Thread: Machinery Relocation.

Originally Posted by .RC.

Here is a vid of a multispindle lathe in action for those wondering what actually is a multispindle lathe... The vid is not of an Index though..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om613Cfp0Ag

amazing stuff...if it wasnt for youtube we outsiders wouldnt know anything

Still spending the day, removing units, cleaning them up, and getting them ready to load. We have put a pretty big hole under the bar feeder where most of this stuff sits. All the sub assemblies have been removed. I spent at least a hour this morning just cleaning the floor where this stuff used to sit.

The site doesn't have a lot of spare room. So you have to be careful not to scatter it around too much. This is the hydraulic unit for the bar feeder. That real dirty part is for the oil that circulates the bar, lubricating it in the liner. That gets real dirty. It has a separate reservoir in the corner for real hydraulic functions. That was much cleaner. I start cleaning stuff like that by sucking out as much oil as I can into a 44 gallon drum using one of those venturi things.

Then I pure a bag of kitty litter oil absorbent in the tank, and scrape out as much of the rest as I can. You can get rid of it as dry waste that way. Then a bulk of degreaser, and a lick with a hot wash, once the motors have been bagged. A dry and buff with a rag. That will get strapped to timber bearers, rust proofed, then wrapped in that .2mm black builders film, to keep him dry.

That timber has to be ISPM-15 for export. (treated timber) I picked up half a trailer load yesterday, and a box of desiccant bags, plus another roll of bubble wrap.

P1000760.JPG

P1000765.JPG

This is the smog hog mist extraction unit that sits on top of the main machine. That was pretty putrid inside. So I dragged it back to my shop to steam clean it. Its finished now, and will go back to site in the morning.
P1000767.JPG

P1000768.JPG

Couple of days back, we pulled 1,200 litres of straight cutting fluid out of all the swarf handling units. Another 400 litres of hydraulic oil to come out of the main part of the machine tomorrow.

I'm thinking about booking the container for next Tuesday or Wednesday. But I have a few other jobs on at the moment. I have to get to Warrnambool for a few days to return something I've repaired. That might be my Saturday Sunday job yet.

Regards Phil.

(On Edit)

Originally Posted by Machtool

(treated timber) I picked up half a trailer load yesterday

I'll let you in on a trade secret. Timber bearers. Nylon strap them to the bottom of the load. Nothing aggrieves me more than to climb off a fork truck to pick up and move timbers. Time I get these into the container, I'll have handled them 3 or 4 times each, another couple of times when they get to destination.

The trick is to rout a groove down the bottom of the plank, so the nylon strapping doesn't rub against the concrete or the floor of the container.

P1000762.JPG

Time warping back to last Wednesday. At the station 6 position (part off), they have what's called a synchro spindle. Its a Scara arm, complete with spindle. It grabs the cut off part, and does the back end machining on the part. Its about 300 - 350 kilo's, and it hangs out in fresh air. It would never survive a road trip, with out slipping position and needing recalibration.

Last Wednesday was fitting all the axis clamps. All the slides get mechanically locked. There was a box full of them from when the machine was sent out here. We used them again when I moved the machine across town. We had to do this while the power was still on.

This arm was redesigned and retrofitted by Index back in 2006. So it had no travel clamps with it. When I moved it in 2012, we just sent it air ride low loader, and I did a bit of inventive rigging with some timber, and nylon lashing straps. I cant send fencing wire and bush engineering back to Germany, on the chance they would laugh at me.

So I come up with this, there were 2 decent M16 bolts holding the guarding flume onto the bulk head of the machine. I picked up those, couple of holes in a 12mm plate, a scrap of 75mm RHS. I had a scrap of 150 / 210 hollow bar. I turned the bore of that, then split it to make a horse shoe bracket. Bit of buggery with a cheap as digital protractor. And this is what I ended up with.

Lined that with some rubber sheet, then drove the arm into it, until the diagnostics said there was no current on the drives. At that point it must be taking all the weight. It has brakes on all 3 servo motors, but this just ensures they don't have to do a lot.

P1000748.JPG

P1000745.JPG

P1000747.JPG

Regards Phil.

So Phil,
Given that this is a custom dismantle/storage/transport job I'm assuming you will be following the machine back to Germany for supervision of the unpack/installation/startup. Or do you just send a whole lot of notes about what you have done and what needs to be done at that end.

Anyway very interesting to follow what you are doing.

Mark

Hi Phil,
I have no idea but this doesn't look like a small job. The logistics alone are mind numbing let alone using woodwork skills as well.
Have you slept yet? Is anyone giving you a hand? I would be down there like a shot if I wasn't in the middle of a (rushed) boiler clean.
Great thread by the way.

Phil

Originally Posted by markgray

So Phil,
Given that this is a custom dismantle/storage/transport job I'm assuming you will be following the machine back to Germany for supervision of the unpack/installation/startup.

