Buyer Beware

[King Cobra]

I have seen this product in action, and it is awesome! (when it works)

We ordered one of these for our site (a middle school) for our Makerspace last July. Since then, it has not operated once. As soon as we set up the machine and went to test it, we discovered that it was not working. It turned out that one of the control boards was fried and needed to be repaired/replaced. NWA asked us to send it back in, but refused to pay to ship it (despite the fact that it was defective). Eventually they relented and agreed to pay for the shipping.

Sadly, this was not the end of our problems. We did not receive the "repaired" control box for 7 months. After we started bombarding them with weekly phone calls, they finally shipped us back the control box. The reason for the long wait, according to the person on the phone, was that they were waiting for payment from us for repairs (for a product that was shipped defective and was still under warranty).

Problem solved, hooray! But wait. As soon as we plug in the control box we received, the exact same board fried....AGAIN! It has now been 9 months and we still don't have a working router. This company's office staff on the phone give us multiple conflicting messages about how to get our product working. I feel like the overall incompetence and negligence demonstrated by this company is astounding. DO NOT give this company your business.

[Psychomedic]

Wow. That is disturbing. I just ordered a Shark Slimline. Glad I bought it through a reseller in case a disaster like this occurs.

[rsetina]

I've found that the service at NWA is great. I don't know why you're having so many problems with them.

[mcsteve]

I am surprised. I have had my shark for a little over a year and no issues I can speak of. I do agree the support at NWA is not the quickest but they have responded to any inquiry I have made without fail and with answers that resolved my questions. I have not needed a warranty repair but they definitely helped with technical "glitches". Sorry to hear your experience is less than stellar. Was this a new system purchased from NWA or from a distributor?

[TAW]

I also have a slime line HD (8 months) and have had no problems with machine that were not operator error. Reg machine and all software was not simple but looked to be my mistakes. learning to use touch plate was ok after you watch setup video- I did not - had watched too many u tubers before I got set up and missed some things. I love it and know I will never use it to it full capabilities. but it is fun and still word working .... in a different way.

[tonybell9699]

You can look up the issues I had with my shark controllers and motors over the first year. While the customer service ( can't remember her name) rep was not the most pleasant, they were very responsive and turn around times were fast. New control board, power supply and motors later, my machine has been a workhorse without issue.

Tony

[sharkcutup]

No Problems Here that were not operator error!

Have had my Shark HD3 extended bed nearly two months now. Of Course I have been diligent about keeping up with this forum and made a few minor changes to my particular setup. One notable change was separating the togetherness of the x-axis and z-axis cables, they are no longer together as shipped! (A precautionary measure). Have not used the dust boot as of yet --- still working on getting vacuum system setup with its own ground!

It is an AWESOME machine!

There is one major software Item I would very much like to see added and that is the ability to stop and start at any point in the g-code program especially when it comes to the longer cutting programs. Of course this is not an NWA thing it would be Vectric.com the creators of Aspire and V-Carve.
Have a GREAT DAY Everyone!

Be Safe around those AWESOME machines!!!

[davemartin88]

I believe the stop/start function would need to be implemented in the control software from NWA, not in the Vectric design software.

[Kevink18]

I would like a button to turn on or off for the router

[studio-n]

I would like a button to turn on or off for the router

I agree. there are times when it would be nice to turn on the router and simply jog the
bit to where it's needed (say to knock off a burr or something).