[Technical Ted]

I'll be looking at a TC 150 this week. Just wondering what everyone thinks of these machines & what a fair price might be.

[greg b]

Hi Ted I can remember asking the same question to members some years ago about the same machine,and the replies I got at the time were not very encouraging one reply was they were to troublesome and they could potentionaly send a small workshop broke with repairs.And you know what that could be so true,but the truth is so could a lot of cnc machines,yes I did take a big chance on going a head and purchasing that machine and shipping it from the Usa to Australia and yes I have had my share of hassels with it but I gotta tell you when it behaves it self which is most of the time now, it is the nicest little machine to watch working I have had the pleasure to see.Not only was it way ahead of its time,some of its features are simply amazing and I doubt you will use all of them,it has some great cycles which cuts programming in half if your doing small runs but and theres always a but, you must start of on the right foot when purchasing these machines with the siemans a 2100 control I would make sure all the manuals are avail,find out as much service history as possible,check that all the pc boards have had there batteries changed and also the VFS5 spindel control has a battery module inside that can fail over time.I think Mike Kilroy said around ten years life for that one,and also a back up hard drive is a must.So if most of this has been sorted I guess depending on the model and how much use its had will dictate on what its worth but they are a seriously nice machine to use when you get used to them and very versatile and accurate,im assuming the control on the machine your looking at is a siemans a2100,Dont buy without watching it work first thats the rule.

[Technical Ted]

Thanks for the reply & sorry for the delay in responding. The machine was up for auction in a GM plant tool room. The person showing us around didn't know anything about it & we couldn't even try powering it up. There was one person in the tool room working on a mill. He said the machine was really nice & hadn't been run since the operator retired 1 1/2 years ago. I decided to take a chance on it if it were to sell at a great price. The starting bid on it was just $2,000. It came down to just two of us bidding on it & I backed out at $6,500. The auction house charges 15% & sales tax is 8% so at $6,500 The actual cost before moving would have been over $8,000.

[greg b]

If it was as nice a machine as the guy said and you had the work for it you missed a great machine,I got mine a while ago now and by the time it landed it cost about 24,000 but it paid for itself pretty quick.