Re: Hard decision....4 axis mill for $2500

Fred,

That was me that posed the original question. Unfortunately, I think
the machine was sold before I made up my mind.

It may have been a great deal, I still can't decide. First off, it
was a very small horizontal, about 6x6x6" travels. The cartridge
spindle was for grinding, no way to hold a shank cutter, so that
would have to be replaced (not too hard, but still a project). Foot
print of the machines enclosure was around 4x4' with the freestanding
control taking another 2x2'.

I'm not 100% sure that the motors were servos, the 4th axis, which
weighed about 75 pounds, had 3 cables coming out of the enclosed
motor area. Might even have been a closed loop stepper? At any
rate, the axis drives wouldn't be much good for retrofitting to a
full sized machine.

The control had no obvious model number anywhere in sight. Several
large books were included covering the 800, 810 and 820 Sinumerik
controls, no way to tell which book applied to this machine. The
current owner had never fired it up.

Interestingly, the machine came out of a Siemens facility. It was
used in manufacture of their ultra sound equipment. The little tags
with phone numbers to call for service were German phone numbers!!

Definetely an unusual machine, probable cost very big bucks new.


Regarding your mention of the Emco-Maier lathe, I have one of the
smaller of their production lathes. Their machines have to be the
most overlooked ones on the market. IMO, they'll stand up against
anything anywhere near their price range.

thanks,

Doug

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., "Fred Smith" <imserv@v...> wrote:
> --- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., "Kos" <kos@e...> wrote:
> > Date: Sun, 29 Apr 2001 00:34:19 -0000
> > From: dougrasmussen@c...
> > Subject: Hard decision....4 axis mill for $2500.
> >
> > Group,
> >
> > Here's a hard one for me to decide on. Maybe some of you know
this
> > machine type and controller.
> >
> > The machine is a Berney (Swiss?) T38-CNC horizontal mill with a
4th
> > axis. The control is a Siemens Sinumerik. It's not clear if the
> > control is an 800, 810 or 820, literature for all those controls
is
> > included. Delivery date of the machine was 1988.
>
> If that machine is really $2500 with an 810 on it, it may be a
great
> deal. the 810 uses fairly standard G-code, but has an exceptional
> macro language, and excellent work offset and tool ofset handling.
It
> (the macro language) is a bit cryptic, but as I recall, you can
write
> your own canned cycles and they will execute like subroutine calls,
> including passing parameters back and forth. Had funny little
> Chicklet buttons & soft touch keys around(not on)the monitor edges.
>
> I had many hours close to one that had a $100,000.00, 30 HP
EmcoMaier
> 360TCM Lathe attached. The machine would hold +/- .0002 all day,
on
> a diameter. You just had to watch out that the coolant didn't heat
up
> too much, it only held 90 gallons, and we hogged so much 8620 with
> that machine that it would heat the coolant up to about 115-130 deg
> F. Good thing it had a conveyor for the chips.
>
> If the 4th axis works and is full contouring, servo based, it is
> probably worth $5000-$7000 alone(new).