Sometimes things just fall into your lap... quite literally. This is one of those 1 in a million situations. I have always wanted an Aciera F1 but could not justify their price. The closest I came to buying one was a sad thing for me. I was out of work when a tool dealer acquaintance had one. It was pristine and completely tooled. But alas, I elected to pass due to my employment situation. Shortly thereafter I landed a job again but the machine had sold the day before.

About 5 months ago I ran into a gentleman to whom I had sold a good amount of Levin lathe tooling several years ago. I was in an electronics surplus store with my son when we saw him shopping too. He is an extremely nice guy and I knew he had 2 Acieras that he had picked up in LA (one went to a friend). During our talk I asked if he still had them and he said he did and that he would probably be getting rid of one. I casually said that if he ever really decided to get rid of the extra one that I might be interested. I knew it wasn't complete but that was fine.

Fast forward to today. I got a call during dinner from the gentleman. He asked when my son's birthday was, which kind of confused me. I tend to keep information fairly close so I couldn't figure out why he was asking, but he has always been a true gentleman. We talked a bit more and then he said that the other Aciera was in his way and he wanted to get rid of it. He didn't really know how to deal with shipping it anywhere and it wasn't complete either... He then said that he would like to give it to my son as a birthday present if I could come over soon and pick it up. 20 minutes later I was over there loading up the machine. To my surprise, it really looks like a lot nicer machine than I had expected it would be (based on his comment). He has converted it to a DC spindle and did a top notch job of putting the speed control inside the base. And it has the dividing head on it already... The only thing it really seems to be missing (on first blush) is the horizontal table and attachment that allows you to mount the spindle in the vertical orientation. I was stunned!

I shall post photos later. In the interim, does anyone have accessories or parts for an Aciera F1 that are surplus to their needs?

I cannot say enough of the gentleman. I'm trying to figure out how to do something very nice for him!

Alan

That sounds like a good guy to know!

You will likely be able to gather up most of the accessories over time. One that I doubt very much you'll find is the vertical head adaptor. I have never, ever, seen one for sale on its own. That would be a good candidate for pouring a few and machining them up, as you could very likely sell enough to make a profit .

Good deal except it's a shame your son will own it soon, and not you. Are you going to wrap it up and put a bow on it ?

Well, technically I have to let both my kids 'own' it, whatever that technically means (they own the whole garage! I'm not going to be selling this stuff so when I die it will all be theirs... and the house to put it in!). It would not be fair to just give it to my son. He understands this.

Screwmachine:
Yes, I was thinking this. The donor actually had a table cast because he couldn't find one. It was very nice. I was thinking of making several pieces as he has the originals so I could make good wood plugs using his as templates. Maybe a reason to try that vibration stress relieving that Ross used.

Alan

Alan

You might want to try G & M tools in the UK for the horizontal to vertical piece. The last time I was there they had a bunch of Aciera bits and pieces and you might luck out.

Todd

Nice catch,
I don't know wether I have the right piece in mind but I read in an article in the horological Journal about a vertical quill. It looks like it's an adapter for the horizontal quill with the motor attached.
It was very rare and the author ( J Malcolm Wild) was involved in the making of 10 replica's of the item



Let me know if you want the article.

Yoyo,
Yes, I found that article last night. It was very well done and interesting. I was planning on contacting the author, if possible. I have to figure out how to do this though.

As for G&M... Yep, they are on my list too. Thanks for the suggestion though!

--Alan

Alan:

To contact j. Malcolm Wild try:

www.j-m-w.co.uk




Todd

most of us figure out too late that in life that what goes around comes around.
He will receive much more than the value of the machine.As we do not
know the age of your son as well,perhaps this machine may stir his interest in to the
mechanical world.Random acts of kindness make our day.

Todd: thanks... I'll contact Mr. Wild.

Keith: I have a son and daughter who are 13/14 respectively. They both thoroughly enjoy going out in the shop with me. One of my pet peeves is that kids today only know how to play video games. My goal has always been to inspire them and show them how things actually work. So we work on projects together. We've made a few steam engines, etc. My daughter decided she wants to make a skeleton clock so I'm getting material now (never done a clock). We (intentionally) have never had broadcast TV or cable, so we generally spend our time in our house playing games, talking, reading or working here and there (for example, in the shop). It might not be for everyone, but it was a decision that worked very well for us and I could not be happier that we chose this approach.

So, the kids think it is totally cool to have this little machine.

