Cheap CNC Machine Worth Your $ ?… 

Just a suggestion. Diagnostics by replacing parts is time consuming and expensive in time/cost. Tracing signals (with a multi-meter) is faster/easier. I am always astonished to see precision machines so poorly maintained. There is an old saying, if you don't schedule maintenance for a machine, it will schedule maintenance for you!

Man, so jealous of such a find. For the amount of time and money you've invested, you still came off with a very functional system that's worth many times what you invested in it. Hope it gives you many years of quality service!

EXCELLENT FREAKING VIDEO!!!! Thank you for reviving an oldie but a goodie. So many people today don't even attempt to fix broken machines. You stuck with it and figured out the problem.

Liked and subscribed! Man what a pure joy to watch! You say you're not a CNC machine mechanic, but boy you know your stuff. I've always dreamed to find a machine center like this on the cheap because it doesn't run, so it was much fun and joyful to see you going through this process and your steps and thoughtprocess to fix it. Thoroughly loved the video, thanks!

We have a Fadal 4020 at my work and it's an absolute lemon. No one likes running that machine. It holds mediocre tolerances and is slow AF. In order for it to make an almost acceptable part you must, before hitting the start button, have at least 2 out of the 9 planets in the solar system aligned with the sun (yes Pluto is still a planet), say a prayer of dedication to Cthulhu promising your first born as a sacrifice, and only after that do you have a voodoo shaman perform a ceremonial dance around the machine. If all these things are acceptable to the 4020, it will hold plus or minus .005 tolerance and might interpolate a concentric hole but only if its feeling generous, for it is a resentful god....

Score! - Thank you for sharing the process of getting this old machine up and running again.

I work with a similar machine on a day-to-day basis for serial production work. Writing on it with markers would be a no-no for me, however, we do have a whiteboard hanging on the machine, with whiteboard markers. Absolutely essential to keep your head on straight while doing setup changes.

Thanks for this video. Nice to see how you trouble shoot with these older machines.

Nice job, buddy of mine just bought a 2008 VF3. It needed some love too. The spindle allegedly wouldn’t go into high gear. I found in the settings the low speed change gear was at like 5000rpm. Looking forward to seeing more of your videos.

That secret sauce is basically caustic soda, aka lye or sodium hydroxide. Does a wonderful job! Good to see the machine worked out without needing to be ripped out and modernised. Glad you figured out the Taperlock fitting - the third hole is the key to getting it off!

As somebody that worked in a welding shop that also had a machine shop. We put things on the machine to keep track of productivity parts etc etc. at the end of the day that is a tool for a job they are not show pieces. Your small shop doing small numbers it might be a showpiece. Big shops doing thousands and thousands of pieces they just needed to work and do its job.

My secret sauce is Spray9, diluted 60%. Full strength takes the paint off. Trigger spray, sit a minute, wipe off. Layout dye remover for Sharpie or glue and tape residue. Nice score!

I did a rebuild on a couple of those that got stuck in a flood. It was interesting what got killed on the PCBs in the flood, the memory battery actually killed some traces. It was a real mess. But I must say, I too would have bought that machine for $500. Even if it did not work, you could retrofit an entirely new CNC control system to it, bringing it to modern standards. That iron and a Fanuc CNC controller would be great.

So Happy for you. I crosed my fingers when you started it up,

The pulley is a taper-lock style. You separate the tapered center by removing both grub screws and then using one of the grub screws in the hole that was not previously filled. This should force the tapers apart. It should be a 2 minute job, very little force required. Great video, love your attention to detail. Nice to see old iron still working

Can't wait to see this series continue!!!

Oven degreaser, almost positive that’s the secret sauce.

Love seeing machines come to life instead of going into debt big time! We dont always have to have the latest and greatest to make money!

Great video - I did something similar with a 30year old 850 machine with a Mitsubishi controller . Took a few new servo drives and a bit of TLC to get her running but it was a very interesting project indeed - my first CNC . Watching your video I can't help thinking the Z axis is not retracting high enough to allow the carousel to move in so maybe the tool change height (G30 on my machine ) needs to be checked . I envy the large dry space you have !

