This thing has kept me completely occupied for the last 4-5 weeks, taking me off my plans for getting the high riser engine together in May and ensuring a big thrash to get two motors together and into cars in order to make Drag Week this year. But I got a pretty good deal on this machine, and the market for machine tools seems to be really hot right now, so I figured I'd better grab it when I had the chance. The machine was in Tulsa OK and had just come out of a production shop, so it hadn't been cleaned up or anything. It also needed some minor repairs, some paint work, new glass, etc. But the price was right so after driving to Tulsa at the end of May to look at it, I bought it and made arrangements to get it up to my shop in Minnesota.
Due to the Memorial Day holiday I was not able to arrange a truck to get the machine moved until the first week in June. Then it had to be delivered to a local rigger, because the machine had to be taken apart on top in order to fit into my shop. It took me a week to get the service guy out to the riggers, and when he got out there he couldn't get the machine hooked up to power, so he left the job unfinished! (That's the last time I'll hire that company). Fortunately the rigger new a guy who could disassemble the machine for a nominal cost so he set that up for me, and a week and a half ago Thursday the rigger showed up at my place with two semis, one carrying the machine and the other carrying the fork lift. After unloading the fork lift and then picking up the machine, they stopped in the driveway to reposition the fork lift and I got this picture:
Here's a shot inside the garage showing the spot for the machine in the right rear corner:
The rigging crew helped me push the Shelby clone into the driveway so it was out of the way and the machine could be moved in. Here's a closer look at the corner where the machine is installed, and also a shot of my 20 HP 3 Phase converter:
After some jockeying around the crew got the machine pushed through the garage door opening, with the column centered on the notch I had put into the beam over the door. Not much room there. That is one big fork lift LOL!
After getting it in the door, the crew set the machine down and then put it on some low profile rollers to move it into position. I was amazed at how easy that process was; the machine rolled right into position. After a little final jockeying around, they set the machine down in its final position, loaded up the fork lift, and took off. I guess anything is possible with the right equipment.
Last weekend I spent the whole weekend cleaning up and painting the machine. I vacuumed two complete 16 gallon shop vacs of chips out of the machine, from inside, underneath, on top, etc. Also everything was covered in some kind of coolant residue, and that stuff had to be scrubbed off. I was pleasantly surprised though about the condition of some of the machine components after the chips and grime had been removed. For example, the control panel had looked like crap when I got it, but a little household cleaner and it cleaned up and looked almost new. The paint on the outside of the machine on the sides and back was also real nice, but the paint on the front was pretty shot. This machine has four plexiglass windows in the front, originally installed with a rubber seal on each window, kind of a like a rear window is installed in an old car or pickup. Unfortunately the seals had been leaking, and there was rust around every front window as a result. I pulled out all the plexiglass and the doors of the machine, cleaned everything up and ground down all the rust, and then painted the doors and the machine front last Sunday. I spent the free evenings I had this week getting everything back assembled, and installing new plexiglass. I decided to forego the rubber seals and installled the plexiglass with screws and sealed it with RTV. I also cleaned up and painted the coolant tank and motor.
Last Monday night the guy who had taken the machine apart at the riggers came over to my place and re-assembled it, and also charged the counterbalance cylinder with Nitrogen so the head counterbalance worked. He turned out to be an old Ford racer so we had a good conversation while he re-assembled the machine.
Today I finally finished up all this work and ran some test programs on the machine. I've noticed a little bit of spindle noise at 5000 RPM, and also for some reason the spindle won't orient correctly for a tool change when spindle low gear is engaged. But that issue is pretty easy to get around in software. I plan to have a maintenance person who knows these machines come over and give it a detailed look sometime next week, because I bought the machine with a $2000 warranty so if there is anything wrong, I'm covered up to $2K. But after writing a test program and running it on the machine, it appears everything is working pretty well. Here's a few photos of the machine installed and operational in my shop:
Here's a shot you don't see too often, looking down at the top of the machine from the hole in the ceiling that I had to make to clear the head. It's pretty easy to work on the top of the machine from this vantage point:
Finally, here's a 3 minute video of the machine running through a test program, but not cutting anything. The volume of coolant this thing puts out is pretty amazing. The last operations shown in the video are rigid tapping operations; one of the reasons I bought this machine is for that feature:
http://youtu.be/PrKayNSi4cAThe machine is already set up for a fourth axis, so I still need to get a Haas rotary table and a cradle to hold a vise or part to make that part of the machine operational. But most of the work and expense is done, and after Drag Week I'll be all set to go to start machining FE intake adapters
I'm fired up for that!
Edit- Added link to youtube.
