Restoring a 24 year old CNC machine... 

Yeah lots of folks really underestimate how tiring it is to be around loud machinery all the time, anything to improve the situation really helps!

Haha elixir of immortality for ways, dust of death for electronics!

Thanks mate! Yeah shortcuts are not really my style! I have another 2 videos lined up and pretty much ready to go!

@@GoughCustom You didn‘t properly fix the loud spindle noise by actually changing the affected bearing(s) though. That‘s just what I realized

@@Elektrotechniker well that's because there's nothing wrong with the bearings! These machines use a toothed timing belt to drive the spindle, which is LOUD, especially when running at full speed. That's what I was working to improve with the changes to the spindle enclosure.

The indecency in today's cultures! Stripping an aging CNC mill without so much as asking if it was in for it, then filming the entire thing! 😲

Yeah I totally get what you mean! We're just not used to seeing these kinds of machines taken apart!

Look for DMG Mori on RU-vid for example if you want to see some newer examples all nude! It's quite interesting how many design types there are.

Thanks Charlton! I hope I'll be posting a process updated video soon showing the new machine running! I have some video already over on Instagram if you want to see it now!

Thanks very much! I think it pays off in the long run!

Thanks! Yeah I think Fadals are pretty hard to beat for inexpensive machines! Of course the sky is the limit once you want to get fancy lol

Thanks mate, really glad you liked it! I have another video mostly finished, hopefully many more on the way!

Thanks mate!

@@GoughCustom I made my first knife because of you

@@henryk405 Awesome man! I hope you enjoyed the process!

Thanks very much mate! I appreciate that you're still following along with my journey! More videos coming soon, I already have another 2 pretty much finished!

Thanks mate! Definitely still at it, probably a lot more restoration videos in my future too lol

Thanks very much Mike!

It could have been better if the spindle drive hadn't taken a dump! That's ok though, all worked out well in the end! Thanks mate!

Thanks very much Devesh!

Thanks very much!!

Thanks mate! Yeah it was definitely a lot of work, and I can confidently say there's not too many parts of the machine I haven't seen!

Thanks very much Robert! Really glad you liked this one, it's hard to tell a story like this in a way that keeps people interested!

Thanks very much mate!

Thanks Jack! I'm sure it will feature in a video soon! There is some footage of it up on Instagram already!

Hey William! Really appreciate you coming on my journey mate, really cool to get to share it with awesome folks like yourself! I love restoring old machines like this! I have a couple more videos mostly editing and should be ready to drop soon!! -Aaron

@@GoughCustom I saw you mention more videos in your other comments and that's fantastic. I've been watching tons of restoration videos, My Mechanic, Mr. Electricity (love rewinding motor coils). Just taking stuff that people would think of as junk and making it fantastic is so cool, saving money by doing is even better. Thanks!

Haha thanks Dominik!

Thanks Daniel! More videos should be coming shortly!! Welcome to the channel!

Awesome Alif! Best of luck mate!

Thanks very much Keran!!!

Thanks very much mate!

Thanks very much mate! Glad you liked it!

Thanks very much mate! Yeah I think the Aussie/Canuck combo is a bit of a weird one!

Thanks mate! Yeah I have a couple more videos lined up and ready to go already!

Thanks very much mate! It has been running well so far!

Really glad to hear that Lee!! Check out the rest of my channel for a lot more cool CNC stuff!

I have definitely considered it! Unfortunately I don't think the pay would be very good! :D

Thanks mate!!

Cheers mate! They are great little machines for the money!!

Thanks Andre!

Thanks very much mate!

Thanks very much mate! More to come!

Thanks very much mate!

Thanks very much!

Hey David! Thanks for the kind words mate! It is definitely difficult work! Really glad you are still liking your knife mate! I am still working every day to keep making them better! Thanks for your support! -Aaron

Thank-you very much sir!

Thanks very much mate!

Thanks very much! The machine has been running well which is great!

Thanks very much mate! They should be coming soon!

Thanks Pete! More to come soon!

Thanks Tom! It has been running well for the last 6 months making knives!

Some days are definitely harder than others! After the spindle motor burnt out I'm pretty sure I threw some stuff, said a lot of bad words and then went home! :)

Thanks very much Abdel! Right back at you mate!

You're too kind mate, thank-you!

Thanks very much Bibin!

@@GoughCustom Welcome !

