Bouthgt 10K$ Worth (sort of) of Acu-Rite 1um Scales...

[ycroosh]

Disclaimer: I need to vent...
So two weeks ago I saw this on eBay. The scales are current model Acu-Rite Senc 150 1um. Contacted the seller and made an offer for the scales (they wanted $1200 for the whole thing; I ended up paying $600 with shipping.

So, today the scales came in. I Figured there are 9 scales, I should be able to clean/refurbish at least a couple (I need a pair for my surface grinder, and the rest-we'll see). Long story short - after moving some parts around, I have 6 working (but extremely dirty) scales.

Now, the rant part: whoever removed them "from working environment" must have used a crowbar. Three reader heads were torn off/broken off the scales, and one of the long scales must have been literally torn off the machine with a crowbar. My question (to the universe) is: WHAT SORT OF MORON doesn't understand that when you are "salvaging" parts of a high-end machine, and those parts have "1um" written on them, you remove them CAREFULLY. Very conservatively that is 10K$ worth of scales at todays street prices. Possible more. It drives me nuts when people destroy perfectly good equipment for no good reason. These scales (once cleaned, etc.) will probably last for decades. Acu-Rite electronics are next to bullet proof, and there is nothing that can wear out inside.
Agr!!!!


OK, rant over. Now I need to put on some chemical gloves and scrape these clean.

Regards
Yuriy

 

[ChazzC]

Disclaimer: I need to vent...
So two weeks ago I saw this on eBay. The scales are current model Acu-Rite Senc 150 1um. Contacted the seller and made an offer for the scales (they wanted $1200 for the whole thing; I ended up paying $600 with shipping.

View attachment 481052

So, today the scales came in. I Figured there are 9 scales, I should be able to clean/refurbish at least a couple (I need a pair for my surface grinder, and the rest-we'll see). Long story short - after moving some parts around, I have 6 working (but extremely dirty) scales.

Now, the rant part: whoever removed them "from working environment" must have used a crowbar. Three reader heads were torn off/broken off the scales, and one of the long scales must have been literally torn off the machine with a crowbar. My question (to the universe) is: WHAT SORT OF MORON doesn't understand that when you are "salvaging" parts of a high-end machine, and those parts have "1um" written on them, you remove them CAREFULLY. Very conservatively that is 10K$ worth of scales at todays street prices. Possible more. It drives me nuts when people destroy perfectly good equipment for no good reason. These scales (once cleaned, etc.) will probably last for decades. Acu-Rite electronics are next to bullet proof, and there is nothing that can wear out inside.
Agr!!!!


OK, rant over. Now I need to put on some chemical gloves and scrape these clean.

Regards
Yuriy

Many (30-ish) years ago I was contacted by the regional Kellogg’s plant to see if I was interested in 2-1/2 bag-in-box packaging lines (the 1/2 didn’t include controls). All were made by Jones, fully operational and included documentation; Kellogg’s was replacing them because they had a new product line and wanted to get lines that could handle different package sizes, and I could name my price, as-is/where-is, cash.

I was working on a breakfast cereal project in Africa and these lines would have been perfect. I got a quote from my local rigger for disassembly, crating & transport to Port of Philadelphia, added my costs & time & profit and presented to the project leader. He wanted them, was ok with the price but needed to raise the cash. It took longer than Kellogg’s could wait for him to get me enough cash to get the equipment moved, so the lines went to a local recycler who knew someone wanted them for use. I reached out, got his price and told him to keep them safe, which he assured me he would.

When I got him a certified check, I was allowed to inspect and arrange to have everything moved out of his warehouse: my crew would have taken photos, marked conduits, wires & pipes so it could be reassembled and skidded/crated; the recycler’s crew used a Saws-All. Fortunately, I did have full documentation and a spare line, so we eventually reached a reduced price and my guys put the stuff in storage awaiting final payment. The new owner wanted his people to take it from there, so after final payment I released everything to them: it ended up tossed in crates in storage until the project was cancelled - I got my money, but more problems with federal investigations (fraud by the guy I sold it to), but my paperwork was good, so nothing more than lawyer’s fees and sleepless nights for more than a year. And I ended up closing down my consulting business.

No moral, just hoping to put your situation in perspective - you aren’t having “conversations” with the FBI, GAO/IG & Federal Prosecutors.

 

[pdentrem]

Seen similar with machine equipment resellers. Control pendants wires cut off. Cabinet bent. X & Y linear rails and encoders swapped with severely damaged and worn ones AFTER they cashed the cheque. Etc

 

[JFL4066]

Work in a automotive manufacturing plant for a while. That's nothing. I've seen 100k stuff destroyed in minutes because of idiots. Just another day at the office.

 

[jwmay]

Also worked in auto manufacturing. I’ve seen brand new motoman robots never removed from the shipping pallet sent to scrap. Perfectly good used robots whose entire wiring was cut out with a Sawzall, and chunked. Same with machines that were just supposed to be relocated within the plant. Imagine sitting for days, sorting out thousands of wires and replacing them because they wanted to move a machine 100 yards north. Lmao!

 

[ycroosh]

I've resurrected three scales so far, so I got my moneys worth. Can probably get 2-3 more together (some frames are damaged but have good reading heads, and some heads are ripped off but the frames are good.
I'm saving a couple for a video about how "sensitive" glass scales are The three that I got working I had to soak in WD40 overnight, then scrub with a hard brush (carefully avoiding the encoder strip), then washed with mild soap, dried, and cleaned the encoder strip with lens cleaning tissue.
Haven't checked them with the interferometer (it's in a bit of a "state" at the moment ), but compared to my reference scale (on the test bench) they are tracking perfectly within spec.
Would be interesting to see how bad the scale reads while it's full of "petrified" coolant.

Regards
Yuiry