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Does anyone other than MC Machinery service Mitsubishi MD PRO III EDM machines?

Green0

Aluminum
Joined
Mar 19, 2017
We have a Mitusbishi EDM that we bought used. At the time we thought Fanuc made the best EDM and I still do. I knew a shop owner who bought one for 135K and I wanted to buy the same machine for the same price, but the same Fanuc dealer didn't want to give us the same price.

MC machinery has been really annoying to work with. They abuse people who buy the machines used, with an extortion fee they charge annually to give a customer the ability to purchase their over-priced service on the machines. (Platinum Club membership that provides no benefits)

Does anyone know a service provider in the mid-west (SE Wisconsin) area who can service the machines outside of MC machinery? I currently need all the batteries replaced and ball screws greased, and MC machinery wants a $1500 club fee before they charge their Per-diem, hourly, offsite travel, lodging and other fees for the battery replacement. Knowing MC Machinery they probably want $4000 to replace the batteries all said.

I'm getting the impression that sacking customers is the Mitsubishi EDM model. There is no affordable service call on this equipment.

This club is a really horrible marketing idea that makes customers into people who don't want the machines on the floor.
 
Not sure about the MD machines but I replace the batteries on all of our Mits machines. Its a pretty straight forward process.
 
Not sure about the MD machines but I replace the batteries on all of our Mits machines. Its a pretty straight forward process.

I think our batteries went dead a while ago. We were hoping to find a service tech who was third party so we could get off the crazy train with MC Machinery (the headquarters for mitsubishi EDM's in the USA in Chicago). They are regionally close, but we are hoping for someone like Ellison Technologies who can service machines for a typical industry rate of $150 an hour, without a club fee, high travel fees, per diem, lodging fees etc. It seems whatever a service call should cost, it costs about double or triple that with MC machinery.

The club fees are offensive. Nobody wants to be in a machine tool club. I've got 9 Doosans- some of them used, and I'm not in a Doosan club.
 
KWetzel Technical Service out of Minnesota

Web-site - K. Wetzel Technical Services, Inc.

Thanks for the advice, I will give them a call and see what they can do. I was referred another service this morning by a former MITS EDM machinist, and that service said MC Machinery was intentionally limiting access to parts to extort customers with the club fee, so they weren't able to help.

I will report back if KWetzel is able to help. I don't understand why MC Machinery doesn't realize how badly that plays with the customer- the concept of running up the billing beyond market rates like they don't care if the customers running the Mitsubishi machines are successful / profitable or not.
 
I feel I need to chime in on this. Speaking from someone who has purchased 6 Mitsubishi Sinker EDMs ( all used) and has happily paid the $1500 registration fee.


The service and support that MC Machinery provides via Email & Phone is absolutely second-to-none. Most of the time their responses come in 20-30 minutes. Incredible!
Wiring diagrams, Detailed instruction, Trouble shooting steps, etc is just some of the few things they provide on the spot to help trouble shoot issues.

To me and many others the $1500 fee paid many years ago is definitely well worth it.
 
$1500? Wow, and I was annoyed at Takisawa wanting $300 to register my machine so I could by a lousy encoder belt. I told them to pound sand, common off the shelf parts from OEM's are usually ridiculously over priced anyway. Even if it would save a lot of time over the long run I won't pay the $300 out of principal.
 
For the record, AgieCharmilles phone support is still free. Most machines are still supported but not all. There are still some old timers willing to talk about the really old machines but you have to know who they are. They strive for 100% live response but it is a work in progress. If you have a machine that is purchased used from them or not they will still help you. I think Makino is the same as well. I'm unsure about Sodick.
 
I feel I need to chime in on this. Speaking from someone who has purchased 6 Mitsubishi Sinker EDMs ( all used) and has happily paid the $1500 registration fee.


The service and support that MC Machinery provides via Email & Phone is absolutely second-to-none. Most of the time their responses come in 20-30 minutes. Incredible!
Wiring diagrams, Detailed instruction, Trouble shooting steps, etc is just some of the few things they provide on the spot to help trouble shoot issues.

To me and many others the $1500 fee paid many years ago is definitely well worth it.


We paid it under a manufacturing agreement with another company on our ONE machine that we had proof we paid for (we provided that proof at one point and after a lot of stressful and unnecessary advocating for ourself they once waived it for a service call. They currently forgot and it appears they want us to pay it again and it is now on the invoice as a 12 month term. I feel like we've just been harassed with the fees. It's the third time they are asking to be paid, they waived it once, recognizing we did formerly pay the old fee which was described as a one time fee, and this would be the second time that we've paid it- it's garbage total garbage to be treating customers like that. This one is making me feel like I need a third party provider or I'm just dealing with a mafia that will try to exploit my company on a continual basis.

I don't have a phone contact at MC Machinery. When we have called it has seemed tough to get ahold of people for help. When they have showed up, service fees per hour have exceeded Mazak, Yama Seiki, Doosan, and Hurco on account of multiple extra daily fees put on top of hourly.

They invoice market this club like it's a savings event. $1500 towards a discount on replacing the batteries and greasing the UV screws- it's like they think customers are mentally deficient. Very insulting. They didn't actually even quote the work we asked for, they quoted a XXpoint inspection, and I'm reading that as the batteries, homing, and greasing the screws we actually need would be over that $2400 base fee with 2 undesired days on site to do the unrequested inspection service.
 
