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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    475

    Smile FEMCO Durga 25-E

    Hello,
    This is a thread for a Femco Durga 25-E Lathe I have purchased from Machinery Exchange in Chatswood, California USA. I live in Australia so this is the first time I have imported a large item like this so far across the world. I have agreed freight, customs, and import through a freight broker here in Australia and have paid for the lathe and packageing in USD. Should take at least a month to get the lathe so here are some photo's I have and also a short video from the seller.

    Hope you enjoy,
    Chich

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxF732Ww4XM"]YouTube- Femco Durga CNC Lathe Machine[/ame]
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails FemcoDurga25E-001.jpg   FemcoDurga25E-008.jpg   FemcoDurga25E-010.jpg   FemcoDurga25E-011.jpg  

    FemcoDurga25E-012.jpg   FemcoDurga25E-016.jpg   FemcoDurga25E-017.jpg   FemcoDurga25E-019.jpg  

    FemcoDurga25E-021.jpg  

  2. #2
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Posts
    2420
    Sweet !!! Can't wait until that turns up

    Russell.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    475
    Time for an update post,
    My machine has made it from the United States across the vast Pacific ocean to Brisbane in Australia. Once it goes through customs and quarantine clearance it should be on it's way up to me. All things going well, the lathe should be on the truck in 3 to 4 day's from now.

    Chich

  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Posts
    2420
    Wicked

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Posts
    232
    I have neve seen a turret like that . What is it called.
    Tim

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    475
    Good question. I've heard it refered to as a Durga turret.

    Chich

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    475

    IT'S HERE!!!!!!!!

    My lathe arrived Monday and my friend went and picked it up for me. I got home from work yesterday (Thursday) and went straight around to his place to have a look. Cant see any thing as he has covered it realy well. Today I'll be working on getting it into my shed.

    Chich
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails P1070640.JPG   P1070641.JPG  

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    475

    Bad weather

    Well Surprise Surprise it's raining here!!!! Which it always does. Up to 7 meters of annual rainfall means fine weather doesn't always come along when you want it.

    I wasn't comfortable with my lathe sitting under a tarp out side. Especially when it rains and then the sun comes out and makes everything steamy. I was concerned that moisture would get into the machine and destroy something.

    To preserve the lathe as much as possible I moved it into a shed, still on the trailer, and removed the tarp.

    Chich
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails P1070645.JPG   P1070646.JPG   P1070647.JPG   P1070648.JPG  

    P1070649.JPG   P1070650.JPG   P1070651.JPG   P1070652.JPG  

    P1070653.JPG   P1070654.JPG   P1070655.JPG   P1070656.JPG  

    P1070657.JPG  

  9. #9
    Hi Chich,

    Nice looking machine, looks like it survived the trip half way round the world pretty well.

    Looking forward to following the project as it progresses.

    Congratulations on a successful purchase.

    Regards
    Ray

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    475

    Preperation

    Ray,
    Thanks for your post.

    Well I have been busy getting the shed ready for the lathe and also waiting for the weather to fine up. Firstly I completely cleaned out the shed and acid washed the concrete floor as a surface prep for painting. After that I had to wait a week for the concrete to completely dry. I then painted the entire floor with a VERY hard 2 Pack epoxy paint.

    I then built up the level of the ground outside the shed with coarse sand and set up some lite tram rail on top of it going into the shed. After that I went on a mission of fabricating up a heavy trolley made from 150mm X 50mm (6"X2") box pipe. The wall thickness is 6mm (1/4") so it was nice and strong. For wheels I used old bearings. To keep it straight on the track I welded side guides that run between the rails. The Idea is to place the lathe on ths trolley and roll it into the shed.

    Chich
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails 1. Cleaned and acid etched concrete floor.JPG   2. Painted floor with 2 Pack epoxy.JPG   3. Painted floor with 2 Pack epoxy.JPG   4. Set up lite rail into shed.JPG  

    5. Set up lite rail into shed.JPG   6. Fabricated Heavy Duty Trolley.JPG  

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    475

    Today All my Peperation Paid off!!!!

    Today was a Great Day. The weather Kind of cleared up and my friend who owns a 26Ton Excavator said he was in the area and would call in to unload my Lathe. I have been wanting to use an excavator because there is a tree stump in the way of getting my lathe to the shed. I made arrangements with him to remove the stump first then unload my lathe and put it onto the trolley I made in the previous post.