FYI those are not servo motors. They are just Bodine AC gearmotors. Bodine uses those really nice aluminum frames that makes them look like servos but you don't control servos with relays and servos have feedback devices. Encoders, resolvers, tachometers, if none of that is present it's not a servo

This is dope man. Talk about goals

mannnnn you gave me a heart attack with that pressure washer near everything hahaha. awesome deal

so glad you were able to get this going. I want one bad to learn cnc. to make my own parts

Jotun House wash(with the anti fungus stuff) it doesn't destroy the paint and cleans new and old machines like nothing else. Its also cheap.

Great video looking forward to more of these ❤

I'm a lead machinist for a large company we machine ceramic for processors . Rip the controllers out and go with Mach3 /4 . I uses a fadal / hass post processor. Controlers are cheap and all over . I've personally done it and it's really easy . That would save you money in the long run. It's able to expand with your machine with as many axis as you need.

Dayum, nice score! With a machine of this age and condition, I completely expect it to not be fully functional, but x y z and spindle working? That’s already plenty good! The rest are things that can be repaired and restored after the fact, or at least I would think, if I had other machines to make parts with.

They are taper lock bushes in them pulley. Loosen the grub screws and take out then place one of them in the hole between where you pulled them from. That forces the taper bush out the pulley and allows you to pull them off by hand.

Dude, I really liked the Chappell Show clip. Very nice touch.

That machine got lucky to get you as an owner. I'm the same way about nor marking up machines and treating them right but with electronic test equipment.

That’s awesome! Keep the videos coming

Nice score, congratulations!!

The most difficult part of running these old machines is getting code into the controller. They have limited onboard memory, and drip feeding them code is slow.

for your information, grill cleaner is potatium or sodium hydroxyde that hydrolise the grease and convert it into soap ;)

I was going to say the spindle should move up to tool change position 1st if check parameters and make sure tool change position is set for z

Kudos sir. As soon as I saw the ways and board removed, I would have walked away

If you want to get rid of that makeshift whiteboard soak up the taped area and removed edge of the whiteboard in goo-gone(that should remove all the adhesive from the tape and possibly some of the whiteboard without affecting the paint. After that a plastic wedge like used for taking apart iphones and tablets and a heatgun can remove the rest(then re-apply the goo-gone to remove the remaining adhesive) It looks like you got an amazing score on that machine even if you have to put a bit into it

You are a hero man! Thanks to exists!

The side comparison with the cleaners is hilarious. One side you stick the gun directly to the wall, then the side you did spray, you keep a foot off the wall

I know nothing about CNC myself. I bought one of them cheap desktop cnc just to learn. I honestly think with a little work and parts. This would be a great CNC system. Even at that price I saw them used for 10s of thousands. Even new they are costly. Congrats on the great Buy.

Looking forward to seeing more videos like this

See the mechanical type touch static sensitive electronics with stating generating gloves. And then he will expect his suppliers to honour their warranty.

When I worked at a CNC facility grabbed a spray bottle and got some of the parts washer concentrate. Stuff always took the grime off my machines and didn't have to sit. Just spray and the sit time is how long it takes you to grab a rag or aim (if the machine has it) a coolant hose for washing parts off. When I first started working there only the akumas were clean, all the muratec, wasinos, index, and doosans were caked as bad or worse then what that machine you got is.

Prolly a little late and you figured this out by now. But that pulley is called a " taper lock " You remove the bolts that force the two halfs together and then thread those bolts into the vaccant holes. This will then press it apart.

Looks like the Calmotion was stripped out of it. The original Fadal boards are a core charge on a Calmotion setup, which is why they were missing. Nice job resurrecting it.

Taper-Lock is one of the easiest system's to remove pulley's. Use the screws in the other holes to loosen the pulley and you may need to hammer a flathead screwdriver in the slot. Now you can just slide it off. Assembly in reverse, once you have it out, take a look at how it works. This system can even be used if the seat it rests on is evenly worn out.

I paid $3500 for a Hyundai KH63G with twin pallet changers because there was a typo on the auction listing. Said the machine had 18,000 cutting hours instead of power on. Machine actually only had 938 cutting hours. Sold the machine for $95k. Rigging to my shop was 11k lol. My biggest financial win to date at once.

Hey Mate, try enamel thinners on a rag on stained bits. It will clean it well. Don't use on plastic, it's fine on 2k paint and powder coat

The schmoo is just dried up coolant, hot water with a weak coolant mixture also works great at softening it up and removing it without the chance of rusting parts. And no danger to any aluminum parts.