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$1500? Wow, and I was annoyed at Takisawa wanting $300 to register my machine so I could by a lousy encoder belt. I told them to pound sand, common off the shelf parts from OEM's are usually ridiculously over priced anyway. Even if it would save a lot of time over the long run I won't pay the $300 out of principal.

Agreed 100%. It's appears to be extortion, and it's embarrassing for a company to have that stupid of a policy. It takes a company that had some opinion they could be a solution provider, and it offends that company and forces them to reconsider that opinion. I'm actually considering having a company sell the machine for me if we can't figure out how to support it without being extorted. What does that do for MC machinery? To have one of their current customers buy a used machine instead of a new one?

I've spent ~$15000 in service on that Mitsubishi EDM machine, it's in good repair, and has run very few hours for us. It's upside down in cost to profit to the tune of $93,000 with rigging, and they don't think that's insulting enough- they want to stab and twist. Their executives know how we feel, they obviously don't care to put themselves in the shoes of a customer and think what that's like. If you can't make a customer happy, you're limiting your own success. I'm dissapointed to feel like we keep coming up on the same issue with MC Machinery, just trying to get to a place where we can affordably service the machine and we are 2 hour drive from their headquarters in Illinois. <This played big in the purchasing decision- with our expectation of locality helping with service.

I called Ellison/Doosan today, they are quoting us ~half a million in new machines we'll buy if we can source another turning settup guy or settup assistance / operator who can actually hack it in the 25-30/hour range + benefits. We have so many of their turning machines efficiently nocking out jobs 24 hours a day, that we can't expect to utilize another without another day settup guy. Ellison and Doosan treats us with respect and we appreciate it and reciprocate.
 
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For the record, AgieCharmilles phone support is still free. Most machines are still supported but not all. There are still some old timers willing to talk about the really old machines but you have to know who they are. They strive for 100% live response but it is a work in progress. If you have a machine that is purchased used from them or not they will still help you. I think Makino is the same as well. I'm unsure about Sodick.


With Doosan, Hurco, and Mazak, phone support is also free. With Yama Seiki I don't know because I've never owned a used YSI machine. The Doosans we have 2 used, 7 new and our first was a used machine, and they were free then. Hurco our only machine is used and their phone support is free. The Mazak the same as the Hurco.

It makes sense to support used, because the new customers eventually have to sell the machines, and that supports the resale value so that the original customers have money to spend on new equipment. I don't plan to run my Doosans into the ground, I plan to sell them at a point when they are around 7-10 years old or ~10-15,000 hours, and get new Doosans.
 
I got another contact in Michigan, we're going to send them an RFQ tomorrow to see if they can service the machine.

MC machinery never replied to our e-mail when we requested they remove the platinum club and the 175 point inspection and instead quote all battery replacement, UV screw greasing, and re-homing the machine.

I don't have any problem getting our other machine builders and their support networks to quote actual specific work.
 
Hi Green0, just to change batteries is pretty simple just with machine powered on, no need to be on ready mode just change them, wait 10 min, make reference XYZ and shut off completely the machine monitor + generator and power on machine again (in this case you can do it if there's no servo alarm).

If it's the case that you have a servo alarm PR0025 it means battery is empty and the ready cannot be pushed on, just change battery with machine powered on and wait the 10 min, shut off machine completely monitor + generator and power on machine again, you should have please ref.return the axis where you changed the battery then perform reference.

Regards.
 
Hi Green0, just to change batteries is pretty simple just with machine powered on, no need to be on ready mode just change them, wait 10 min, make reference XYZ and shut off completely the machine monitor + generator and power on machine again (in this case you can do it if there's no servo alarm).

If it's the case that you have a servo alarm PR0025 it means battery is empty and the ready cannot be pushed on, just change battery with machine powered on and wait the 10 min, shut off machine completely monitor + generator and power on machine again, you should have please ref.return the axis where you changed the battery then perform reference.

Regards.


We had batteries go and couldn't get them replaced before a brown out so it was needing to be re-homed.

We were able to eventually get MC Machinery to quote what we originally asked for and they came out. I think servo batteries, re-homing, and grease cost in the mid $2000 range. It would be cool if they let their local resellers service. I know we'd have better communication, and get a better deal, and we'd be by default be working with and thus be able to have a relationship with Concept Machine Tool that way which I think would be better for all three companies.

I don't think machine tool builders understand how important those local relationships are.

Nakamura (Methods) left Concept and went direct and I don't quite understand it because they are probably more isolated from customers now than before.
 
i do believe Ellison represents Gf in your neck of the woods. The head of the EDM division is former service guy who has climbed the ranks. Because old Agies don't die it got to be crazy trying to support 40 year old machines, 20 year old machines no problem still supported without any registration fee.
 
HI Green 0,

WHAAAAAAT??? 2000 for changing batteries and do home and put a little grease on ballscrew??? 2000 for 1/2 hour if it reaches??? Unbelievable.

Regards.
 
I got another contact in Michigan, we're going to send them an RFQ tomorrow to see if they can service the machine.

MC machinery never replied to our e-mail when we requested they remove the platinum club and the 175 point inspection and instead quote all battery replacement, UV screw greasing, and re-homing the machine.

I don't have any problem getting our other machine builders and their support networks to quote actual specific work.
I'm in Grand rapids, fo you mind sharing the contact you got for Michigan. These storms messed up a machine and Mc machinery has been little help.
 








 
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