Lagunmatic 3516-SX Retrofit

giz wrote: Right now I'm mostly thinking about how I am going to move this damn thing. I don't have a budget for a real rigger so right now I'm thinking about hiring a tow truck to winch the machine up while rolling on pipes. And at my new place, using my truck to winch it into the garage the same way.

I have moved machines on pipes many times, it does work.

A chain-winch can be useful, or a Tirfor.

I think you are out of the range of engine hoists, though perhaps a good quality one would work. (here is the tale of my low-quality one)

I assume you don't have telehandler access?

Yeah, the machine weighs in at 8,800lb so it's a different league than my other machines I move with an engine hoist.

When I took delivery we used a forklift rated for 15,000lb with extended forks. With how top-heavy the mill is I'm honestly surprised we didn't drop it. It was sketchy.

I figure 1.5" schedule 40 pipes under the mill, winch it onto a tow truck over some 1/8" steel plate laid on the ground.

At my new place the machine is going intoy deep 3rd car stall. I have a Ford F350 with a 15,000lb winch on the front bumper. I can park at the back of the stall and bring the mill up the sloped driveway, at least until I hit the flat spot at the garage door.

Then use a come-along like the Tirfor you posted, anchored at the back of the garage, to slide it in the last 40 feet.

It's all one straight shot up the driveway

With a pulley (or two) bolted to the workshop floor you could use the truck winch to pull it in.

andypugh wrote: With a pulley (or two) bolted to the workshop floor you could use the truck winch to pull it in.

Yep you are absolutely right!

Long time, little progress :laugh:

Between the last post and now, I did headstuds on my 6.0 and finished just in time to move the shop into my new house. I was able to rent a 10k capacity drop deck trailer to move my lathe and mill. The winch on the truck ended up helping a lot, as well as a D-ring mounted to the foundation at the back of the garage.

For the lathe, I simply dropped it off at the sidewalk and dragged it up the driveway on 2x6 skids. Sheer brute force. Then I rolled it to the side on small black pipe.







I used some really nice machine skates that were lended to me to move the mill. I winched it onto the trailer with the truck, but used a manual come-along to unload and drag it into the garage. I had to do quite a bit of disassembly to reduce the height and width of the machine to get it to fit on the trailer/through the garage door.









Now I'm in the process of finishing the garage and putting the mill back together.

Now if I could just figure out that stupid Spindle Orient....

Well the day of reckoning has finally arrived and I cut my first part since moving the machine this week (and first "real" part ever). Phew... that was a long time coming! Making tee nut and vise clamps as my first project, then directly into some parts for a custom fence I'm building.

My shop is setup so much better than before the move, I'll actually be able to use the machine how it's intended. I'm very excited! I'm still learning the machine and babying the feeds/speeds. I'm changing tools manually, running separate programs for every operation, and manually setting Z for each tool but I'll get there.

The Probe Basic GUI is really cool, especially for someone with experience with PathPilot. I updated LinuxCNC to 2.9 so I'm interested in seeing if the improved Orient component will make my life any easier.

I've long noticed a "thud" when changing directions in the X-axis. I thought my gib was loose so I tightened that up and it quieted down considerably so I promptly forgot about the issue.

I tackled some vise hold down clamps this week and noticed my circles were waaaaay out of round. Of course my first thought was backlash.

Long story short, the X-axis thrust bearings are trashed and causing .036" of backlash in some situations :laugh: :laugh: Once I started paying attention I could watch the screw slide when changing directions. The fact that I got some decent parts despite this issue makes me feel pretty good about getting it fixed. But the one clamp, with it's more complicated program, had me thinking I was going crazy.

If I move my Z-axis too quickly I get a follow error so I need to look into that as well. It makes a sound up near the coupler.

Now that I'm close to having a fully working, steel cutting machine in my garage I'm pretty stoked. But man it's been a long journey.

We recently purchased a similar Lagunmatic VMC 3516. It's original Dynapath Delta 40 control still seems to be fully functional, and we are going to try to run it as is. Any chance you have the old operator's manuals? Would you be willing to sell them or copies of them?

Todd Zuercher wrote:

We recently purchased a similar Lagunmatic VMC 3516. It's original Dynapath Delta 40 control still seems to be fully functional, and we are going to try to run it as is. Any chance you have the old operator's manuals? Would you be willing to sell them or copies of them?
 

Hi Todd - sorry I couldn't answer you sooner. I don't have any of the operator manuals to share - sorry! Good luck!