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?
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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.
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.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.
Are you sure your talking about Gortrac? They are THE oem supplier of stainless way covers.
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.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.
Do you mean Bibb Machinery in Macon, GA ?What about that guy in SC, what was his name. Couple acres of stuff rusting away. Said he would rebuild it if sold or such
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.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.
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