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CNC Machine inspections

1960mog

Plastic
Joined
Sep 13, 2017
Location
Las Vegas, NV, USA
Hi
I would like to buy a used CNC lathe.
Someone offered me a machine that is located in Michigan however, I live in Nevada.
Is there any service or qualified people, that I could hire to inspect this machine before I buy it.

Thanks
Tom
 
I have to say that the best way to is buy a bargain plane ticket, book a reservation at a Motel 6 or similar and have a look yourself. That's what I did.
 
Depending on location a qualified service tech with knowledge of the machine and inspection equipment will charge anywhere from $250-$1500 just to show up. Then you are looking at $100-$150 an hour on top of that. On some machines components that should be visually inspected are easy to get to on others they are not. Depending on the machine I would say a decent inspection would take 4-8 hours and that guarantees nothing other than the iron isn't completely worn out and the machine wasn't stored outside in extreme weather.

How about some more details? Where exactly is the machine located? What is the year make, model, controller and asking price? If it is off the beaten path rigging it out could also be pricey. You could get lucky and find a member here who knows that machine like the back of his hand and is close to it, and will check it out for a reasonable price.
 
Thanks Douglas
This will be my first CNC machine.
It is for hobby use only.
I do not have the knowledge to do the inspection myself.

For a hobby situation where you're going to have to dive into it and fix stuff eventually anyways, if it's cheap enough, it's usually worth buying site unseen as long as the seller can send you a video of it running (jogging all axes, indexing the turret, seeing the spindle run, tailstock in/out). The money you spend flying out there to look at it is probably better spent on rigging and repair, and you can always part it out or resell it to another home shop guy if you realize you're in over your head.

This is unlike a shop situation where you don't have time to go through it once it's on the floor, it has to be done before the purchase.
 








 
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