Monster vs Align-Rite

M

masonh

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
anyone use both of these.i am looking at getting one and currently use Alex's Align-Rite.i saw the Cue Monster at Valley Forge and it looked pretty nice,but was wondering if anyone has used both and could compare them for me in terms of accuracy and rigidity smoothness,etc?

any problems or potential problems with either?
 
Align-Rite all i can say is its first class all the way

besides inlays you can tapper butts
make shafts i have done 175 in a 8 hour day
very solid i have the elte spindle very aqccurate
mach 3 is the only way to fly as the software
vs a DOS base nightmare
bobcad
mach3
alin-rite
ive said it all
 
yes,i work for a guy who has the alignrite,but i don't think you mentioned anything that the Cue Monster can't do.cutting butts is not that great of an accomplishment.

his machine has the Elte too,but i think the spindle upgreade from uUnique is better than the Elte.

also notice align-rite cam out with a new machine,b/c they were having problems with the old one.
 
masonh said:
yes,i work for a guy who has the alignrite,but i don't think you mentioned anything that the Cue Monster can't do.cutting butts is not that great of an accomplishment.

his machine has the Elte too,but i think the spindle upgreade from uUnique is better than the Elte.

also notice align-rite cam out with a new machine,b/c they were having problems with the old one.
Click to expand...
New_Image1.JPG

WOW, I didn't know they have a new one.
That one looks much better than the old woodlathe-based one.
Almost like a Gantry. Looks great!
 
masonh said:
yes,i work for a guy who has the alignrite,but i don't think you mentioned anything that the Cue Monster can't do.cutting butts is not that great of an accomplishment.

his machine has the Elte too,but i think the spindle upgreade from uUnique is better than the Elte.

also notice align-rite cam out with a new machine,b/c they were having problems with the old one.
Click to expand...

Mason, I know little about either machine so I won't comment on their plus and minuses compared to each other but I can comment on a machines ability to turn a butt. I believe this would be a great asset, maybe not for building cues, per se, but when installing inlays. By having the ability to turn butts, very elaborate inlays can be installed without breaking the set-up down and then trying to re-index perfectly. A set of inlays can be cut and installed, the cue turned and then more inlays can be cut and installed on top of the ones just completed. It's hard to re-index a cue back to within a .001 or so and when inlays are small and adjacent to each other the eye can discern very minute differences in spacing. My machine, although being 4-axis, has difficulty trying to turn the butt down as the 4th axis turns to slowly. I've been thinking for some time now about building a new CNC where the fourth axis can act as a lathe head.

Dick
 
iknow cutting butts is great,but there are much cheaper ways of cutting butts and shafts than spending $12,000 or 10,000.actually tapering the butts and shafts would be one of its main tasks if i were to get one,but if that was al i did with it,i wouldn't get one.the taper shapper is a third of the cost and you can get the twin head taper machine that is CNC as well for less than the Cue Monster.

align-rite's new machine is based on the same JET wood lathe,but it is centered over the rails instead of off to the side.
 
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I have an Align-rite gantry with an NSK spindle which I almost never use. Didn't even turn it on for over 4 years. I chose Align-rite because they are an established corporation that has been making CNC tools for industries all over the world for years and they know their business and stand behind their products.

I changed from Flash-cut to Mach 3 and sent them my controller for rewiring and got it back in 10 days

It is something worth thinking about.
 
Dick When Turning Shafts And Butts You Disconect The 4 Th Axis Takes 30 Sec The Same To Hook Up Again
 
brianna187 said:
Dick When Turning Shafts And Butts You Disconect The 4 Th Axis Takes 30 Sec The Same To Hook Up Again
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Lee, if you disconnect the 4th axis, is it possible to re-index to the exact same reference point so that you can do more inlays that were not completed before turning the butt?

Dick
 
yes the way to that is lets say you do 4 diamonds in the butt with a 32 bit you cut the pockets and and when the programs finished its goes back to zero then in the mdi command screen you you type in goo x 7 the spindle goes into the handle area at that point you move the spindle which is your z axis down into the cue slowly making a small access or referral point when you re-chuck the cue at that point you can take the cue out for a year and get it back in exact spot again you put the cue in and manually find your 32 hole and take the bit in that same hole then zero everything raise the z and type in the mdi command g00x-7 your back in action very simple takes less then 5 mins. when you do forearm inlays you repeat the same thing now you can the cue in and hundred times if you like and still be dead nuts
 
15k with software and everything.the Elte spindle is pretty good,but not great.it is 24k with runout in the standard range maybe .001 or slightly under and .3/4hp.you can get the NSK 50k with under a micron of runout for a similar price.

for tapering and hogging wood,nothing beats the align-rite.we are cutting shaft dowells from 1" to .960" and .600" at 50 in/min.i can't believe how fast this thing cuts.

i think there are better machines for milling for sure.the machine i ahve is more accurrate.the align-rite has those steel bars that either sag or they can't get them dead nuts at the factory.on the old machine they are out.

haven't seen the new machine yet in person.
 
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masonh said:
15k with software and everything.the Elte spindle is pretty good,but not great.it is 24k with about .0005 runout and .3/4hp.you can get the NSK 50k with under a micron of runout for a similar price.

for tapering and hogging wood,nothing beats the align-rite.we are cutting shaft dowells from 1" to .960" and .600" at 50 in/min.i can't believe how fast this thing cuts.

i think there are better machines for milling for sure.the machine i ahve is more accurrate.the align-rite has those steel bars that either sag or they can't get them dead nuts at the factory.on the old machine they are out.

haven't seen the new machine yet in person.
Click to expand...
15K? Not good.
Thnx
 
yes,they are not cheap.that is a guess,but i bet it is within 1k either way.

i still can't believe how fast this thing can taper,but at that price you can buy 2 regular CNC machines.
 
brianna187 said:
Align-Rite all i can say is its first class all the way

besides inlays you can tapper butts
make shafts i have done 175 in a 8 hour day
Click to expand...

Holy smokes that Align-right must be a time machine as well!

The feed rate cutting shafts on that machine is about 7 inches per minute.
175 shafts would equal about 5000 inches or about 12 hours of travel.
That is just for one pass on each shaft and not counting change out time!

How did you do 175 shafts in in 8 hours?
 
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if you get the right cutter you can cut more than that.like i said with the new cutter we are using we cut 50 in/min and the shafts are still smooth.we can taper a shaft in about 35 seconds.


i think when you heard 7 in/min he was talking about cutting pockets with a .015" cutter.
 
rhncue said:
It's hard to re-index a cue back to within a .001

Dick
Click to expand...

I have owned and used a CueMonster for about 4 years.
The machine I have will index perfectly if you remove the butt and place it back in the next day for more inlays.
By "perfectly" I mean you cant see anything out of line.
I would be very surprised to learn of anything the Align-Rite could do that the CueMonster can not.

Can you really see .001" difference in index with the naked eye?
 
masonh said:
if you get the right cutter you can cut more than that.like i said with the new cutter we are using we cut 50 in/min and the shafts are still smooth.we can taper a shaft in about 35 seconds.
Click to expand...

Are you saying you can cut a shaft (29 inches) in less than one minute?
By that I mean make a tapering cut on a shaft that is 14mm or so at the tip end.
Best I can do is around 6 inches per minute.
Any faster the shaft chatters and ruins the shaft.

A table saw set up is faster but I thought we were talking about a router type cuter moving down a spinning shaft supported at each end like the Align-Rite and CueMonster does.

What new router bit or cutter is there that will not chatter at the speed allowing a 50 inch per minute feed speed?
 
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