Is this Puma lathe decent?

[Garwood]

For the life of me I could not find the actual control nor the batteries. I don't know where they put it! It wasn't behind the screen and it wasn't in the back with the drives. The Puma looks much better in person than it did in the pictures. The pictures make it look like the way covers are destroyed, but they're in good shape, it's just a shadow. Takes a special kind of idiot to take pictures of something you are trying to sell that make it look worse than it is. It comes with full documentation, parameters, all the Daewoo and Fanuc books, etc.

The Puma does not have a spindle gearbox. It has a big monster spindle motor direct belted to the spindle. It's a real basic machine, but it appears to be built stout. The base is one big casting including the coolant sump inside. I called the shop it came out of and spoke with the owner about it. He sounded a little regretful that he sold the machine to such an incompetent machinery dealer that would give his number out so people could ask dumb questions about the machine he sold. I can completely understand that lol, but he was helpful and told me the machine made lots of large diameter steel parts and did not have any problem with parts as large as 20". He said the Puma was just very slow. Not sure what that means for a basic 2 axis lathe.

I wrote a check and the Puma will be in the shop Monday.

 

[Garwood]

Oh, and while I was looking at the Puma I met a nearby shop owner who recently bought a lot of several Mori Seiki AL20 lathes for cheap. He has one he would like to sell and I happen to know a certain super helpful guy (Kevin cough, cough) that might want an AL20 for his home shop.

(Kevin call me)

 

[Garwood]

Hmmm. It seems every tow co and heavy haul co with a heavy rollback has them booked out indefinitely for hauling forklifts, manlifts and telehandlers around for the construction industry. I'm in the tough spot of hauling 12,500 behind my pickup and unloading with two forklifts or waiting 2-3 weeks for a Landoll and taking down a wall of my shop. Option B is not an option so I think I will haull with my pickup.

 

[AJ H]

Pickup & 2 forklifts, got that t shirt. Not ideal but gets the job done if you have a couple decent helpers

 

[Garwood]

It shouldn't be too bad. It's just kinda funny that as I get older and resolve to do less risky shit and I even have the money to pay to do it right, I find I'm stuck still doing it the slightly sketchy way out of necessity. Not for lack of money, but time.

 

[Fancuku]

It sounds like you are buying a pretty good machine. I always liked the Daewoos of the 90s and early 2000s.

 

[Pmtool]

I think you will like the Puma. I have a 1998 or so smaller model. Has been completely reliable. Mine is Fanuc OT-c. I worked at a place that had 4 or 5 of them from that era. Never really any issues with them. Mine just has that simple black box in the back with the drives with 4 d cell batteries. The 16 must be its own thing.

I found the same this with local tow companies. Between that and trucking costs it has really slowed down my constant shuffling of machines. Probably a good thing!

 

[Garwood]

This old Hyster H80C sure earns it's keep around here. With an extra 1500 lbs on the back she was solid with 12,500 on the 60" forks.

Got the Puma set on skates about where I want it. Gotta get the chip conveyor unloaded and installed so I can make sure I have all the clearances I need around it.

 

[Vancbiker]

IMO, one of the best lifts they made.

 

[Garwood]

Got this Puma wired up today.

Got some things. Some fun things.



Control says servo alarms 400 and 414 for X and Y. Servo drive LED alarm display just shows "not ready". Alarm history shows servo alarm 414 has been a long persisting issue for years. But how did they use the machine??



Diagnostic 200 shows a nice smattering of everything that can go wrong????



Not to be left out diag 204 has some 1's as well.



I have skimmed through the 16 maintenance manual and downloaded the Fanuc C series servo amp manual. The servo amp manual doesn't really do a great job past loosely defining what all these alarms mean. To me, it seems very suspect that all these alarms would occur simultaneously?

Can anyone suggest the next troubleshooting steps?

 

[Garwood]

I power cycled the main power a few times and I'm not getting the same alarms. I'm consistently getting the LV and MCC alarms for X and Z which the manual doesn't explain very well, but I'm thinking LV is low DC bus voltage alarm and MCC is stuck motor control contactor alarm?

I think I'm going to tear this drive apart and open up the contactors inside. If the contactor's stuck then MCC and LV make sense? Maybe?

 

[Garwood]

Two contactors are inside. Soldered to the board with the screws not removable unless they are desoldered. Looks like a tomorrow project.

 

[Barbter]

You're far more capable than me with the deep dive, but IME a lot of these alarms are estop or conveyor or lube pump related....usually....

 

[Garwood]

You're far more capable than me with the deep dive, but IME a lot of these alarms are estop or conveyor or lube pump related....usually....

I don't know about more capable. I just never learned there was stuff I shouldn't mess with lol.

I haven't plugged the chip conveyor in yet. never had a lathe that cared about the conveyor unless the overload was tripped. Lube pump is good. It has been running and it pumps far too much way oil. Like a stream pours out the X slide when it goes so something is not right there.

I think there is something wrong with the servo drive. The control won't actually come up unless I power cycle the servo drive with the power on to the control. Like the servo drive is definitely not happy. But there's no smoke or red LED's anywhere. Everything seems pretty fair except for the servo drive.

I'm currently drinking coffee and weighing my options of deep diving into this drive or buying a rebuilt one off Ebay for $800.

 

[Garwood]

I didn't have the right tools to desolder the contactor terminals. Tried a few things that didn't work, ordered the stuff I need to do it and ordered the rebuilkt drive from Ebay.

Testing the drive on the bench, with the contactors on the board, one of them does seem to have a pair of contacts closed that should be open. That could be continuity from other components on the board, but it's pretty low resistance for that. I think I could fix it if I had the right size oval desoldering nozzle.

 

[Barbter]

Had a Matssura vert which went into estop when the conveyor was disconnected.
Also read about lathes where barfeeds were not bought with a machine where the dealer had kept it but the machine was now incorrectly configured so wouldn't fire up.
Yes....your lube isn't right if it's squirting like that. Blocked other axis pipe?

 

[Garwood]

I think there's a broken oil line somewhere. I've got a big puddle of way oil leaking out from where the spindle motor attaches. Probably a low point for that area of the casting.

This machine needs all new hoses, seals and a good cleaning. I think it will in top shape after that (and a working servo drive).

For now, I just need to make 10 parts with it. Then I can slowly clean and fix everything.

I really like the design of this Puma. I like how it's built. It's got a lot of smart little features, but not very complex. I really like how you can pretty much pull 20 6mm screws and pull all the sides off the enclosure. Real good access to everything so far. It's just a reasonably well thought out simple machine.

 

[angelw]

View attachment 2055

This old Hyster H80C sure earns it's keep around here. With an extra 1500 lbs on the back she was solid with 12,500 on the 60" forks.

Got the Puma set on skates about where I want it. Gotta get the chip conveyor unloaded and installed so I can make sure I have all the clearances I need around it.

Hello Garwood,
Is that you with the hammer either attached to your Dick, or sticking out your Arse?

Regards,

Bill

 

[Garwood]

Hello Garwood,
Is that you with the hammer either attached to your Dick, or sticking out your Arse?

Regards,

BillView attachment 2079

Nope. I'm taking the picture. That's my good friend Nate looking like that because a minute before this picture he told me there's no way that forklift can lift that much. He sold me the forklift ,so he should know better.

 

[Vancbiker]

Hello Garwood,
Is that you with the hammer either attached to your Dick, or sticking out your Arse?

Regards,

BillView attachment 2079

Bill, don’t you know that no camera can survive taking a pic of Garwood?