Buying used gear cutting machinery

[alliedtrans]

Hello All

I am a gear manufacturer from India and have been in the business only a couple of years. I will soon be going to italy to purchase used machinery viz Hobbings, shavings, rounding etc. and have very less experience in buying machinery.

Could everyone please help me as to the check points one needs to check while buying used machinery. Any inputs would be really appreciated.

Thanks
Ankur

 

[tbuelna]

alliedtrans-

Buying used machine tools always carries risk, especially with precision machine tools. Unless you are buying used machines that have been refurbished by a reputable outfit and come with some form of limited warranty, then you'll need to perform your own inspection on-site. Since it does not sound like you have much experience performing these types of inspections, I'd suggest that you first compile a list of the brand, model no., serial no. and location of each machine you are considering purchasing. Then contact the local factory rep in Italy for each machine (assuming the OEM is still in business) and arrange to have one of their service technicians perform the inspection for you. A factory service tech will have all of the equipment required to perform a thorough inspection and will know exactly what problems to look out for with a specific type of machine. You will probably get invoiced for at least one full day of technician labor for each site, and the cost would probably be somewhere around $1000 to $1500 per day. But considering that you might be spending $20,000 or more to purchase a used gear machine and ship it thousands of miles back home, paying $1000 or $1500 to be sure of exactly what you are getting would be a wise investment.

Good luck to you.
Terry

 

[MikeHalloran]

I agree with Terry, but also suggest that you do a visual inspection before the tech arrives.

In general, you want a machine that's covered with a fine layer of the normal detritus of manufacturing, accumulated over a long happy life without much downtime.

Beware of pristine, 'like new' machines, that were cleaned daily by the technicians who were there, daily, repairing what broke, daily. They try to keep the machines super clean, just to avoid contaminating the internals, exposed daily, with some tiny bit of detritus that will finally kill the finicky POS they have been keeping on life support.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA