I was asked yesterday if I wanted to have the remnances of two CNC lathes. One is a Weiler DZ 42 CNC (not sure what vintage, possibly late 90's, I can get more info on this). The other is a Gildemeister CTX 400 Series 2 (documentation for this is from -98, so it must be from around then I guess).
Both of these are almost completely taken apart. All electronics are gone (sold by the owner before I knew about it), and so are all of the servos. The only motors left are both of the spindle motors on the CTX 400, so it has sub spindle. Both of these spindles seem to be ok. And I expect them both to be working. Bearings sound and feel perfect on both.
The linear guides on the Weiler were bad, so they are all gone. Most of the sheet metal is also gone. What are left though are the ball-screws and all associated mechanics. Even the encoders are in a box. The spindles are also there. But all of these parts have been stripped off and. The sub spindle of the Weiler even had the chuck on it.
The linear guides on the CTX are still on, so are most of the ball bearings. All mechanical parts are available for this as well.
The deal was that the present owner needs the space, but thought it was too bad to just throw it all away. So instead he decided to give it to someone who felt they could make use of it. And he contacted a friend of mine, who in fact was the original owner of these machines, if he wanted the machines back for free (but with the easily sellable parts removed). He really did want them back, but had decided he needs to stay clean and don't let the hording of machine parts start all over. Long story short he decided to offer me to have them instead since he knew I didn't have a CNC lathe yet, only a mill.
He decided that if he was going to give it away it had to be all, not just the attractive large parts. He was willing to give away all the parts he had for the machines in order to make it attractive for someone to come and pick it up. After all I'd have to rent a truck with a crane to get it back home (or to the dump if I decide to throw parts of it away). But with all the parts there I don't have any problems with that.
This brings up a lot of questions though.... first off; is any of these machines worth trying to rebuild? Or would the cost of the parts needed be higher than buying a complete used lathe? The missing sheet metal will possibly be the biggest problem here then I would guess?
If no on this would it then be feasible to try to reuse the main or sub spindle drive of the CTX and attach it to my mill and make it in to a mill-turn? After all they are both very good direct drive lathe spindles. And the main spindle even has a C-axis via a gear and servo motor option. This is something that will be exactly what I want.
This option has several problems. The first is to get the drive for any of these direct drive motors. I know the drive for my main spindle on the mill is expensive, and I guess this would be even more expensive? Or would it be possible to put on a modern VFD (that isn't as insanely expensive as the original drive possibly is) on there and put on a new encoder? The encoders on the two spindles are possibly the only encoders that are missing, not sure yet, but they are removed from them now.
I have taken some photos of them, and uploaded them to photo bucket
here.
This was a lot of rambling. But is there any thought about the remnances of these lathes and what would be the best use of them?
And are the parts worth the hassle and cost of having them all transported home? I have already more or less committed to take them all. The question now is more what should I do with the huge pieces of it, dump it right away or keep them?
Anders
