Bacho
Yellow Skull
Been on the hunt about three years now for a CNC mill. I have come across several close candidates, but the door on my shop is a major constraint. Which is in another thread.
The other day I came across an auction listing for this 2004 super mini mill at a community college. They sold it as a parts machine only and will not answer any other questions about its condition. The super mini mill had not exactly been on my radar, but some quick research showed that the same as the mini mill but a three phase only machine. I also found a thread were guys talked about getting it through a door that was a short as mine.
When the auction day finally came around. I told my wife I had a $2500 max bid on it. But you know how auctions go. I got outbid and had to run the guy up. I wound up winning it for $3600 bid which was $4200 out the door. My wife, a certain day or her disappointment in me sticking to my numbers.
The college was in Southern Georgia just about five hours away. I called them the next morning and verified they would assist me with a forklift and was on my way. It rained the entire trip down but as luck would have it, the sun came out when I got there. Loading it was dry and relatively painless.
While I was on site, I started asking around as to what exactly was wrong with this machine. The maintenance guy came over, opened up the back panel and pointed at the vector drive box. It looked really big and expensive, but on the way out of the parking lot I googled it and found a rebuilt service for about $1200 I immediately started feeling a lot better about the entire thing.
Driving home was almost uneventful I managed to avoid rain. 100 miles away from home the transfer case on the truck sounded like it was eating itself. I could tell by the sound that was the chain slapping around inside of it. Pulled over and yanked the front drive shaft. You have to love torx fasteners, one of them was stripped, and required being chiseled off. With the shaft removed the t case sounded happy again. Another project for another day.
Once I got to the shop, this mini mill didn’t start looking very little at all. It occurred to me that I never had considered how wide the machine was fitting through the door. The door was 6 feet wide. As it sat the machine was about eight or 9 inches too wide. I remove the back door of the machine loosened and move the arm, holding the control box over as well as removing the back plate of the control box. Got it to where we had 1 inch room to spare total on the sides and about half an inch on the top. From reading online, I was advised to remove the Z servo motor. This turned out to be unnecessary and rather pointless. As there was plenty of sheet metal higher than that motor.
I called in some help for extra eyes and we were able to get it shoved inside after about an hour of screwing around with it. Once inside, put it back together and got it powered up. And was seemingly able to quickly confirm the fault that the college had said.
The Haas website has a pretty good trouble shooting guide on the subject. A friend and I will run through all of that and confirm the box first. He feels pretty confident that we have a pretty good chance of fixing the box ourselves if it comes down to it.
Overall very pleased with the purchase and pretty excited to get it working and learning how to use it.
The other day I came across an auction listing for this 2004 super mini mill at a community college. They sold it as a parts machine only and will not answer any other questions about its condition. The super mini mill had not exactly been on my radar, but some quick research showed that the same as the mini mill but a three phase only machine. I also found a thread were guys talked about getting it through a door that was a short as mine.
When the auction day finally came around. I told my wife I had a $2500 max bid on it. But you know how auctions go. I got outbid and had to run the guy up. I wound up winning it for $3600 bid which was $4200 out the door. My wife, a certain day or her disappointment in me sticking to my numbers.
The college was in Southern Georgia just about five hours away. I called them the next morning and verified they would assist me with a forklift and was on my way. It rained the entire trip down but as luck would have it, the sun came out when I got there. Loading it was dry and relatively painless.
While I was on site, I started asking around as to what exactly was wrong with this machine. The maintenance guy came over, opened up the back panel and pointed at the vector drive box. It looked really big and expensive, but on the way out of the parking lot I googled it and found a rebuilt service for about $1200 I immediately started feeling a lot better about the entire thing.
Driving home was almost uneventful I managed to avoid rain. 100 miles away from home the transfer case on the truck sounded like it was eating itself. I could tell by the sound that was the chain slapping around inside of it. Pulled over and yanked the front drive shaft. You have to love torx fasteners, one of them was stripped, and required being chiseled off. With the shaft removed the t case sounded happy again. Another project for another day.
Once I got to the shop, this mini mill didn’t start looking very little at all. It occurred to me that I never had considered how wide the machine was fitting through the door. The door was 6 feet wide. As it sat the machine was about eight or 9 inches too wide. I remove the back door of the machine loosened and move the arm, holding the control box over as well as removing the back plate of the control box. Got it to where we had 1 inch room to spare total on the sides and about half an inch on the top. From reading online, I was advised to remove the Z servo motor. This turned out to be unnecessary and rather pointless. As there was plenty of sheet metal higher than that motor.
I called in some help for extra eyes and we were able to get it shoved inside after about an hour of screwing around with it. Once inside, put it back together and got it powered up. And was seemingly able to quickly confirm the fault that the college had said.
The Haas website has a pretty good trouble shooting guide on the subject. A friend and I will run through all of that and confirm the box first. He feels pretty confident that we have a pretty good chance of fixing the box ourselves if it comes down to it.
Overall very pleased with the purchase and pretty excited to get it working and learning how to use it.
That'll blow most converted knee mills away. Optional 4th/5th axis too. 