I'm working on that, I just need to impress them. October scraping class is probably close to the wind, to me being available. My biggest problem is, I have trouble convincing Americans or Europeans, that one bloke can take care of it. They dont understand how isolated we are and we tend to multi-task.

Every where else has a rigger, a mechanical engineer, an electrical engineer, a commissioning engineer, an app's engineer. It is just totally foreign to them. I do get some help, the programmer at the original site for these, still helps out with Applications (Program's). He did multiple training courses in Germany on them. We are particually good mates. We did many a long hour, weekend, Christmas shut downs looking after these things. He is particularly good. He has the German's scratching their heads, about how he achieves some things.

I mentioned the place that has 3 -32mm machines. That makes plumbing fitting's. They had considered buying new, until this opportunity of buying second hand feel into their laps. When you get into this level of production, every 0.1 of a second counts. As part of the quotation process you get into something called a time / process study.

That's were you break the part down into 6 distinct operations, optimising speeds and feeds, to come up with the quickest cycle time, for each spindle / station. I did a lot of this crap when I was at RMIT 25 years ago, hadn't use it for a decade and a half, then all of a sudden it was important again. They were quoted over 12 seconds for the German factory. Alan has them dropping off at every 9.1 Seconds. That's a 25% productivity gain in my book. People go on strike for less.

At the risk of talking about a company here, in which I have some commercial in-confidence. Take a look at this.

SharkBite Lead Free Couplings SharkBitePlumbing.com

If you can work it out, dont Fxxxing name them here, I'd hate a google search to track back to me.

Notice the dot.com URL and the 800-518 phone number. Particuly American. All made in Braeside Melbourne. There still a bit of industry ticking along, you just dont hear about it with the Ford / Holden gloom and doom.

To get back to your original question.Notes, I do a few, theres a fair picture essay going on, but thats mostly to do with getting paid. You throw money at these jobs like nothing else. We are on our 75th kilo of rags. 15 kg bag of rag's cost me $31.50 Thats just a small portion of it but it all add's up. 60 hour weeks, they have to bank roll it. I'm about to find out, because when I find time, I'm sticking in the first progress claim invoice.

Its a German machine, and as such its so well labeled. Every thing electrical is plugged. Labels are getting a bit dirty and hard to read, but we are doing the clean up on this end. We are gallons into de-greaser all ready.

I have this system, told to me by a man I much respected. That is to treat it like your " going to be hit by a bus in the morning"

You know those multi coloured packs of cable ties you get at Bunnings? They are cable ties but the colour is imprevious to cleaning.

Theres Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Black and White. Black and white are just shades, and you will use 1000's of those just bundling stuff up.

The colours, when you disconnect a hose put a red cable tie on the hose, and a red cable tie on the fitting you stick it back into.

Thats only 4 combinations I hear you say, but then you do red / blue, red / green etc tied side by side on the same line / cable and its matching fitting / plug.

I can go to three different coloured cable ties per connection, laid side by side. But then I get inventive. Have you ever joined 2 cable ties together to make tham longer?

All the cable ties are the same size, so you can zip a blue one into a red one. Simple rule is to read them top to bottom, left to right, "just like reading a book. Other rule is to cut off flush cable ties that are just bunbeling. (As they should be)

The ones that are referenced tied, half an inche of tail is left on them as a flag. If you have a 10mm pneumatic hose with a red / blue flag on it. There will be a 10mm push in fitting some place with a red / blue flag on it.

I've dumbed my industry down for those that can joint the dots, or passed finger painting.

Regards Phil

Originally Posted by Steamwhisperer

I've no idea but this doesn't look like a small job. The logistics alone are mind numbing let alone using woodwork skills as well.l

These are the job's I switch on for. I have labour on it. We lost the kid. The kid that did the one day. Poor bastard, I'd have done his head in next week, when I get to go rip, roar and bust.

Technically I'm working with one of my oposition. Theres two of us, but I'm handling organisation. I only work with Marko, this guy, Garry, and I forget who else. Maybe they retired.

I'm working with a freight forwarding company called "Fracht" That roughly means Freight in German. Associates have used them before with good reviews.

I know the few specific craines / forklift that will do justice to the job . Every fool in town has a 25T Franna. I need a bit of special love. Pics to follow around 7 days time
Regards Phil.

Impressive job, I like the coloured cable tie idea... very slick. Fingers crossed the Germans are up for a lesson It's currently the middle of holiday season over there, everyone will be down on the beach drinking beer, you could keep them honest.

Ray

Originally Posted by Machtool

Every where else has a rigger, a mechanical engineer, an electrical engineer, a commissioning engineer, an app's engineer. It is just totally foreign to them.

