Whats up with this MAHO?

[Martin P]

http://cgi.ebay.com/MAHO-MH-1000-C-K...DLVI%26ps%3D54

What is that Indramat control for and what is that huge rod on the right side?

The multi-spindle head is sorta cool and I did not know MAHO had one. 5 spindles! Deckel had 3.

Interesting machine, but something seems off.
Wouldn't that thing have an enclosure? The goofy antenna thing on the left top is probably a sensor for the auto-head?
Milacron, professional evaluation please?

[Kees]

I think it's an early 80's machine but wow look at that video:already at that time an auto-universal spindle!I didn't know that.I could image that even at this age this mill still could be intresting for someone because of that.
However the dealer is not aware of the crisis yet considering the asking price.

[Mud]

The antenna looks like a limit switch, maybe to sense a tool in the spindle when the head swings like you suggested. Could that extra control be to control the 5 spindles independently?

[Martin P]

I see now that it says "Indramat Electronic 3-D copying control" at the bottom of the page. That may explain the remnants of that attachment on the side, but I still do not quite get it. An electro-mechanical copying attachment/tracer? Seller should provide more information there.
Machine appears to be in pretty good shape. Non-functioning I'd assess it at just above zero $, but working as it does I have no clue. General tactic seems to be to hang on to stuff at high prices and wait for that one miraculous buyer (the EBay "Kandu" tactic).

[Milacron]

Rohner is another one of those dealers that totally mystifies me. How they sell *anything* *ever* is beyond my comprehension. If I owned that same Maho, the most I could get of it is maybe $5,000. It's just way too large for the home shop or small shop crowd, but way too old for any serious business...and no tool changer.

Rohner also has a non running 1981 Deckel FP3A, which I wanted to buy the universal table off of but he refused to sell it seperate as he thinks once the FP3A is fixed it will be worth big bucks. I tried to tell him the machine itself even if running perfectly is nearly worthless, that only the table has some value...but he would hear none of it.

[AlfaGTA]

Photos from a 1981 sales document...sorry about the pictures....no scanner that is working at the moment.






Not the same machine but appears to be a similar setup.....

Cheers Ross

[Milacron]

Originally Posted by AlfaGTA

Photos from a 1981 sales document...sorry about the pictures....no scanner that is working at the moment.
Not the same machine but appears to be a similar setup.....

Wow...that's neat that you have that "document". But the print is too small and sideways for me to read. But since you can read it...is the theory that you trace complex parts and then the coordinates are held in the CNC control such that subsequent tracing of future parts is not necessary ?

Bet that was the cat's meow in 1981 and caused alot of drooling at trade shows but now is worth almost nothing...

[AlfaGTA]

Yes, a bad presentation...but that was the best i could do at the time.

Text says nothing about storing the program from the tracing. Get the idea that the machine can run as a full 3 or 4 axis machine under CNC control...can also run it as a tracer mill using a model and electronic tracer unit. Looks as though the control might provide a movement grid for the tracer over the model.
Says also that you can run the tracer by hand as well.....

Cheers Ross

[Martin P]

Totally interesting picture Ross. Re-looking the auction I only now see the side table mounted on the right to carry the pattern. This also explains the 5 spindle head, one trace making 5 parts.
Totally slack by the seller not to explain any of this.
Ross, I need a decent scan of those pages for my web site when convenient.

[AlfaGTA]

Martin;
I could almost see that machine being of use in my world....using old parts as a pattern and copying them...replicating castings and the like. Most likely not easily setup or used.
Used to have a hydraulic tracer on one of my engine lathes...nice setup , integrated with the machine and all, but a real pain to setup and use to get any parts that were the correct shape and size. Romi does it so much easier and quicker and makes things dead on size.

The machine from the sales folder is of course earlier with much dumber control i think. Says that the machine can be had with either a contouring or a point to point control. You know the strange point to point control which has the CRT and a million buttons while the "contouring" control has 4 readout windows on the panel and no CRT with about a third the buttons that are present on the point to point unit......

Cheers Ross