Here is a nearly 20 year old Brother machining center that wil totally rock out more work at a higher accuracy than many brand new cncs (it is a 1990 model with a 1990 control however the alignment and inspection certification on the chassis with ballscrews is dated December 1987 so its mechanicals are actually 22 YEARS OLD) .
Also lower tool cost because of the rigidity, accuracy of the machine, and meticulous cnc setup and programing. 1 cheap center drill $0.99, 1 cheap chamfer tool $ 0.99, 1 cheap drill $2.49 and 1 hand tap 1/4-20 $5.49 lasted over 350 holes in 1/4″ cast steel when bathed in peanut oil, it comes out to less than $0.03 per hole tool cost.
This machine was purchased online after 2years of shopping around. It was listed as perfect working order however this was of course not the case.
When it was brought home and placed in the garage the Z axis servo had to be unbolted (4 allen bolts) to fit throught the standard height home garage door. It took approximately 70hrs to thouroughly disassemble, clean, and lube all of the covers, linear guides, and ball screws. ALL of the grease lines popped when I tried to grease everything. Raw plastic metric high pressure line was ordered from SmallParts.com in order to replace the existing lines and grease the machine.
The machine was thoroughly covered in 20 years worth of cutting oil residue that had had caked onto all of the surfaces creating a sort of protective coating that once cleaned up and removed left behind a paint job in like new condition.
Attention was then given to the control cabinet. Inside, the main veristor pack(a sort of power protection device) was visibly popped and therefore it was physically impossible for the mill to have been running prior to disconnect. The veristor pack was ordered from Yamazen Inc (manufacturer of Brother CNCs) for a very reasonable $90. Yamazen’s customer service and support for this 20 year old machine was outstanding.
On first power up the control was checked and it turned out to have a bad Z- button(I disassembled the keyboard and repaired button mechanism with some epoxy and silicone).
It was obvious by the extremely filthy condition of the machine that it had probably never been looked at or service by a factory tech or anybody for that matter. On the good side it turned out to have only 700 actual program cutting hours so even though it had no maintenance it had not been used enough to cause too much damage, and it had obviously been run on straight cutting oil its entire life. No water based coolants. This could easily be verified by a check of the coolant tank and hoses, and the fact that there was not one single dot of significant rust anywhere on the machine. I run 100% PEANUT OIL that you can buy at any big chain store like costco or sams club.
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