Right -
Simon can pretend to be your rigger, I'll pretend to be a mech eng, Ray can impersonate the elec eng, you can be the comm eng and we'll drag Josh in to look like an apps eng. Now they will pay for the lot of us?

Michael

Not much to report the last 36 hours. Thursday was a disaster. We snapped the machine into two bits.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

That's right, we separated the bar feeder from the machine. Houston we have lift off. This was late Thursday night. We dropped a little spreader bar across the tail end, and put the transport legs on the front end. Put those on one of my piano skates, a little simplex jack action, and we sent it 4 feet West.

P1000786.JPG

P1000789.JPG

Here's what you wont see pictures off. I stuffed up. I didn't even think to retract the bar pusher's, before we killed the power. All 6 of those were still in the spindles of the main machine. I had to shoot out there Friday morning and crack the lines on the hydraulic feed motors to retract those. It all looks sweet no. No foul, no harm.

Since Lunchtime Friday, I've been swinging an axe relocating another factory. Two semi loads of machines in just on 8 hours.

Tomorrow I'll finish up some thing that's been in the shop since last Tuesday week, and try and be in Warrnambool by night fall. Hopefully Monday there, and back onto this Tuesday. It will start to get interesting next week. As chance would have it. The one guy I want to lift the main machine onto the flat rack, turned up to the job I was on today.

Today would have been sensational, until I clipped a water meter with a fork, I was driving, and ruptured the water line.

Regards Phil.

Gee thats a large work load , sounds like you need a non quitting apprentice

Originally Posted by Machtool

Today would have been sensational, until I clipped a water meter with a fork, I was driving, and ruptured the water line.

I hope you blamed Stuart...

I've been back on this since driving back from Warnambool yesterday morning.

The control on this thing has been driving me nuts. Its on a pendant that hangs about 1800mm on the long side, so you can swing it from one side to the other.

While I was driving back I conjured this up. I drilled two 11mm holes in the front lifting bar, then knocked this bracket up at my place last night.

P1000819.JPG

P1000825.JPG

P1000826.JPG

P1000834.JPG

Bit of an MDF shroud, then we disconnected the arm, and layed the control under the bracket. The arm would have been too high if we put the box on-top of the bracket. 4 x 200kg lashings for some thing I can man handle.

They joy is: I just made the box 1200mm shorter. I have a 8.30am meeting with the company that is doing the vac bag and crate. I'll beat them down in price over what they quoted 3 months back when we first put a proposal together.

Regards Phil.

G'day Blokes.

I just haven't had the minutes to be updating this story. The 40ft container is packed to the rafters. That's a whole other story. I was told you cant fit all the periphery equipment into one 40 foot container. When these machines are new they come in a 40 and a 20, plus the 20 foot flat rack, for the main body of the machine.

I said I could. I present the multi-story container. I put a mezzanine floor in it. This is something Dave H. Dave4 from this forum did about 20 years ago, moving a dirty big O.K.K Machining Centre from Adelaide to N.Z.

I gathered up all the moderately low stuff, there's a coolant tank with 7 pumps on it under there, the primary swarf conveyor, which is about 3.5m long, but low for the majority of its length, before the chain raises up to the hopper, and a big long electrical cabinet that drives all the coolant functions. All that fitted under the deck, with about enough room to separate them by a sheet of carpet.

This is what it looks like to start with, I cut legs 10mm higher than the highest point on the coolant tank. Then you skew nail them to the floor in the female corrugations of the container wall. Then you cut the cross beams, about 4mm longer than you measure with a tape, and lock them across the container to become beams. They sit on the legs, there's 11 of them, I found a hole to put a leg mid span.

P1000863.JPG

P1000872.JPG

P1000865.JPG

All the legs get carpet stapled to them, so you can pull the machine units tight to them. That traps the legs.

P1000875.JPG

12mm Structural ply glued, and nailed. Ties it all together. I also dropped a 1.5t lashing strap around it pulling it all into the end of the container. There were two excellent lashing points mid way up the walls, in both corners.

P1000882.JPG

This is what we call the fluff. All the light stuff. There are 29 plastic tubs measuring 400 x 700mm up there. All the collets, tooling, spare servo's and some little trolleys, etc went up there. All hand loaded.

P1000888.JPG
More stuff, the fine drum separator, and a set of service ladders that don't even come with the machine, they were made here. The smog hog, that does come with the machine. That ended up in the stairs, just because they were about the some lenght. (2.2m) We filled the hole under that with other stuff.

There's another hydraulic unit and a spindle chiller that went in after that.

P1000892.JPG

Last Thursday night we skated the bar feeder in. I have 4 inches to spare. It's lashed and chained each way to Sunday. 5T feeder with a 2T fork. But I only needed to lift one end at a time. It just wouldn't side shift. So I jacked the legs of the barfeeder up, and skated the container under it.

Fitting that all in the one container, saved my client some thing like $7k. That means I'm working for free.