Retrofitting a 1986 Maho MH400E

Hi Bob, good to hear from you. All the best for the new years.

I still haven't done the exhaustive test to confirm the y axis drift. The pain with replacing an axis encoder, apart from the $$, is trying to get the cable connector down the conduit.

So far I have been procrastinating on designing the mill dolly. Air cushions wont work, as there is a height difference of a couple of cm (ramp) at the door way, and then the floor in the machine shop is also not really flat and covered with the crappiest tiling job since Hundertwasser.

I also prefer to lift from above. On the first post of this thread you can see the gantry I made for lifting the Maho off the trailer. Unfortunately the ceiling height of my basement is only 209cm, so overhead equipment is out of the question.

Yesterday, the result of procrastinating on the important stuff was to make the shaping tool holder. I haven't ground the tool bit yet.





Mark

Glemigobles wrote: Unsurprisingly, the whole thing is in German, so... Google translate, hier komme ich!

There are definitely a couple of German native speakers following this thread, and I can also help you with German. Anything you are not sure of just ask.
Mark

Thanks Mark, I might just take you up on that offer!

Good looking shaper there also. Your machine is going to have a lot of extra utility between this and the horizontal overarm attachment! Now just get the original Maho spindle speeder and you're set for life

One question, did you buy your Mesa cards from eusurplus or did you import them directly? I think I'll order the cards next week and I was wondering what experience you had with the purchase.

I got my mesa card in the states, as I was over there last summer.

Is there really a MAHO spindle speeder or are you just pulling my leg I ground up an engraver bit out of 3mm carbide and tried it yesterday, worked pretty well, but the 4000rpm limits you to a feed of 3mm/min.

Mark

m5c.
I got several cards from Mesanet and Mesaus direct. Good service and quit fast delivery. Only transportation cost to Switzerland went crazy meanwhile.
So I tried Portugal - > not very fast.
Now I ordered from Austria. Yes 22.12 is end of year but no warning... , Also I gave Wednesday a call no glue when this "in stock" will arrive.
Next order will be probably from us direct again.
Mike

Thanks for the info Mike, I was kinda hoping that ordering the cards would be the least troublesome part of the process, looks like I might be in for a surprise!

Mark, I don't know if they actually made it or if they simply resold someone else's products but the speeder is right there in my manual as an option. It was limited to 8000 rpm. I had a new one quoted from a company in Poland for ca. 1500€ (without VAT) that did 12000 rpms.

But since I'm cutting acrylic atm I went with a small 18000 spindle (1kW) with a matching inverter that I just bolt on to the horizontal sipndle face via two aluminum plates. That option cost me ca. 900€ and it was money well spent for what I do. It allows me to cut with the Maho's full speed of 1500 mm/min, which is still pathetic in acrylic but I didn't know I'd be doing this when I bought the machine. The plan was always to make molds.

Anyway, for longer programs or batch production, the smaller spindle is a better option because it doesn't cause problems if you run it all the time. A mechanical spindle speeder will overheat after a couple of hours from what I gather. For continuous work and no extra hassles, the premium options are air-powered or electric spindles that are already mounted in an SK40 tool holder, such as Jaeger or Air Turbine. But those cost almost as much as my machine did.