o/t What is the oldest...

[G Caputo]

cnc machine anyone is using mastercam to program?

With the recent activities bashing the early 80's machines, I am kind of curious. One of the machines I program is a 1967 Giddings & Lewis, 4-1/2" horizontal bar mill. It was retrofitted in house with a conversational control, "big block" DC drive motors, turcite (sp) on the ways and it is one of the most reliable machines here and pretty accurate too. It's also got a 63 tool toolchanger that moves with the head. It's 1 of like 13 made too I think. That's were I try to send any job that needs a lot of material removed. It'll take a .300" depth of cut with a 5" face mill at 30 IPM all day long. Any one else?

 

Greg

[TREV]

a 3 year old makino snc64

16 tool magazine 18000 rpm

trevor

[Code_Breaker]

Greg,

 

Twelve years ago, I programmed on a Hatachi (???) where the table moved only. It's max rapid was 40 IPM and max feed was 60 IPM. When the table was rising, the whole ground shook. We called it the "dinosaur."

 

Moved through the Fadal's, Mazak's, Haas, Makino years.

 

Today, I propgram for a Yasda (holding .0002), Bosto, Mikon, and of courase, the Mori's.

 

But. nothing beats my experience on the "dino".

 

 

Code_Breaker

[crazy^millman]

Well I know of a company in Jacksonville that had lathe used for making WW2 battleship guns. It had a 12' chuck on it and yes that is 12' Thing had if I remember correct 3' ways on that bad boy and was a good 80' long. Me personally guess the oldest machine I ever ran that was nc was an old whintey punch press made in the late 70's early 80's. The oldest machine had to be a an old belt driven lathe made around 1920.

[Toolfab]

We have a 20 year old Maho HMC with a vertical head attachment and a universal table. Still works like a charm!

 

[robk]

1979 Monarch VMC75 with a Dynapath 5c control. I can't wait for this thing to die. It's good for drilling holes, and that's about it. It's days are numbered.

[chris m]

1981 Mori Seiki SL4

 

Still holds .0005 all day long

 

C

[Philcott]

We have a Hardinge CHNC with a General Numeric control that is 1983 vintage. It has gotten quite tired in the last couple of years and has rapid rates slower than most of us are using for feedrates, but, it is still probably the most accurate machine in the shop. It can hold .0001 all day (material/temperature dependant). I attribute the longevity to only using oil as a coolant.

 

Phil

[M. Anderson]

About 10 years ago we had a late 70's, (BIG! 40+ inch chuck), GE NC lathe - tape punch - dials for offset's - single line, LED display. NOAH's Arc style machine! Came out of the Oak Ridge, DOE plants. Most likely was HOT as a firecracker, (radioactive!), we got it to run a job they did not have time to run, or could not find anyone else stupid enough to do?

 

We still have 2, 1980 and 1981, Excello, Bridgeport syle mills with GE1050 controls and Greco box. Don't really run them anymore - but they are setting in the back and could be run.

 

Later,

Mark Anderson

[mayday]

3 Devlieg's from the 60's / 70's . 1 4H-72, 1 4H-96, 1 5K-120. all with 310 heid controls. if anyone is familier with Devleig Jigmills, you know how accurate they are. there just not fast

[Paul B Toolcraft Co.]

An Agie 425 wire EDM new in 1983. Programs are loaded with tape.

 

Ya, it’s old and slow, but it costs only wire and electricity to run. Ways and screws are in great shape so you can trust her to hold size. Can’t beat Swiss Built. Until the space it takes up or we run out of spare parts from another old Agie we’ll keep running this baby.

 

 

Paul

[Keith Graydon]

We have a Monarch Cortland VMC 75 mill with a GE Mark Century 2000 Controller. It is about 19-20 years old. WE also have a Monarch VMC 45 with a pallet changer. Same control. Outstanding machines for their day. very advanced features.

 

quote:

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DeVlieg Jigmill

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Very nice! THere was one back at Princeton University when i worked there.

[MACHINEMASTERG]

we have a mid 80's bridgeport with a anilam crusader 2 retrofit controll that we sometimes send code to but every thing else cnc is 1998 or newer but we do have a press brake in the fab shop from 1938 and still kickin

[JAMMAN]

An old alliant BP clone with an anilam crusader M control.

 

Bought it on e-bay, it had never been used. It's an incredible machine but old old old!

 

I had to replace a few bearings in the head because of corrosion.

[Philcott]

Nez never had a chance! It's no wonder everyone jumped on him for putting down Ed. Look at all the relics from a bygone area we have in our shops. Must be about time to send some off to the Smithsonian.

Have any of you seen the old shop in the industry building there? Is it still there? Belt drives and all. Really cool to see how it was done 100 years ago.

 

Phil

[A3kid]

1981 Thermwood C50 router.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

The oldest machine I've ever run was a CIncinati #3 Vertical - 1942 vintage. No CNC. The Oldest CNC I've run was probably a late 80's Kitamura MyCenter with Fanuc 3m control. The newest machine I've run is my December 2002 (Installled summer of 2003) 2 Mori Seiki SH-8000's in a Pallet Pool. It's BIG!!!!!!. The whole thing weighs in at around a slender 230,000 pounds . Think the building is starting to sag......

[Fig sign]

The oldest machines I ever run was in former USSr and it was Loewe lathe (Germany ).

It was in 1986 and it makes 50 years .

Never went through overall .

In the same place we had drill machines from 1948.

The older machine I ever run were Mories from 1976 approx and more modern from early 80`s

(Fanuc 6m,10,11 )

Love this machines .

In my curent place I have realy piece of crap

retrofit with Numericon control ,but first of all the machine is crap ,a control is OK and I succesfully use it anyway from time to time and never scrapped anything .

My real machine is DMC63 with Sinumeric 810D .

I really don`t like it ,but anyway I also never scraped anything .

What I really like was OKUMA mill that I once worked with ,big table ,#50 taper holder ,3 geared spindel and the best control I ever seen .

 

It was love the love of my life .

 

Teh ?!? :

I am accepting used OKUMAs as a gift 24/7 !!!

[rob@fain]

The first Lathe I ran at my first job was a Niles built in 1890, It had a 42in face plate, a monster machine, The dails had no increments, it orginally bored cylinders for steam engines. The oldest nc was a 1957 Monarch Mono matic that had a mind its own, we could take a 1/4 inch per side cutting 4041 no sweat except when you hit by a chip.

rob@fain

[Guest]

The vocational school I went to had rows of manual lathes and mills with plates riveted to them that said "Certified for war production 1941". They still ran well considering 100's of students had abused them over the years.

[Jayson Kramer]

quote:

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We have a Hardinge CHNC with a General Numeric control that is 1983 vintage.

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I did the Lathe at first it was tape, i would program it in Mastercam then take the code and make the tape.

Then I updated to a BTR then was right to the GE control..

[Nominal]

For oldest programmed machine period, I'd have to say it was something called a moog that we had back in trade school in 73. It was NC not CNC there was no computer component of it. It looked like a bridgeport with a control about the size of a washing machine that sat on the floor. It read paper tapes that you had to punch using a freiden typewriter type thing. If you made a mistake you had to physically read the tape with your eyeballs and cut out the offending blocks, then retype what you wanted and splice it back in. And it was all point to point no interpolated arcs etc. As far as programming with mastercam the oldest machine for me had a fanuc 1000 control. No crt just a line of leds.