A couple of weeks ago, Bill Lewis from Sharp in LA was in my shop with a machine tool dealer that was interested in taking on the line. We chatted a bit, and I showed them both some pretty impressive parts we had made on out 2412s. Bill told me that Ed Hurst would be by in a couple of weks to do the preventative maintanance. He arrives at the shop this morning and went over this machine with a fine tooth comb. He showed me the hydraulic resevour at the top of the spindle which you are supposed to check every now and then for hydraulic oil. If your toolchanges (the release from the spindle) gets slugish, check for oil in the resevour. He found my Y axis had about a half thou of backlash and adjusted that. He had all the covers off the ways and we had a look at the oil lines, ways and ball screws. All was well. I've used the snot out of this machine on 316 for the past eight months. That's all it's seen.
Anyway, I thought that was pretty impressive service. He just showed up on my door and took care of everything it needed.