[Michael M]

A couple weeks ago a friend called me saying he was clearing out the home shop of a recently deceased friend of his. One of the items there was a NEW Tree 425 that was undergoing some odd home-brew control conversion (the AC servos put on it are 1/2 the speed and 2/3 the power of the original DC servos). I couldn't resist the allure of new ways/ball screws so I quickly found a friend to sell my J325 Tree to and bought the bigger J425.

In this folder on my website:

http://www.eurospares.com/graphics/metalwork/tree425/

TreeMove01.jpg
through
TreeMove16.jpg

show the Tree J325 leaving the garage and the J425 coming in. Removing 3" of trim wood from the top of the garage door surround made things go pretty swiftly. The J325 is going to a friend's shop here in the City.

Other photos in that folder show the J425 in my friend's shop with the cabinet and console/arm still installed. I removed those to make it easier to move. The small AC servos and their drives will be removed and the proper-sized DC servos installed in their place.

Now I get to rearrange the garage (everything got shoved out of the way) and start getting the Centroid control installed on the 425.

Cool.

FWIW, the Tree Journeyman were made by TOS in the Czech Republic and are still in production there (the J425 is their FV30). The J325 must have had empty cabinets when it got to Racine WI in the 1980s as it was full of US contactors and transformers. The J425 (mid 1990s vintage) has that stuff being Czech/European.

cheers,
Michael

[underthetire]

Original 325's were actually US made. The chech stuff came later. 425 was one of my all time fav machines. Worked on many of them.

[Michael M]

My mid-late 1980s J325 was all metric fasteners. I couldn't find anything showing if it was from TOS or some other supplier but it seemed likely.

I'm just a home shop guy so the Trees meet my needs. It would be nice to still have the manual mill for those odd times when you really need to swivel the head/turret but I can go and borrow some time on my old one if I need it.

As you can see in some of the photos there's not a mark of any kind on the table. I'm looking forward to new ways/Turcite/ball screws!

cheers,
Michael

[elnerdo]

really cool! keep us posted through the conversion.

[dtmachining]

Hi Micheal,

I'm looking to purchase a Tree Journeyman 425 and have a question about the machine height. My garage door only opens to a 7' height and i don't think it will fit under my door without some help.

Is there an easy way of reducing the machine height by removing covers, motors etc?

Regards,

Dave

[underthetire]

Not on the 425! Salesmen would always try to stuff those in peoples garages. Almost never fit under the doors without tipping them sideways. ( I don't recommend you try it, bad idea).

[Michael M]

Dave, I was worried because the 425 is taller than the 325, but it ended up being a breeze.

The minimum height on a 325 is 75". The 425 was, IIRC, 81.5". This is after removing the cover, pushing the quill down so the drive shaft wasn't sticking up, and also taking off a small retaining plate above the top bearing.

My garage door had 79" clearance, but it turned out that there was wood on the sides and top that was cosmetic - it just filled in around the garage door (we have a roll-up sectional door) where the door was narrower than the opening in the house. Prying that wood off gave me an extra 3" of vertical clearance.

The 425 went on some 3/16" thick steel sheets and pushed through. The concrete floor was smooth enough and the pushing was working so we didn't put it back on the skates, just continued sliding it. It scuffed the floor a slight amount but nothing I was concerned about.

So if you've got 7' / 84" you shouldn't have any problem, presuming your 425 isn't some different casting that is taller than my machine. It will take you less than 5 minutes to prep the top of the machine.



cheers,
Michael