Thanks Richard! Hope you enjoyed the video! As for new knife designs: keep an eye out for my next video! ;) I will be posting a shop update soon as well! Hope you and yours are well too mate, all is pretty calm here thankfully!

Thanks dude! Really glad you liked it!

Thanks very much mate!

Thanks very much Marty!

Thanks very much Jake! Really glad to hear that I helped get you into knifemaking mate! Should be more videos coming soon!

@@GoughCustom Yeah your welcome! Thanks again, and I'm excited to see more of your content!

Really glad to hear that mate, thanks for watching!

Thanks Jon!

So you're one of the people I have to blame for this cleanup! 🤣 Yeah they are very good machines for the money, especially these days when they can be gotten cheap as all the parts are easily available!

Thanks very much guys!

Thanks Dimi!

Thanks Andres! I agree that it's a dream come true to get to play with these machines! So cool to have a pair of robots in my workshop!

Thanks Yan! I appreciate your support!!

Thanks John!

Thanks very much Jerry!

Thanks mate!

Glad you liked the video mate! Looking forward to making you a knife, thanks for your support!

Thanks very much for watching!

The next one will actually be a knife video lol 🤣

Cheers mate!

Thanks very much Martin!

Thanks very much!

For the price definitely!

Thanks for watching mate!

Thanks for watching Charles!!

Thanks mate! Really glad that it worked out!

@hartmetall Sure, here you go! www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B012B5EMGO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Ouch yeah that sucks. The second machine had been re-painted poorly, I spent quite a few days stripping the paint off back to the original paint which was in good condition.. No idea why they re-painted it!

Thanks very much mate! More videos coming soon!

Thanks very much Khan!

Thanks very much!

Yeah they are a really good machine for the price! Not sure I'd choose a new one over a HAAS at the same price (which is probably why they went out of business) but buying them used is a good deal! The 3016s are supposed to be beastly little machines! A lot more heavily constructed that the machines shown in the video! These machines don't have gibs actually as they're linear ways on all axes rather than box ways like on your machine... Box ways are definitely sturdier but need more maintenance like you saw!

Thanks mate, I really appreciate the feedback! Glad to hear the video interesting!

@@GoughCustom 😀👍

Thanks Raahul!

Glad you liked the video mate! Yeah it's hard to imagine too much stuff that would be worse for the machine... And crazy that the previous owner didn't simply invest a little bit of money in better duct collection... A HEPA rated dust collector plumbed into the enclosure would have made the graphite much less of an issue, but instead he just kept putting new parts in the machines... I have the service records and just about every part in the machine has been replaced at least once! 🙁

Hey Tony! Very busy indeed! I have a video already finished where I will walk everyone through what's been happening the last couple of years, it has been a busy and stressful time! Really glad you liked the video!

Haha thanks Rohan!

Thanks very much mate!

Nice Shane! Fanuc controllers seem crazy to me, I briefly had a CNC lathe with one and it seemed like they'd deliberately made it as hard to use as possible lol

@@GoughCustom Not bad once you get used to it. I’ve done some work with fadal as well. I just really sat down with it for a day or two once I did the lcd upgrade and modified my post processor for fusion.

Thanks Sami!

They are definitely hard to kill, lucky for me otherwise this one definitely would have been dead lol!

Thanks very much Philipp!

Thanks very much!

Hey PJ! And quite the treat to see that you're still watching my videos! Yeah it's definitely been a crazy couple of years... I have another video coming soon where I talk through everything that happened in the last couple of years, it's been quite the journey! The LCD was actually pretty easy! I ended up finding a monitor with a huge range of inputs. RCA, HDMI, VGA and BNC all on one monitor! Added a 12v power supply, plugged in the BNC cable and it worked on the first shot which was great! If you'd like to see more info on the installation I made a thread over on the practical machinist forum: www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/cnc-machining/easy-cheap-fadal-screen-replacement-374307/ 120 hours is definitely a bit of a guess, I worked on the machine over a couple of months so I had to estimate a little lol... I would have loved to keep the second machine, but I actually ended up moving back into a smaller shop, and didn't have space to keep it anyway! I still have 2 machines now though, my original VMC10 and the new VMC15 which is great! The VMC15 is supposed to be dedicated to knifemaking, with the VMC10 mostly reserved for prototyping and odd jobs. Pretty amazing to have 2 CNC machines now! I hope you're doing well mate! -Aaron