Injection molding machine, boy 30m questions

Just bought a low hour 1993 vintage boy 30m molding machine.

Anyone have the manuals? Any one run one? Comments, things I should inspect?

I built molds for a shop in the late 80`s and we had three of the little boy presses,, I thing they were like 18 or 20 ton machines ,, we ran the hell out of them and they were easy to setup and run but even at that time they were kinda hard to get parts for ,,, I looked at a couple a few years ago but they had been ran HARD ,, I found a Newberry 80 ton that is like new and pre-computer ... there should me manuals on ebay for them? but for the most part there just a glue gun on one end and a hydraulic press on the other end ..

look up PCS-company.com and and make mold bases your self and for the most part you can just make up a stock pile of small 6"x8" hot and cold side plates with your 1/2" alignment pins and then make some injector pin front plates and you can reuse your front and back plates that bolt on the machine and your standoffs and even your injector rear plate ...

once you get your head wrapped around molding you well find its really simple and fun ,,,

I worked with a 1991 200 ton VanDorn that the company I worked for bought new. It was between simple hydraulics and computer-controlled, something to avoid like the plague if buying used. Computer controls opened up processing variables a lot, very good to have. Kind of like comparing a Fanuc 3000 vs a 6 with a crt control, which would you want? For those that don't know the 3000 didn't have G41/G42, you had to use G45-G48 for comp, among other shortcomings. With the VanDorn the only things that went wrong, other than a logic card that never was fixed, were barrel band heaters, check valves on the end of the screw, and occasionally a screw because we ran a lot of glass-filled plastic.

How much experience do you have running molding machines?

No experience. Have an old aquantence with a lot. But have not been able to get hold of him. He has not only run them but setup and mold maintenance and light repair.

I bought a used Boy 15-S (IIRC) of the same vintage about ten or twelve years ago, and found the staff at their US office quite helpful. I needed to replace the factory supplied shut-off nozzle with a conventional nozzle, and had no problems getting factory parts. Can't say anything about later than that, as the machine has been absolutely trouble free. Give them a shout at Dr. Boy Spritzgiessautomaten :: Contact /Inquiry to Dr. Boy for sales, export, applications technology, after sales service, service. Injection moulding machine, injection moulding, plastic, distributors, Germany, Europe, World and see if they can't supply manuals.

Dennis