$1500 Huge Hitachi MILL for sale. Worth it?

[diyengineer]

This is the AD BELOW. Worth it as a side project??

Thoughts?

Pictures of when they bought it:
New Milling Machine - a set on Flickr

Video of them moving it: (wait for it to buffer and play, may take a minute).
http://www.hackerbotlabs.com/videos/...he_mill_lq.wmv
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This is for a "No 2" vertical mill, manufactured by Hitachi. It's in pretty good shape for it's age, and has huge amounts of power. This is the mill for you if you need to remove lots of material. Its a manual mill with power feeds on all axis. 5/8" t-slots on the table. Needs a paintjob. This was purchased in 2006 for our small shop, but now we are upgrading to a cnc mill. Make a reasonable offer! Come see it! Manuals included. We had purchased motors to convert it to CNC, but never found the time to do it. If you'd like the motors and drives to do the conversion, I'll include them for an extra $500.

# max of about 1000rpm. 10HP motor (needs to be checked, but it's large)
# longitudinal travel: 33 7/8" (860mm) [this is limited due to a problem with the screw/ways to about 20"]
# cross travel: 14" (356 mm)
# vertical travel: 19 11/16" (500mm)
# The quill travel is 5.5"


# Meister 3-Axis BC10M DRO
# Scale sizes of 900mm, 400mm, 500mm. The OAL is the scale size plus 5 inches.
# X, Y, and Z axis scales are installed and working. W axis (quill) needs repair in the mounting.

Servo Drives
* Two Pacific Scientific model SC402-023-T4.
* They take a +/- 10VDC velocity command signal

Servo Motors
* X & Y axis: Two motors, AC Brushless, Pacific Scientific p/n R46SSNA-T5-ND-NV-0
* They use an Encoder Products Accu-Coder 500 ppr optical encoder for feedback
o This appears to be a member of the 775a series of encoders, but does not have a valid part number marked on it.
o The encoder on the rebuilt motor is well and truly dead and needs to be replaced.
* Each has a Tachsyn for velocity feedback

No vices, or tooling included, but many tool holders.

Here's pictures of when it was moved in:
New Milling Machine - a set on Flickr

Problems which I know about: There is some lash; I think the automatic lash compensating nut is having a problem of some kind. The X axis travel is limited to about 19" for some reason I've never been able to figure out (was that way when I got it). It has an oil leak; it's minor but does require upkeep to keep the oil topped up. Reverse on the spindle has never worked; it could be an electrical problem I've never explored. But I've never had to run it in reverse, so it's never been a problem for how we use it. The coolant system is untested, but it doesn't seem to whirr as you'd expect when you turn it on. it could just need to be filled up before it will function. It's sometimes tricky to change gears on the transmission, but that normally only happens when the oil pressure is low on the clutch (make sure it's up to the level!). In short, it's a old beast of a mill but it has served us well. Great low cost way to get into a really powerful milling machine.

It will cost about $450 (local) to have a rigger deliver it or you can pick it up yourself. It's about 11,000 lbs. Needs to be gone by this saturday or next. Cash, like the green money kind.

We've received a few questions about the mill; the questions and answers are below:

Q: Is this 3 phase or single phase?
A: It's 240 3 phase; we have it on a 30 amp breaker, but it draws less than that.. from memory, I think it's around 24amps, but we should confirm this in the manual

Q: Does it fully work?
A: Yes; we've used it for several key projects. It does have some issues, which are stated above.

Q: Are the ways still tight or is the machine sloppy?
A: [one of our friends who checked out the machine said the following] ways are tight, one axis of travel is slightly restricted probably a jib just needs to be adjusted.

Q: Ballscrews or Lead/acme screw?
A: It's a acme screw with a split nut for lash compensasion

Q: How far away from puyallup are you?
A: We are in SODO, which is near the stadiums on the south side of seattle. Guessing about 45 minutes away from puyallup

Q: Overall dimensions, length, width and height?
A: About 11,000 lbs. Mill is a Hitachi. Figure at least an eight by eight by eight volume for the machine.Taper is a '50 taper';

Q: When can I look at this machine?
A: Tonight from 8pm until 11pm, or other arrangements can be made.


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[diyengineer]

Ive found a few other models that appear to be the same online going for $5000 and up..

Hitachi-Seiki Vertical Mill 2ML-V on eBay!

What are some of the Major issues to look out for if i take a peak at it?

[joeybagadonuts]

diyengineer

Man I have been looking for a deal on a Hitachi for a long time.
I think I will offer them three thousand, thanks for the heads up!

JoeyB

[diyengineer]

diyengineer

Man I have been looking for a deal on a Hitachi for a long time.
I think I will offer them three thousand, thanks for the heads up!

JoeyB

On the ebay one or the other listing? The non ebay one is $1500 bucks but sounds as if it has a few issues. For starters it not being able to use the FULL 33" travel, only up to 20". sounds like it could have screw/way issues which i bet are expensive as hell to fix on something that heavy duty? Maybe not..?

The ebay one looks like a fully working machine though with no issues.

[joeybagadonuts]

Diyengineer,

I contacted the guy that has the less expensive one for sale ($1500) and made him a offer, just waiting for him to get back to me.
Thanks again for posting the link.

JoeyB

[diyengineer]

Niiice! I was going to go take a look at it, but after thinking about it over night i already have to much on my plate. I need my big machine to run first before i buy anything else hahaha. It seems like a sweet deal though.

[diyengineer]

YouTube - philr's Channel

There is a video on youtube of it with the owner doing a tool change.