I was heading up to a local machine tool dealer to look at a demo machine they were planning to change out for a new one. About a year old, 600 on hours, 30 cutting hours.
10 minutes before I get there I get a call "yeah, you probably shouldn't come up, we crashed it..."
Well hell, I was only 10 minutes away, so I went anyway. Seems sales guy and apps guy were running a demo piece without taking the vise handle off. So they managed to bend both doors, break a weld on the sheet metal of the door, bend both tracks the doors run on and also bend the front sheet metal the tracks attach to. The vise was off center so I have some concern whether they knocked the table out of alignment too, but I haven't checked yet. On the one hand this is a machine with 40mm ball screws, so probably it didn't hurt the screw. On the other hand this is a machine with 5hp axis motors so maybe it did. Sounded okay but who knows. Would have a new warranty, but those don't necessarily cover crash damage.
They're sure they can fix it. I feel like it probably won't be quite right afterwards, but everything is worth something.
This is a machine that street price with options is about 125, before it crashed I was about 90% sure I would buy it as a demo machine at the offered 110. Assuming they bend it back rather than replace the doors, tracks and covers, now what's it worth? I'm feeling 100, but maybe I am being to hard on them or pessimistic.
On the other hand, they did put a handle though the door, which is the VMC version of leaving the lathe handle in the chuck...
10 minutes before I get there I get a call "yeah, you probably shouldn't come up, we crashed it..."
Well hell, I was only 10 minutes away, so I went anyway. Seems sales guy and apps guy were running a demo piece without taking the vise handle off. So they managed to bend both doors, break a weld on the sheet metal of the door, bend both tracks the doors run on and also bend the front sheet metal the tracks attach to. The vise was off center so I have some concern whether they knocked the table out of alignment too, but I haven't checked yet. On the one hand this is a machine with 40mm ball screws, so probably it didn't hurt the screw. On the other hand this is a machine with 5hp axis motors so maybe it did. Sounded okay but who knows. Would have a new warranty, but those don't necessarily cover crash damage.
They're sure they can fix it. I feel like it probably won't be quite right afterwards, but everything is worth something.
This is a machine that street price with options is about 125, before it crashed I was about 90% sure I would buy it as a demo machine at the offered 110. Assuming they bend it back rather than replace the doors, tracks and covers, now what's it worth? I'm feeling 100, but maybe I am being to hard on them or pessimistic.
On the other hand, they did put a handle though the door, which is the VMC version of leaving the lathe handle in the chuck...