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Fehlmann Picomax 50 photos

Milacron

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Dec 15, 2000
Location
SC, USA
Finally got my Swiss baby cleaned up enough for some photos. Still need to take some Nevrdull to the column, and a few other details. Cute, huh ?

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Note the pushbuttons at the end of each handwheel spoke...push in for power feed, push again to stop feed. Power column with raise with reseatable stops, quick change spindle..just raise it and tool pops out, tapping functions.

Fit and finish as good as it gets. One example, note how the Heidenhain scales are competely integrated into the table, rather than bolted on. Quill movement is absolute perfection...smooth as I've ever felt with perfect counterbalance and yet no perceptable play. A Moore jig borer quill, which is excellent, seems stiff and less balanced in comparison.

Sort of a tabletop jig borer that will also mill, drill and tap...with lightning fast tool changes.
 
So Don when are you going to quit playing with that cheap Swiss and German junk and buy you some nice grizzly products for sale. :D

That is a very nice machine, amazing how many features they can try to package in such a small looking machine. I do like the drill stops attached to the quill support. I see it also has a quill stop in the middle like most other machines. I suspect that is most usefull as a taping stop?

Thanks for shareing it with us and have fun with it. I really must stop by one day and check out your growing collection.

Charles
 
Hey looks kind of like my old mill drill! Right?
I'll always wonder if the Tawainese didn't get the basic idea for the mill/drill from these Fehlmanns. If so, the senario reminds me of what happened with Frank Lloyd Wright home designs. The ultimate for what they were but became immitated by the masses resulting in the ubiqutious "ranch" house blight of the 1950's and beyond. Inspired by the master, but the immitations were like going from as good as it gets, to as bad as it gets ;)

(now before any of you ranch home owners start getting riled, I owned one myself before moving to Beaufort. Called it my "brick mobile home" as once you got past the living room it was just straight hallway down the middle with rooms on each side. The carport roof was held up by one 4 x 4 at the corner :eek: )
 
Seeing stuff like this is starting make me think I should get rid of all my old junk and buy some pretty newer green German and Swiss machines?????? Very nice Don. I can't wait to see pictures of your shop when done..... maybe it will look like Breguet's new shop but for bigger stuff.
 
Don,
Now that is a neat machine. I've never even heard of one before. I'd probably have been looking for one had I known about it. Where did you get it? Also, what is something like that worth in today's market? Guess I've got another item to add to my dream shop. :)
Jack
 
Don,
Now that is a neat machine. I've never even heard of one before. I'd probably have been looking for one had I known about it. Where did you get it? Also, what is something like that worth in today's market? Guess I've got another item to add to my dream shop. :)
Jack
 
Jack, it came from a company in Charlotte, NC that made medical devices that had German parent company.

As to "worth", don't have anything to go on in the USA. Wouldn't surprise me if this is the only Picomax 50 in this country. Only other example for sale I'm aware of is in Switzerland. It's a few years older than mine (mine is 1986) with antique looking DRO and their price is $28,000.

Peter, very cool to see the Picomax 50 in a brochure photo, thanks. Looks a bit "elongated" though...is it that way in the brochure or your photo software distorted it a bit ? :confused:
 
There are at least 3 of those machines in my little village here (pop. 3000), perhaps the highest concentration per capita in the world!

Weirdest thing in moving to Switzerland is the normality of machines of that nature. Need a w-20 square collet for a special job? Shop two blocks over has one they'll loan you. Bed regrind for your 102? 10 minute walk to the grinding shop, yes, bring it in Monday- have it done in an hour, 100 bucks. Gonna miss it- moving to Prague soon. Any Czech machinists here??!

Stew
 
Don,
A further question for you. Are there any other small mills along this line? High quality, not the ever-present chinese stuff? Doesn't seem too likely to me that I'd ever run across one like yours, but I'd like to know if there's something similar I could keep my eyes open for. Wouldn't have to have all those features.
TIA,
Jack
 
Tien, it has recently occurred to me that your obtaining one of these would put you very close to being declared King of Euro Machine Tools on the Planet Earth ;)

I really should be dope slapped for ever selling that machine (about 4 years ago) It wasn't officially for sale but the guy saw it in my shop when he was picking up a Swedish drill press I sold on eBay and just "had" to have it and kept throwing money at me until I gave in. I've emailed him a few times recently about buying it back but he never responds.
 
Picomax 50... humhum... That's a very rare beast to get just "very close"
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I had a pretty serious lead on a P18S one or two years ago (sorta "Momma bear" in the Fehlman range), but hadn't the funds/space at the time.
Not that I have so much more of it now, but if Your Highness could lower the requirements to enter the King of Euro Machine Tools category a bit, I might be inspired to see what happened to it in the meantime.
 
Back from the dead...

Quill movement is absolute perfection...smooth as I've ever felt with perfect counterbalance and yet no perceptable play. A Moore jig borer quill, which is excellent, seems stiff and less balanced in comparison.

Sort of a tabletop jig borer that will also mill, drill and tap...with lightning fast tool changes.

Any details on the quill design, what made it so nice?
 
Back from the dead...



Any details on the quill design, what made it so nice?
I honestly don't know...I wonder if it had ball bearings in the quill sleeve somehow...I probably had a parts book back then but never bothered to look at the breakdown. I could buy this same machine back as the guy I sold it to has never used it....but he wants what he paid and he paid too much ! He has probably 10,000 sq ft of machines in storage he never uses, but won't sell either...a hoarder...
 








 
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