Just realized everyone at my shop thinks you need to baby that old Mazak VTC-41, but I ran it flat out for a week on a rush order of 500 aluminum brackets and it never missed a beat.

The foreman told me I'd burn up the spindle bearings pushing 8000 rpm for that long, but the parts came out perfect and the machine's thermal sensors never got above 140 degrees Fahrenheit, so has anyone else had a good experience running older machines harder than the shop wisdom says you can?

3 comments

3 Comments

miller.susan23d ago

Who's to say that old Mazak wasn't built better than half the new stuff out there? I've seen a lot of guys baby their machines because they heard it from some old-timer, but the real test is throwing a job at it and seeing if it holds up. If the sensors stayed cool and the parts were good, you proved the machine can handle it, plain and simple.

wren30123d ago

Run the machine hard enough to prove what it can do. Watch the temp gauges and listen for chatter, that'll tell you more than any rumor. If it holds tolerance and doesn't smoke, it earned the work.

nathanking17d ago

Isn't it funny how a lot of that older iron has simpler systems that just run cooler under load? I'd bet those servo drives and spindle motors on that Mazak were designed with a lot more thermal headroom than some of the tightly packed new stuff. @miller.susan it sounds like you proved the machine's base bones are solid, which really is the main thing. The real test is always in the cut, not the reputation, right?