    I contacted my other friend who owns the trailer that the lathe is on and he took his truck and connected up the trailer. The excavator and the truck pretty much turned up at my place at the same time. The lathe weighs 3500Kg (7700 Pounds) and the Excavator is good for 2500Kg Fully extended so we kept the load in nice and close to the machine which was safely indicated on he load chart. The lift went exactly to plan and we placed the lathe onto the trolley and pushed the Lathe into the shed by hand.

    Here's some more Photo's

    Chich
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails 1. Excavator Arriving.JPG   2. Truck Arriving with My Lathe.JPG   3. My Lathe On the Truck.JPG   4. Lathe Off the Truck and on it's way to the Shed.JPG  

    5. Placing the lathe onto the Trolley.jpg   6. Lathe On Trolley ready to Roll into Shed.JPG   7. Rolling Lathe Into Shed.JPG  

  12. #12
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Posts
    2420
    Good work Chich ! Bet you are happy to have your new baby home

    I might drop in this arvo if I finish work early enough !

    Russell.

  13. #13
    Hi Chich,

    I can see an enormous amount of thought and planning has gone into solving what is really a very difficult and dangerous problem, I admire the way you have gone about doing it ingeniously with materials that were at hand. Not related to McGyver by any chance?

    Then, to see it all work as planned, that's real enjoyment and satisfaction.

    The clearance under the roller door, was neatly done!

    Cant' wait to see it all bolted down and powered up.

    Your shed looks a bit cleaner than mine

    Regards
    Ray

    By the way, thanks for the encouragemnent on the HM52 project, I appreciate it. Thanks.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    475
    Hey Russ! Yea I'm VERY Happy the lathe is finally in MY shed. All in all it took 1 day short of 1 month to get the lathe off the back of my mate's trailer. I am just plain lucky he didn't need the trailer for something else!

    Ray,
    Yes you are right. It took a lot of thinking and organizing to get the lathe to where it is now. Haa I enjoyed your McGyver post!!! Good one!

    I will be leaving the lathe on the rails for a few months while I take the panels off and clean the internals up. That way I can roll it in and out of the shed as needed. It will be about 6 months until the 3rd phase power line is run to my place so I have plenty of time.

    Here's some more photo's

    Chich
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails 1. Lathe in Position in it's New Home.JPG   2. Lathe in Position in it's New Home.JPG   3. Lathe in Position in it's New Home.JPG  

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    475

    Covers off for Cleaning

    Over the last few days I have removed some of the covers off the lathe and started to give the machine a good clean up. There was a lot of swarf and chips in behind the guards which I removed. I have inspected the linear guide ways and everything seems fine. There is a small patch of rust on one of the giudes that I will carefully polish off by hand.

    I have been checking the logic power battery pack on the FANUC control every few weeks with a multimeter to make sure the batteries are still producing 4.5Volts. So far, so good. I hear it can be a nightmare to get the parameters for these machines if you loose them.

    I now have 3 phase power connected to my property and will have the lathe conneted to mains power in the near future. In the mean time I will be fabricating a frame to house a 415 Volt to 220 Volt transformer to the machine. A big thanks to Babinda01 who kindly donated me the transformer from an old HMC he has stored. I also disconnected the cooant pump today to make room for the transformer. The coolant pump will be mouted verticaly once the transformer is in place.

    Chich
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails P1070835.JPG   P1070836.JPG   P1070837.JPG   P1070838.JPG  

    P1070839.JPG   P1070840.JPG   P1070841.JPG  

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    475

    Power to the Beast!

    Since my lathe came from the United States it runs a mains voltage of 220V. A little while back, I was given a transformer to step down our 415V to 220V by Babinda01 which Epineh removed from an unused machine and my brother inlaw helped me get it to my place. The lathe coolant pump was in the way of where I want to put the transformer so I removed the pump and will re-mount it later. I fabricated a frame to hold the transformer and made some sheet metal guards. The photo's show the transformer and the frame sitting on the machine loosley. Next I will remove it all and paint it to be bolted on tight.

    Chich
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails P1070845.JPG   P1070848.JPG   P1070898.JPG   P1070899.JPG  

    P1070900.JPG  

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    475

    It's..................ALIVE!!!!!!!

    My friendly electrician made a visit and installed a 3 phase outlet on my wall right beside my lathe. I then helped him to run some wiring through the lathe to the main switch, then down to the transformer and then straight into the machine control. There was a logic plug right in front of the terminals that the power was supposed to go into and I was REALLY being cautions not to disturb anything that could lead to me loosing the machine parameters. So instead of unplugging this logic plug we decided to use the existing power supply wiring and splice them into the new cable from the transformer.

