Just bought a Shizouka AN-S

[alloy]

Jim Dawson and I went to look at it tonight and I picked it up for $2500.

Jim has graciously offered to help me retrofit a new controller on it. It has a tool changer and some tool holders included.

Jim can fill everyone in on the motors and drives.

 

[bladehunter]

My "shed" such as it is would fit on that table. Looks like a good buy.

 

[mattthemuppet2]

wow, that's not trivial! I'm glad you found what you were looking for and I'm sure Jim will see you right. How's your lathe coming along? You must be nearly fully tooled up now - watchagoingtomake?

 

[alloy]

I hope it turns out to be a good buy. And no not trivial. Weighs about 5k with 40 taper.

I found a number of mills but none of them local. There was one in Vegas for $2k but shipping was $1500. I had a problem spending 75% of the cost of the mill for shipping. That extra money I saved by buying locally can be spent on the retrofit or tooling. Funny, I have looked so much I'd taken a break from looking and thankfully Jim saw it listed and PM'd me about it. We will pick it up this weekend.

I've not done much with the lathe yet. Been busy doing other things making money to buy a CNC mill

 

[alloy]

We picked up the mill today. It was a challenge getting it loaded on the trailer. I rented a drop deck 10K trailer at a local rental place. The trailer is pretty slick. It was only $75 for the day.

Sometime in the mills life a previous owner put wheels on it. The trailer was sitting at angle going downhill and that was a bit of work making sure it didn't get away from us.

I also picked up a big VFD from the guy for $400.

Sorry the pics aren't in order, I uploaded them in order but they didn't come out that way.

It' now sitting in Jim's shop. Now we need to figure out which way we are going with the retrofit.



22222 33

 

[csprecision]

That looks like a stout piece of iron

Post some pictures of the tool changer, never seen a knee mill with an atc!

 

[alloy]

It's pretty heavy. From what I can find out it's about 5000lbs.

This is the only pic I have of the tool changer. Right now I'm 30 miles away from the mill so can't take anymore.

This is the first knee mill I've seen with a tool changer also, but in researching online there seem to be more than a few around. I'm not sure just how good it will work, but my backup plan is an "arm strong" tool changer

 

[JimDawson]

I'll post some pictures of the tool changer tomorrow. I was looking at it, it seems pretty simple.

 

[Karl_T]

That changer is known as a tool flipper, it can toss them out with the rotation. need careful adjustment here.

You've got DC servos on the axis, box ways, VERY rigid machine. If you're got the bucks, Camsoft would be a great refit control for this machine.

Karl

 

[alloy]

I'd heard the tool changer isn't very reliable. If it works then fine, if not I'll rip it off and do tool changes manually. I'm not doing mass production with it so manual tool changes are ok. I just need a CNC to automate a very tedious process and allow me to do more in less time.

I looked at camsoft. The software is more than I paid for the machine. I realize it's a long term investment, but if I went that way it would delay the project waiting for me to earn the money for just the software.

Jim is going to look at what is there and put some alternatives on paper and I'll make a decision then. I hope we can get it done in the next month or so. I could use it right now.