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Target Tool and Machine, my shop story

The Delta 10 was different than the system 10. I don't think they made a lot of Delta 10s. The Delta 20 took over pretty quickly.

I know Tree used the A2100 on a few machines. You see them on ebay from time to time. Those would be 95-96 and at the very end of Tree.

Edit:

Just looked on ebay and found a 98 machine. I guess my dates were off.

Another Edit:

Apparently Dynapath is now owned by a Taiwanese company.
 
If you find a 2100 machine before '98, let me know.
I'll be surprised.

I'm sure that Acramatic didn't get sold off until at least '98.
I never heard of a 2100 on anything other than a Cinci as long as Cinci owned Acramatic.
I don't know it for gospel, so would like to hear if otherwise.


"The guy" at Dynapath seemed to think that the new aquisition was a good thing for Dynapath, as the new owners were supposedly "CNC control people".



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I am Ox and I approve this h'yah post!
 
Well, I thought this repair was going a little too well. Lost a prox switch for the gear shift cylinder. The original reed switch is obsolete so I replaced it with a solid state version. Watch the video for more info and some helpful hints on why I chose a PNP style switch over a NPN.

 
Hey Wes,

I might be off on this and it could just be me but I've noticed that a good portion your post and the threads you reply to lately have had something to do with fixing machine tools of all varieties. You appear to be a pretty knowledgeable about NC and manual machines both.

In your scrapping thread you mentioned doing it for the customer.

I have for a little while now been kinda wondering if the rebuilding, refurbishing and repair was just an interest you are playing with on the side or are you taking off in a new direction as far a your shop is concerned? Just wondering. Later...

Brent
 
Brent,

You are a keen observer. Yes I have been doing some machine repair work for hire. I really like it.

I have no formal training in machine tool repair. I did work as a mechanic when I was in college, but I worked on semi trucks and other things with diesel engines. At my last real job we had an ace in-house repair guy so I never really did any repair work for them.

When I started the shop I had no money. So, I bought what I could afford. As you can see, that usually means machines that need some TLC. I bought them cheap and tried to make them go. Some have required more work than others. Buying broken machines and fixing them yourself is a fantastic way to learn how to fix them. If you need them to work to make money, you are pretty motivated.

I think I have learned as much about fixing machine tools in the last 6 or so years as I have about any other aspect of the business. It turns out I'm pretty good at it. It also turns out I like doing it more than I like running the machines...

Here is a run down of repair projects:

Tree J325:
New switches on the control panel. Y axis thrust bearings and re-balled the ball nut. Replaced spindle bearings.

Haas VF-3:
Tool changer carousel bearings. Orientation collar and shot pin. New spring washers in the draw bar. Had the spindle drive rebuilt. Replaced the DC power supply. New way cover wipers.

Mazak Slant Turn 15:
Major alignment including turret coupling, turret to X axis, head stock, and tail stock. Replaced the whole tailstock with a used unit (previous owner had torn out the hydraulics and made it manual). Replaced all the lube metering units. Hacked in some relays to allow bar pulling.

Tree VMC 1260:
Major rebuild of the way covers including spot welding new wipers and heat shrinking, straightening, and welding the covers (it has 8 covers :crazy:). New X axis thrust bearing. New servo drive contactor. Various pneumatic solenoids replaced. New spindle belts and cleaned up rusty pulleys. Recently did the spindle gear shift yoke as seen in the video above.

Mori SL20:
Turret coupling was packed full of crap. I bought it cheap because it would not hold size. It was easy to see why. Lined up the head stock and turret. I think that's it. Solid machine.

Bridgeport Romi PowerPath 15 (not shown in this thread):
Replaced entire 486 control computer. Rebuild the dynamic braking controller (board level repair). We'll see what else it needs when I get a chance to run it.

Tatung Grinder:
Hydraulic feed was all jacked up. Would not reverse table and would over travel. Spent about a week fighting it. Finally made a PLC logic truth table and narrowed it down to 1 wire that was not connected to ground :willy_nilly:. Seller had no idea it wasn't working right :liar:.

Victoria Drill Press:
Straightened bent spindle. Replaced stripped helical gears on the motor with a set of spur gears. Fixed power feed clutch.

Engine Lathe:
Replaced safety switch in the electrical cabinet. Repaired feed clutch. Fixed foot brake.

I'm sure there is more. I've owned at least 8 CNC machines now and never called in a service guy.

I like the machine repair side of our industry and I definitely see things headed more that way. The problem is I have gotten so wound up in production machining that I can't really cut that off.
 
You are a keen observer. Yes I have been doing some machine repair work for hire. I really like it.

< snippage >

I like the machine repair side of our industry and I definitely see things headed more that way. The problem is I have gotten so wound up in production machining that I can't really cut that off.

ewlsey - You might consider finding a way to let the shop run itself under the keen eye of a trusted employee, and get in touch with Bourn and Koch about doing service work for them. Just a thought from when I was there to take Richard's scraping class. I have a feeling that you might enjoy that kind of partnership. Good luck, whatever direction you find the winds blowing you!
 
Tree VMC 1260:
Major rebuild of the way covers including spot welding new wipers and heat shrinking, straightening, and welding the covers (it has 8 covers :crazy:).


The longer the travel - the more that you need to fold up the covers on the ends. The fewer pcs in the mix = more real estate required for longer covers. But everyone is looking at the O'all dimensions required for the new machine when buying, and most will take the smaller foot print when everything else is the same.

You have reminded us why some have the bigger foot print for the same "machine".

You're not going to walk on the covers of the enclosed vertical mill (like you would a boring mill) so not sure why the roll up type isn't more popular?



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I am Ox and I approve this h'yah post!
 
Ox, I don't mean 8 sections, I mean 8 individual way covers. The X covers are just like any machine, but in Y, they have 3 separate covers on front and back. There is a cover for each way and one in the middle for the screw. Newer machines had a one-piece design.

The Z is a roll up design and works well.

The problem with this machine is that they wanted to squeeze 25" of Y travel into a regular C frame machine and still keep the overall depth under 8'6" so it's legal to go down the road. The result is that the table is about 3" from the front wall of the enclosure at full Y travel. If chip get piled up on the way covers (it's a 50 taper beast so that doesn't take long) they get crushed between the table and the enclosure when the Y goes to full travel. After enough crushing cycles the way cover get pushed down and packed full of chips.

The better design would be to only have the table move in X and have the Y motion in the head using a bridge or ram for the spindle. That's how Okuma does it.
 








 
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