garyhlucas
Stainless
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2013
- Location
- New Jersey
So I started a new job where my predecessor convinced the boss to buy some chinese automation because it was so cheap. He is gone and I get to make it work. First machine is a 2 axis CNC drill with 5 spindles configured as 3 tools on pneumatically operated slides on a Servo Z axis. This machine is 6 months old and was delivered with Weihong CNC controller running on chinese PC running a chinese version of Windows XP. Everything Windows related except the name of two folders and two files is in chinese. My predecessor knew nothing about CNC, wrote a drilling program for 104 holes using G0 and G1 only!
The plastic pipes we need to drill are held in 8 self centering clamps and I find out none are at the same height, in a straight line, centered on the spindles, and all the mounting holes are drilled in the wrong places and they filed out the holes to slots. One spindle is supposed to cut a flat and the flat is cupped because the spindle is tilted badly. Fixing it requires moving all the bolt hole in the mounting plate. All the pneumatic fittings leak like crazy because they tried to use teflon tape on O-ring face fittings.
I get it running better and the X axis rack gear servo motor plate falls off and shears off the X limit sensor. The bolts have just a couple of threads engaged. In fixing it I discover that the air valves are dangling on hoses up in the spindle and wires are just twisted together and taped. We pull the servo with precision gear reducer and the drive gear apparently had been cut off another shaft with an angle grinder at about a 30 degree angle and through one setscrew hole. They then pounded the gear onto the gear reducer without bothering to even deburr the grinder cut. Half the linear slide bearings go off the end of the rails at one end of travel. The machine is slow because they used one VFD with contactors on the output so they have to stop the spindles completely before switching. No safety limits anywhere. Forget to turn on air, lose air, or a bad valve the machine will simply smash all the tools and spindles.
If you think it was built to a price, it wasn't. They could have charged us double and delivered a well built machine and we would have been thrilled. They are called the Unique Drill Machine company, I think because no two parts on this machine are alike!
Second machine is a punch press punching a series of slots in long plastic plates. Two weeks ago one of the four guide posts simply broke off and upon taking it apart the ground plates were ground with a hand grinder and nothing was straight or square so all the shafts and bearings were completely wasted. We had the plates ground and new shafts made correctly. This past week the servo driving a conveyor sheared off the gear reducer shaft because the key was the wrong size. we took the other one apart to inspect it and found it ready to fail as well. This was from another company called Bogda, and again if it cost twice as much and was correctly built they would have been thrilled.
In another week two cutting machines are coming from Bogda. I've seen videos and can only cringe. In 3 weeks another drill is coming from Unique this one with 16 spindles! Again I have seen videos and can only cringe.
I guess it is good that I have a huge skill set and what looks like job security.
The plastic pipes we need to drill are held in 8 self centering clamps and I find out none are at the same height, in a straight line, centered on the spindles, and all the mounting holes are drilled in the wrong places and they filed out the holes to slots. One spindle is supposed to cut a flat and the flat is cupped because the spindle is tilted badly. Fixing it requires moving all the bolt hole in the mounting plate. All the pneumatic fittings leak like crazy because they tried to use teflon tape on O-ring face fittings.
I get it running better and the X axis rack gear servo motor plate falls off and shears off the X limit sensor. The bolts have just a couple of threads engaged. In fixing it I discover that the air valves are dangling on hoses up in the spindle and wires are just twisted together and taped. We pull the servo with precision gear reducer and the drive gear apparently had been cut off another shaft with an angle grinder at about a 30 degree angle and through one setscrew hole. They then pounded the gear onto the gear reducer without bothering to even deburr the grinder cut. Half the linear slide bearings go off the end of the rails at one end of travel. The machine is slow because they used one VFD with contactors on the output so they have to stop the spindles completely before switching. No safety limits anywhere. Forget to turn on air, lose air, or a bad valve the machine will simply smash all the tools and spindles.
If you think it was built to a price, it wasn't. They could have charged us double and delivered a well built machine and we would have been thrilled. They are called the Unique Drill Machine company, I think because no two parts on this machine are alike!
Second machine is a punch press punching a series of slots in long plastic plates. Two weeks ago one of the four guide posts simply broke off and upon taking it apart the ground plates were ground with a hand grinder and nothing was straight or square so all the shafts and bearings were completely wasted. We had the plates ground and new shafts made correctly. This past week the servo driving a conveyor sheared off the gear reducer shaft because the key was the wrong size. we took the other one apart to inspect it and found it ready to fail as well. This was from another company called Bogda, and again if it cost twice as much and was correctly built they would have been thrilled.
In another week two cutting machines are coming from Bogda. I've seen videos and can only cringe. In 3 weeks another drill is coming from Unique this one with 16 spindles! Again I have seen videos and can only cringe.
I guess it is good that I have a huge skill set and what looks like job security.