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Is there a CNC machine graveyard out there??

Terry Z

Cast Iron
Joined
Aug 10, 2012
Location
Gurnee ILL. USA
Have a 16 year old Mazak VTC-30 with a failed X way cover. New it is $5,000.00. Does anyone know if there is a place that has old retired machines that are being stripped for parts?
 
I've asked the same question before, although about coolant tanks...

I never could come up with anything, but sure would like to know for future reference.
 
I am afraid most places pull the boards and motors then everything else just gets the material recycled.
 
Going to have the damaged one rebuilt. Only problem is 4-7 week lead time! OUCH! The company that made the original one can make me a new one also. Repair is the best option here. Thanks for the help.
 
Every time someone mentions way covers, they talk about rebuilds, and I just have to add that A&A/Gortite sucks and I will never use them again.

They repaired/rebuilt 3 sets of covers for us... they were paid by credit card but the covers were shipped freight collect. I called them with the truck driver there and the woman who answered the phone was rude and unhelpful. I said I wasn't paying for freight twice and she told me I can just refuse delivery, and when they come back they will toss them in the trash and it was my choice. Refused to look into why they were shipped freight collect or whether it was their mistake, etc, etc. Just immediately bitchy and defensive and blaming the customer. What a giant bitch.

The icing on the cake was the covers were shit. Shoddily made, tabs not accurately placed, edges rough and unfinished, not smooth. They bound up repeatedly and bent - I took them off and spent a fair bit of time tweaking them - smoothing rough edges, tapping with a hammer here and there to get everything perfectly aligned and straight. Now they work (after a ton of work getting them there), but they are still way noisier than the factory ones. And now, a few years later, the seals are all falling out and cut up from not being as smooth as they should have been.

Yep, they are cheaper than OEM, and there is a reason why. You can buy name brand USA made end mills, or shit from China on eBay. To each his own.
 
Every time someone mentions way covers, they talk about rebuilds, and I just have to add that A&A/Gortite sucks and I will never use them again.

They repaired/rebuilt 3 sets of covers for us... they were paid by credit card but the covers were shipped freight collect. I called them with the truck driver there and the woman who answered the phone was rude and unhelpful. I said I wasn't paying for freight twice and she told me I can just refuse delivery, and when they come back they will toss them in the trash and it was my choice. Refused to look into why they were shipped freight collect or whether it was their mistake, etc, etc. Just immediately bitchy and defensive and blaming the customer. What a giant bitch.

The icing on the cake was the covers were shit. Shoddily made, tabs not accurately placed, edges rough and unfinished, not smooth. They bound up repeatedly and bent - I took them off and spent a fair bit of time tweaking them - smoothing rough edges, tapping with a hammer here and there to get everything perfectly aligned and straight. Now they work (after a ton of work getting them there), but they are still way noisier than the factory ones. And now, a few years later, the seals are all falling out and cut up from not being as smooth as they should have been.

Yep, they are cheaper than OEM, and there is a reason why. You can buy name brand USA made end mills, or shit from China on eBay. To each his own.

Are you sure your talking about Gortrac? They are THE oem supplier of stainless way covers.
 
I know there is a company that makes way covers, I've never used them but it has been discussed here before.

Maybe try a new thread with "way covers" in the title.
Hennig makes Mazaks covers. You can buy them direct for 1/2 of Mazaks price. At least that was the case last time I bought some, about six years ago. Same deal, $5K from Mazak, $2.5K from Hennig.

Of course if they were designed right they never would have screwed up in the first place. Okuma has it right, forgot telescoping covers for Z, rather use one sheet that poke out the end.

Address | Hennig Inc.
 
Btw, even if there was a machine graveyard which by some miracle had your same model of Mazak either

a. The graveyard owner would be a Mike Kandu type and want way too much $ for everything and/or

b. The graveyard Mazak would have the exact same problem ! Mazaks are famous for destroying way covers.

One major advantage of auto junkyards is the vehicles are relatively easy to get there, don't take up alot of space and most importantly, can be left OUTSIDE. A machine tool junkyard would involve serious rigging costs and everything really needs to be inside... a huge expenditure even with no temperature control for the size needed..many acres of square footage..even more than HGR Surplus's 11 acre building.