Also , in the same box as the spindle drive is a transformer with multiple taps ,, the output voltage has to be set correctly because the control has a regulated power supply but the servos don't ... What can happen is that difference in voltage can cause random estop/errors ,,, the instructions for doing that are on the first few pages of the manual ....

The secret sauce is just oven cleaner… people have been cleaning engines and engine bays or oil crusted parts with it for years.

Put a laminate like 3m stone guard on the lexan to protect from scratches etc. the flexible layer makes it very difficult to scratch, and you just peel and replace if it does.

Damn underrated channel for sure. It would be really cool to see a quick 2 min video of everything working, but I can understand the last 5% of the video isnt really worth if you're busy, which in sure you are. Haha

Wish i had a 500 dollar machine! Nice work!!

The fadals are tanks. We still use an 3016 1989/90 daily. And for quick jobs and setup it’s great. They are slow in comparison so production with allot of tools we have better options.

Make sure the lube system is working before you go too far and that oil is getting to the ways. The metering units and tubes often clog up. The turcite will wear and the accuracy will be compromised. Be warned I used to service this machines.

Get some aviation paint stripper for the front of the cross-slide and the pan base, use a putty knife, mask it off and shoot it with some epoxy paint. Look forward to your next installment building new way covers (spot weld).

Thing will,pay for itself in a week. They make user interface replacements so you can use a wireless keyboard and have a GUI or graphic user interface

tool 1 is in the spindle, you have to remove tool via computer interface first even though it is already physically taken out?

Is the ‘sauce’ AC cleaner? One of our techs used AC cleaner to remove setup coolant. The bottom pan in the back corner got dented in and would pool and after time, kind of set up. He cleaned it out, and flattened it back to original position.

Once we had a neglected machine that sat for 2 years no one drained the coolant or anything. When we finally opened the door it smelled like a dead body🫨🤣

Purple power will clean it right up especially with hot water, and pressure. Abouta gallon of evaporust setup to contentiously spray over all the bare metal. Will have it looking like it's atleast 1999, if not new.. the pressure from purple power being sprayed on the gunk will leave it clean. Just a fine spray to wet it, after it's wet, go over it again and re wet it and spray it off, WD-40 will work good for the metal bits it is a water displacer. A scotch Brite and WD will do wonders..

Would have replaced the servos, and added linux cnc to it. There are cheap leadshine ones they do even have ethercat.

I used one of these at my first job when I was still in high school. Very solid machine with those boxed Ways.

Every time I see a video like this i think of a saying my father used to say when I was a kid “ son if a man tries to sell you a Lamborghini for $500 and he says all it needs is a wheel nut would you believe him and purchase that ? Think about that before you believe any one trying to sell you something “

I hope for Part 2.. A classic and amazing company, owner/founder, machine and history akin to Tormach. I wish more people were doing this and with even older machines, I would if I had the [banked retirement fund]..

I colud watch videos like this all day.all the best in furure Business

The Zep steel cleaner is great stuff

As long as everything is okay mechanically, an electronics conversion to a newer controller would be a cheap great upgrade.

when the carousel wont move forward, its usually chips in the guidways or the bracket on the back is broken. Take the bracket off and see if you can push the whole assembly forward. Spend $100 and replace all the lube meters, Fadals are notorious for breaking the lube line to the rear X axis way. Make new way wipers, Turcite works well for this. Some one probably stepped on the Y axis way cover and bent the L shaped brackets that bolt to the saddle, bend them back. You got a deal, cnc machines are cheap if you have the skill to repair them.Most Fadal parts can be gotten from Mcmaster Carr..only thing proprietary are the castings and control board. Easy to run machines.

Just a quick question any hints as to who you purchased this machine from I know that there must have been thousands of these machines made but I can't help but think that this one looks very similar to one that was in a shop that I worked at a few years ago before the company had to move to Tampa Florida from Palm Coast and I have no idea what happened since then do that machine the company was called Champion racing heads

There's a great big lead counterweight in the back , inside the z axis ,,, if it wasn't pinned during transport it can get long enough to break one of the coolant fittings during a tool change .... we had to remove ours from the machine and drop it (the weight} on the ground several times with a forklift ....

I would say that a Great Find , A few hundred bucks and you have a Great tool for years new sub man

The tool turret shouldn't move or turn unless the z-axis has moved up to the tool change position. I got my Fadal 4020HT in 1989. Run it almost every day.

Honey, I scored a great deal on a used tool for my hobby shop. It was only $500. Btw, you weren't using the garage for anything, were you?