    We then double checked everything and tested it before powering it up.
    My friend manned the switch on the wall outlet and I was at the front of the machine. I flicked the main switch on the front and BANG!!!!!!!!!!
    (flame2)(flame2)(flame2)(flame2)(flame2)(flame2)(f lame2)(flame2)(flame2)



    Only kidding!!!!!! HA! Bet I had a few of you worried then! Actually the exact opposite happened. I then pressed START and up came the CNC control on the screen. :banana: I released the e-stop and pressed START again and the control came to life but the Hydraulic pump did not start. The Hydraulic pump contactor pulled in but the pump did not go. After powering down and some quick maintenance on the contactor we tried again. Success this time but after about 5 seconds I realized the Hydraulic pump was spinning backwards. We quickly powered down again and swapped 2 phases over on the transformer. Powered on again and up came the hydraulic pressure.

    I then went through every function I could find and to my absolute delight, Absolutely everything except for the work light works!!!!! :wee:

    Spindle, gear change, tail stock, front and rear turret, X and Z axis, All the buttons on the control panel, Tool presetter arm (tool touch probe is in a cardboard box not actually in the arm) Everything working.

    Oh I forgot... The first thing I did once the control powered up was to take photo's of all the parameter screens. I have since burnt them to a CD for safe keeping.


    I am very happy.
    Chich

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    475

    Did I mention this machine was filthy????

    For the past few days I have been cleaning the machine up. In places it has a large amount of swarf, in other places it is all caked up with sludge that ordinary degreaser or even diesel wont break down. I tried the cheapest oven cleaner I could find in a pump pack and it worked very well. I sprayed a little on to a cloth and wiped them down. This was followed by many rinses over with a clean wet rag until I was happy there was no more residual oven cleaner. The cooling heat exchanger on the back of the electronics enclosure was all blocked up with sticky gray sludge so I pulled it all apart and gave it and the fans a thorough clean. The hydraulic pump fan cowling had a mountain of crud in it and so did the spindle motor fan. I removed the cowling off the hydraulic motor fan and cleaned everything up like new. To clean the main spindle motor fan I finished up removing the entire spindle motor as I wanted to repair a cable that I felt may have been dangerous. While the spindle motor was removed, I noticed that the motor cooling fins were completely blocked up with crud. I spent about 3 hours cleaning the motor and fan up and then my Dad and I put it all back in the lathe. A quick test run today confirmed good air flow through all that was cleaned.

    Chich
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails P1070905.JPG   P1070906.JPG   P1070907.JPG   P1070908.JPG  

    P1070910.JPG   P1070913.JPG   P1070914.JPG  

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    475

    Finished Transformer

    Over the week end and up till now I've been pretty much cleaning everything I can. The main thing I have found is cooling fans that are gummed up with muck so they can't spin. Once I clean them they run fine. Who knows how long they've been stalled for? Anyway their all running now.

    Today I finished off the transformer enclosure. I purchased some color matched paint on Saturday and painted everything on Sunday. I left it to dry overnight in my shed and then sat it in the sun all day today. This afternoon I re-fitted it all to the lathe and connected up the transformer.


    Chich
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails P1070931.JPG   P1070935.JPG   P1070937.JPG   P1070938.JPG  

    P1070940.JPG   P1070941.JPG  

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    475

    Lathe stand

    Some of you may freak out about this but I have been really liking the height the machine is currently at off the floor. Because of the railway line and trolley I made, the machine is sitting about 200mm (8") up from the floor. The more I fiddle with the machine the more I like it at this height. Another thing I like about it being high is the location of the hydraulic drain and the coolant drain plugs. They are built into the machine as the lowest points so you can drain the oil and coolant. Problem is it makes it difficult to drain into something. You have to pump the liquids out, which I am not equipped to do.

    Like I said, I like the working height now where the machine is 200mm off the floor. SO........

    I purchased some 200UB29 and my brother in-law and I made this frame to sit the lathe on. I had to make it so I could poke it in under the lathe once it's jacked up off the railway line. The lathe normally sits on 6 screws that you use to level the machine with so we added 6 strengthening gussets welded between the flanges where each screw jack sits. Attached are some photo's of making the frame and also how the forks hold it. The frame will have a 1mm thick rubber strip glued to the bottom of the steel where it rests onto the concrete floor.

    Chich
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails P1070968.JPG   P1070969.JPG   P1070972.JPG   P1070976.JPG  

    P1070977.JPG   P1070979.JPG   P1070980.JPG  

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