And many machines that might have a few customers for parts would soon have no customers...like Acrolocs. Sort of true with cars also, but not as bad in the sense that past a certain point the older cars are the better from parts value standpoint. With CNC machines the parts eventually become worth zero and will never recover.

In other words, a machine tool graveyard that has a decent selection and is profitable is an impossible fantasy.
 
Are you sure your talking about Gortrac? They are THE oem supplier of stainless way covers.

I'm sure. It was A&A out in the midwest somewhere.

I talked to a local well known repair guy about my issues and before I even got half way through the situation he was nodding and said he's heard it plenty of times before.

These way covers were nowhere near OEM quality. They were obviously made by someone with sheet metal and a bender, then finished with what looks like an air sander. I never even put the other Y back on the machine... that one bound up and bent as well. Ended up getting an OEM X-Axis cover and still using the Y-axis cover I tweaked to be right.
 
I just had a rear Z axis cover remanufactured for a Mazak QT-8 by Midwest CNC and delivered late Friday after the wife and I left to go out of town for the weekend. I'll check them out tomorrow and have the boy install them and Ill post up my opinion and price then.
 
George Washington Machinery, about 200 miles east of Seattle, 20+ acres of machines spread over three locations in the farming country. Probably the nearest thing you'll find to a machine tool graveyard.

Last time I was over there he had a row of horizontal machining centers out in the weather, looked like the local kids threw rocks thru the crts of the A-B controllers. Those were trucked up from McD-Douglas in SoCal. Owner John has a buddy/partner in the heavy hauling business.

John's business has been a mystery for years. He buys all this machinery, sometimes at market, sometimes for nothing, hauls it over there to watch it rust. It seems like he never sells anything, although the trucker buddy told me recently he's been hauling a lot to the Tacoma waterfront for shipment to China to be rebuilt.

I thought John had retired, but a few months ago he was in Seattle buying at auction big old CNC's for scrap price. He laughed when I asked him about retirement.
LOL... I forgot about GWM....yeah, he falls into the "Mike Kandu type" category. Plus it seems like even if he had the appropriate Mazak with the desired guarding he wouldn't sell just the guarding, being under the fantasy of selling the whole machine "someday". Either than or he'd want almost as much for beat up used as brand new from Hennig.

So many of these dealers are simply "hoarders"...except we don't recognize it as such because what they are hoarding is sort of interesting and does have some potential value. But like the standard hoarders one sees on TV (if you can stand to watch it a few minutes) I'm always wondering the question that is never asked..... where the hell do these people get the money to buy all this crap ? Same deal with "Antique Pickers" when they come upon a "mega pick"....all this stuff that the owners don't want to sell, some of it they didn't even remember they still owned until the "pickers" unearthed it... and still won't sell it ! Where did they get the money to buy all this crap over decades of time ????

(and yes I know the shows are staged but I think the hoarders and their attitude about selling their crap are for real pretty much)
 
I think I've mentioned it here before, but there are several machine tool "junkyards" among which are Machinre in Michigan, and "ARPI Machine Sales" out in CA. Both on ebay. Its different than an auto junkyard as in the machines are stripped, then the bodies are scrapped. Very doable business model. Was actually up at "Machinre's" before several years back-pretty interesting experience. :D
 
I think I've mentioned it here before, but there are several machine tool "junkyards" among which are Machinre in Michigan, and "ARPI Machine Sales" out in CA. Both on ebay. Its different than an auto junkyard as in the machines are stripped, then the bodies are scrapped. Very doable business model. Was actually up at "Machinre's" before several years back-pretty interesting experience. :D
I can see that for certain things, like Fanuc control parts and other electronics. But way guards ? No "way". I went in a huge company in Indiana a few years ago that was stripping robots for the electronics and selling on eBay...in fact that's why I was there, for a Nachi robot power supply. They had lots of Fanuc stuff too.
 
Looks like Machinre has some way covers, not much though-don't know if its because they are selling them all or they scrap most of them with the bodies? :D

Okuma MC 5H ATC Rubber Chip Way Machine Guard Cover | eBay

I think these guys get as much as they can off of them-I've seen little stuff like leveling pads off machines on ebay.

I think HGR does the same thing-I've seen components off of CNC machines that most of not sold for sale up there.
 








 
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