[pete from TN]

I am very seriously considering getting into a small used VMC for my home shop lately. I have converted a milling machine now and am slowly learning to use it. I also have some products I have been selling that seem to be at least consistent in their demand. I also have some ideas for a few other products that I would want this machine for. I have a decent sized shop at my home here in Tennessee and I have a dedicated power run to my shop with 220v single phase at 50 amps. Right now this has been enough for me to run my commercial sized Tig welder as well as every other wood or metalworking machine I own up to about five HP. I have never owned anything larger so I am unsure about wether or not I can actually power it. Of course if necessary I can have another box installed to the shop and pay another power bill specific to it but I was wondering what some of you guys here are using and how your shops are setup for this. My shop has a decent poured slab and I actually recently bought and kept a very large Lathe here which I would guess was in the four thousand pound range maybe more not really sure but it was the largest piece of equipment I have had here. I recently sold it and as I said I am thinking about a small commercial VMC such as the Cincinatti 500's matsuura 500 series possibly a smaller bridgeport interact, or something similar. I am actually hoping to get a real nice deal on one that might need some work. I am currently trying to sell my knee mill and if necessary I will sell my lifted rock crawler to get the money together.

The reality is that I am VERY interested in this stuff and I have been able to make some decent side money just goofing in my shop manually. THis cnc thing makes things go to another level now. I have a friend who owns a local machine shop and they have a few machines that they use there that I could see having in my shop due to their size. One is an enshu? and it is a very nice smaller vmc. They told me to stay away from the machines that run with hydraulic systems on them and try to go electronic everything. It is apparently cheaper and easier to repair and more user serviceable as well and cleaner inside the box as it were.

What kind of power setups do you guys have in your smaller shops here and have any of you actually moved the machines yourself? I have moved this large lathe as well as many other heavy machines but this is possibly on another level and best left to the pro's//

Also I have the same issue I read here many times, my shop ceiling is more than nine feet high but the doors are only like seven feet or so tall. If I have to I will redo one garage door to get the machine in but it would be nice not to have to. My Crawler gets inside and out without and it is on 35" boggers.... peace

[scudzuki]

Seasons Greetings Pete
It was recommended to me to have 100 amps of single phase 220 to run a 20 HP rotary phase converter for a CNC mill with a 10 HP spindle like the Arrow 500. Word is, some CNC machines will run fine on a rotary converter despite the voltage variation of the derived leg, and some converters have less variation than others. Another option is a Phase Perfect digital converter
http://www.phaseperfect.com/
which I bet are pricey, but generate far cleaner power and users on the CNC forum here rave about them. I have access to 3 phase from the utility where my machine sits now so I have no personal experience with converted power.

Joe

[LeftCoastCNC]

As far as moving the VMC yourself, a Cincinnati 500 for example weighs around 8000 lbs. If you have a forklift and truck/trailer combo that can handle that much weight safely there is no reason you can't do it yourself. If you would have to rent the equipment you might as well hire somebody to move it for you.

[pete from TN]

I have moved as I said before some relatively heavy machines and this would be by far the heaviest so I may need to seek pro help on that one but we will see. I am not there yet. WOW man 100 amps for the ten HP spindle motor, Jeez that is a lot of power. I do not have three phase here but I would have thought a larger rotary phase converter would do the trick. I frequent a local pro machine shop and they have there a machine callen an ENSHU? It is a small footprint machine and runs on three phase but seems to be a real nice mill complete with flood coolant enclosure, chip conveyor, atc, rigid tapping, etc. It also takes up about as much space as my current cnc conversion and all it's associated stuff does. Perhaps the cincinatti arrow is too large a machine for me but I am hopeful that there is something similar out there that would do the same or similar work with slightly less power and weight.

This is gonna take some time to figure out and find the right machine and I appreciate the help you fellows are providing. I watch ebay all the time now for a suitable machine that I think might work for me. I saw a post somewhere that has a fellow who purchased a nice used Leadwell smaller VMC and it was redone with pc control. The machine had a toolchanger too... nice work there. I think something like that might work for me... peace

[scudzuki]

According to the manual, an Arrow 500 weighs 6700 lbs and has a footprint of 7'10" deep x 10'2" wide, 8'10" high.

Joe

[pete from TN]

Looks like I may not have the power or door height for a machine like that, that is okay because I may be going in a slightly different direction now.... peace