Buying a "new" machine Agie 100 (1987)

Buying a "new" machine Agie 100 (1987)

Hello everybody,
I have a Agie 200D that I use to cut steel for stamp press die mold (automotive industries). but now I found another machine to buy in my city (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) that the price is really cheap for the Brazilian market ($ 2400 USD). But the problem is, this machine according to the owner is with the monitor CRT damaged, he told me that this machine worked since July of 2019 (6 months stooped). Looking to the machine I can see that there are 2 water pumps missing, (the pump that fill the working area and the pump that send water to resin) to buy new pump I believe that this is not a big issue but I'm concerned with the monitor (or the "video" board) and about the possibility of this machine lost the firmware due the time stopped without energy.

Looking to the general machine condition, it better than my 200D and if I can put this machine to work again will be great for me. in the worst case I'm thinking about to use it to remove some spare parts to use in my actual machine.

What do you guys think about it? can be a good buy?

Thanks again for your help.

Hi claytonbraga:
You asked: "What do you guys think about it? can be a good buy?"

I don't believe this will be a good buy if you want to put the new machine back to work and here's why I believe this:
AGIE parts are stupidly expensive, and for such an old machine they are also very hard to get.
So you may not be able to fix it because parts cannot be found anywhere.
Never mind all the problems you'll have if the parameters are lost.
So getting it working again is unlikely unless you have a source for parts and unless you have a parameter backup that you know is good,

Buying it for parts; someone posted on Practical Machinist about a year or so ago, about selling old AGIE parts and nobody seemed to want them...not even AGIE rebuilders.
So unless the market is different in Brazil than it is in North America, I wouldn't be too hopeful.

If some AGIE 100 parts will fit on your AGIE 200, maybe you can justify buying it as a parts machine, but I have no idea if parts are interchangeable between those two models...find out for sure before you buy this new machine.

With the low likelihood that the machine will help you, I'd stay away from it.

Cheers

Marcus
Implant Mechanix • Design & Innovation > HOME
Vancouver Wire EDM -- Wire EDM Machining

Hello Marcus,

Thank you for your point of view, and for sure I will take it in consideration, my main concern is related to the firmware and parameters in case the machine lost it due the 6 months turned off. If is the case is possible to load it again? I believe that probably should load some eproms memory or something like that right?

In Brazil is really complicated to maintain these machine working, I just know one guy that perform the maintenance in Brazil and he is located 500 km of distance. Due this I'm forced to learn how to fix all the problems in my machine (I'm electronic engineer but just learning now how EDM works).

Related to the monitor issue, I think that one option is to try to use a LCD monitor (using a Board to convert the video signal to the atual VGA standard) and with a lot of lucky maybe can work again (if the issue is not on the video board.

One additional information is that fact that this machine comes with 2 additional generators that was used in another AGIE machines (maybe some power modules can be used in both machines (Agie 100 and 200D).

Anyway, sorry for the long message and any additional coments from the forum participants will be welcome

just my two cents. i have yet to see the agie that cant be fixed. software is hard coded on eproms not any hard drive tec is not on machine and has to be entered manually from a chart. parts are still available you have to know where to look. prices have come down alot as there may be more parts machines than running machines at this point.if you would rather have a D machine let me know.

agieman said:

just my two cents. i have yet to see the agie that cant be fixed. software is hard coded on eproms not any hard drive tec is not on machine and has to be entered manually from a chart. parts are still available you have to know where to look. prices have come down alot as there may be more parts machines than running machines at this point.if you would rather have a D machine let me know.

Click to expand...

Hello Agieman,

Good to "talk" again with you, (you helped me on another issue with my Agie 200D), for sure I prefer to have a D machine than this one,(do you have one to sell?) I just thinking to buy this machine because the price is very low ($ 2300) and some parts If I'm not wrong are common with my actual machine. In worst case I can use this machine to supply some parts to keep my 200D running.

If I understood well your message, if the machine lost the parameters/firmware is possible to load it again but it seems that is not easy operation right? what is the possibility of this machine lost the parameters in 6 months turned off?