I have one Levin thing left over. If it were not bastardized, it would be worth a fair chunk of money. It is a tailstock drilling attachment (powered, not the indexed version). Someone converted it to work as a headstock (?????) so I need to make some parts for it to get it in the correct orientation. I've been dragging my feet on the project because it just isn't that important. I think I shall now call the gentleman up who gave me the Aciera and offer the project to him. I feel I must do something.

Alan

Home and Workshop Machinery in the UK have a vertical milling head with support that looks like it might do. I'm pretty sure it's not an Aciera item, but it's very similar. It's the Milling Head in their "Miscellaneous" section. Expensive, though, at £245 for "as is". Apart from that, someone in the UK who specialises in Aciera and similar Swiss machinery is David Samways of Anglo-Swiss Tools. He might be able to help you.
Gordon

Being sort of a hyperactive little kid growing up in the seventies what my dad did to placate us was to give us free reign with his tools and encouraged any and all projects such as modifying our mustang type bicycles and playing around with our old garden tractor, chainsaw ( yes supervised of course ) mini bikes ( CT-70 ) letting me wash his K10 Blazer, old lawnmowers, old hand me down snowmoblies ( changed rings on a Bombardier 370 2 cyl Nodric on my own at 15 yo ) and just playing around in the woods and being relitavely free. ( we lost our mom young ) Mind you those were different simpler times.

Anything hands on, but I can see the challenge now getting them outside thanks to computers and the like. I'm single but still I can relate being a 45 year old shop owner / kid. Anyhow good job on getting the mill in there for them !

Hugh

That's actually a Sixis head, which is almost like Aciera but not close enough to work on an F1. Sixis beefed the whole assembly up from what Aciera did.

Alan,
It wouldn't bee too hard to fabricate the right-angle adapter as a stress-relieved weldment or a doweled assembly, or even hog it out of solid dura-bar. You'd have to do some careful turning and single-point boring, followed by lapping and/or honing to get the fits, but it wouldn't be rocket science.
RKlopp

Alan:
Nice little story. Seems there are two nice guys in the exchange. As Keithmech points out what comes around ...seems you got a bit back from being the good person you are...Anyhow good score and i hope you enjoy the machine.
Cheers Ross

Ross.... Thanks! It is the cutest little thing and I couldn't be happier for our whole family. If only I could figure out how to wedge it into my garage! At present it is *still* sitting in the back of my car. That is the main reason I haven't posted photos yet, but I shall try to do so soon.

One thing that I think is very appealing about the F1 is that the accessories are all very manageable to make oneself. I can easily see how this could be a labor of love as a long term project. As I was bike riding to work this morning, I was thinking about different ways to do this. Rich brought up a very utilitarian but perfectly fine way to do the right angle adapter. The only thing I don't like about that approach is that, although functional, it is out of character with the machine. So casting seems to be the best way to go. Heck, just making the wooden plugs could be a lot of fun. So I may be plugging you (pun intended) on what one takes into consideration when designing plugs. For instance, do you scale up the part to take into consideration shrinkage? I'm sure all of this is out there in books, but I'd be interested in hearing more from you.

One of the great things is that the gentleman that gave the machine to me has most/all of the accessories. He is not adverse to letting me take as many measurements as needed to create plugs. So I will probably borrow them one by one and model them. This sounds like just the time to finally learn parametric modeling versus traditional drafting.

Alan

Alan - FYI the "plugs" are called "patterns" in the foundry industry.

Yep... Actually knew that but have been calling them plugs for some reason.... Don't know why! Anyhow, thanks for the head's up.

Alan

More fun than doing castings and patterns is to generate the 3-D profile programs and run them on a Deckel FP3NC.......best of both worlds.

If you have original parts often one can make a very acceptable pattern using bondo on an original part to add machining allowance and draft where needed..fill holes and add material to areas where shrinkage would be a problem.
Do this fairly often here on original parts. The bondo is easily removed after the job is run so no harm no foul...well sometimes the paint might suffer.
Cheers Ross

LOL.... Good one, Ross.... Too bad I don't have an FP3NC... Wait, I kind of do! Wait, I kind of don't.... Wait, it is a Siemens anyhow so...

As for your pattern... I was thinking of just what you are saying. However, my goal was not to directly create a pattern but, instead, to create a mold from which I could make patterns (kind of like lost wax). The main reason for this is that I want to avoid damaging the parts. Clearly that would not be looked favorably on by the owner. If they were mine it would be a different story but I cannot damage his tools. So I was thinking of spraying mold release on the originals and making rubber molds. The only problem is that I wouldn't have any shrinkage.

Alan