Best part was your get things done approach. I'm sure there was a lot of hard graft and head scratching off camera. Great effort.

Took myself a gamble too on a Emco 300vmc couple of years back. It’s much nicer looking machine from University. Hardly used and just had one bad solder on spindle drive. Took two weeks to findit. Youcan get that grime off by spraying fresh coolant mix on it and letting it soak for a bit then just wiping it off. I really don’t understand the people who want to work with a messy machine, I always kept my machines clean, even when working in a machine shop.

I hope I will never ever have to use the secret sauce to clean a machine that way - but it's good to know it exists. I always wash down my machine at the end of the day and brush any excess chips out the next morning when it's all dry and I keep a clean cloth nearby during the day to keep the outside clean too. But I do draw on my machine using markers The windows are a kind of bullet proof glass and I write notes on there with chalk markers to remind me of things to do when running a job or where to continue the next day. Some windex will wipe the chalk off and clean the windows again.

I had the exact same machine. We updated the electronics and the controls. That thing was pretty damn fast after that. Also programmed a touch probe for it to speed things up

that poor machine looks like its been run hard and put away wet. good on you for trying to bring it back to life.

Also, I might be wrong, but were there a bunch of blown fuses in the back cab? Kinda hard to tell

Nice job on the machine. It is great when you can rescue something from the junker and give it new life. One quick suggestion though.... I think you might want to be more careful with the pressure washer, especially around the electrical areas. It seems like you pressure washed the front panel and that isn't waterproof. At best, you probably introduced water that could corrode/rust contacts. At worst, you introduced water that could be conductive (as a function of other contamination in the water), which could then change behavior. It probably would have been a better idea to cover those items, pressure wash, and then hand clean them. The same is true with all of the servo components/encoders/etc, although those are more likely to have watertight gaskets (but are those in good condition). Anyhow, best of luck with your new machine. I hope it gives years of service.

What do the axis sound like at rapid? X sounded a bit rough at the slow speed you ran it.

nice work

How's the cnc doing by now?

Great channel you have here. Congratulations on the big jump in subscribers over the last week. I thought I saw you pressure wash the face of the control panel? How did you ensure that this wouldn’t damage the control panel?

$500? - is a steal )))) Congratulations!

how much would it cost to switch the computer hardware and software into a newer version of fanuc/siemens/other?

Where are you finding these deals?

Ive done a lot of repairs on fadal 4020s when i worked at a machine shop about 4 yrs ago. Thats not a horrible machine, but they do break down quite often if you run then 24/7.

Please clean the lube resivor and change the Bijur felt filter in the lube pump intake. Blow out all lube lines and Change all the Bijur metering orfices. Do this so you do not wear out a box way as there is no feedback that 1 piece of the machine is not lubed until there is damage. I have never drip fed a FADAL but at toolshows in the 90's the FADALS were always making lots of noise or were doing crazy profiling by drip feeding the program. Do a 45' test as the older DC motor machines were great but the Harlow resolvers had super small bearings would get worn out. Then the core of the resolver bounces arround making bad finishes. Resolvers just degrade Encoders FAIL.

great work... 👍🏼

Where do you guys find these machines? Fadal is ez to learn . I’m looking for a mill and lathe for my garage . Any tips where to find ?

Any recommendable online course for cnc programing and operation? Many thanks in advance

Fadals of this age do have a X axis problem, but i do wish you the best and hope she works out for you

The way cover is probably missing due to a cronic failure somewhere in that axis. Someeon got sick of removing it and putting it back on. Ball screw or end block bearings probably keep getting wiped out or possibly greese system fittings plugging up inside there. God Im glad I dont service machine tools anymore.

TC,1 buddy. Then ATC CW

Im sure you put it some ware but what is the "secret sauce" your using @18:01?

Honestly the tool holders you got are probably worth the $500 you spent on the machine. I totally tooled up a single machine at a new location and the cost of tooling can add up to a LOT more money than some folks would think it would. Coming from Industrial Maintenance background I would suggest you get into the habit now of LOTO the disconnect seen on the machine, and verifying zero voltage before you get into things. It is a good habit to form early. I kinda get that your solo but if somebody turns on the breaker while you have a hold of some 480VAC it will literally kill you on the spot :-(. If the disconnect does not work you can buy a breaker LOTO.

OK - whats the "secret sauce"? Is it the Z E P oven cleaner you mentioned below?