support pegs on the far upper right of the case. Being pissed off unpleasant and demanding satisfaction only got me: "we will call the cops,full invoiced price or it gets scrapped." Pics coming up soon. Please learn from this experience.. |
| Kenny Edeburn 29.07.2009 | I filed my own holes using the arcade edition overlay as a template. It was easy once I got a proper file. I went for a completely round file made for metal work with a diameter as close as possible to fit the square holes. It took about an hour to do all eight holes. Keep in mind that if you use the arcade overlay as a template that the holes required for your buttons are probably smaller than the arcade overlay holes. Check out this thread, where you can see how I did it: http://djranking
s.com/community
/showthread.php?t=6323 I spoke to my local machine shop and they said that there are two ways they would recommend doing the holes, water cut or manually using a file. |
| Lilliana Perris 29.07.2009 | SHOOOOO! Man.....I am believeing that I am gonna file my one holes. SHIT scared of taking it to the cutting shop. |
| Penni Rigor 30.07.2009 | Maybe this will help any who need to find a shop. On the left top there is a spot that says find shops by area. Hope it helps. http://www.machineshopweb.com/ |
| Britteny Fondacaro 30.07.2009 | Has anyone in Los Angeles found a good machine shop to get this done. I've been all over the net and can't find a place. Thanks for the help. |
| Elba Kipp 30.07.2009 | Newer silver one, came with 1.2 firmware. |
| Penni Rigor 30.07.2009 | Yikes...I'm trying to find a machine shop to do mine for me. I'll let you know what I find. Do you have the silver or black? |
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