[scubaru]

So the company I work for now has only been in the manufacturing game 2 years, to start this new adventure some very old machines were purchased. Now that the division is doing well, the old machines need gone.

The lathe we have was assembled in 1990 and about a month ago the motherboard went out. The machine was purchased for near the cost of a new motherboard. So I've started the search for options to get some return on investment on these machines. Lathe is a SuperMax YCM-TC-2 running Fanuc OT.

I am in contact with a Fanucworld to buy up the majority of Fanuc components if their offer is lucrative enough. With that said, that leaves about 60 little other parts from interface components, limit switches, a few encoders, etc etc. Is there any place that purchases up these small parts or is it worthwhile to try to sell the more valuable of these parts?

I'd like to strip this machine down to the bare frame/panels/large items and have it hauled off as scrap but would like to see if we can still make a few hundred off the random bits and pieces.

Thanks guys!

[crasher455]

So the company I work for now has only been in the manufacturing game 2 years, to start this new adventure some very old machines were purchased. Now that the division is doing well, the old machines need gone.

The lathe we have was assembled in 1990 and about a month ago the motherboard went out. The machine was purchased for near the cost of a new motherboard. So I've started the search for options to get some return on investment on these machines. Lathe is a SuperMax YCM-TC-2 running Fanuc OT.

I am in contact with a Fanucworld to buy up the majority of Fanuc components if their offer is lucrative enough. With that said, that leaves about 60 little other parts from interface components, limit switches, a few encoders, etc etc. Is there any place that purchases up these small parts or is it worthwhile to try to sell the more valuable of these parts?

I'd like to strip this machine down to the bare frame/panels/large items and have it hauled off as scrap but would like to see if we can still make a few hundred off the random bits and pieces.

Thanks guys!

I would recommend trying to sell the parts on EBAY. On a 1990 machine I don't think Fanucworld is going to offer you very much at all. I recently parted out a 1992 Excell 810, fanuc OMB machining center that had a bad spindle drive and the rest of the control was fully functional. I had both Fanucworld and PLC center bid on the control parts and servo's. The price they offered to pay was 1/4 of what the same used parts were going for on Ebay and even Craigs list.
One question, how did you come to the conclusion that the motherboard is the problem? The reason I ask is I have been repairing Fanuc controls for 15 years and have only come across one O series control that the mother board was shot, and it was due to physical damage. It may be relatively cheap to fix the machine and just sell it off as a running used machine.

[scubaru]

I would recommend trying to sell the parts on EBAY. On a 1990 machine I don't think Fanucworld is going to offer you very much at all. I recently parted out a 1992 Excell 810, fanuc OMB machining center that had a bad spindle drive and the rest of the control was fully functional. I had both Fanucworld and PLC center bid on the control parts and servo's. The price they offered to pay was 1/4 of what the same used parts were going for on Ebay and even Craigs list.
One question, how did you come to the conclusion that the motherboard is the problem? The reason I ask is I have been repairing Fanuc controls for 15 years and have only come across one O series control that the mother board was shot, and it was due to physical damage. It may be relatively cheap to fix the machine and just sell it off as a running used machine.

Mind you I did the diagnostics about 2 months ago, our lathe isn't used for any production so I put this on the back-burner till now. The machine was running fine all day, but by 5p when I went to go shut it down the screen had said something like ECU Interrupt or something to that degree. Through talking with Fanuc directly it was narrowed down to either the power control unit for the motherboard or the motherboard, we opted to pay for the $300 part, but that wasn't the issue. The motherboard used is about $1800.

The company I work for is a performance shop that specializes in building high powered cars. So the manufacturing division is something of a new field. With that said the CNC department is not climate controlled. The day the machine stopped working the shop temperature was 98 degrees and I noticed one of the cabinet fans wasn't working.

[wizard]

98° will do in many types of computers, especially considering the panel itself was not ventilating.
I'm not sure what avenue I'd take but I'm not a big fan of parting out parts. So I'd either try to sell the machine as is or send the controller to one of the used equipment dealers. The problems with parting out are the time it takes, and the liability you incur. It is much easier to send the controller to somebody and wash your hands of it.

Mind you I did the diagnostics about 2 months ago, our lathe isn't used for any production so I put this on the back-burner till now. The machine was running fine all day, but by 5p when I went to go shut it down the screen had said something like ECU Interrupt or something to that degree. Through talking with Fanuc directly it was narrowed down to either the power control unit for the motherboard or the motherboard, we opted to pay for the $300 part, but that wasn't the issue. The motherboard used is about $1800.

Your other option is to rebuild the machine for your needs. If the basic machine is in good condition fixing it either with a new board from FANUC or an after market upgrade might not be that bad in the end. After all to scrap the machine costs money. If you look at the price of the motherboard and fret over it equaling the cost of the entire used machine you may bias yourself. For a growing company even a used machine can be valuable to fill in as growth happens. In otherwords $1800 is cheap if the lathe sees any sort of work in a year.

The company I work for is a performance shop that specializes in building high powered cars. So the manufacturing division is something of a new field. With that said the CNC department is not climate controlled. The day the machine stopped working the shop temperature was 98 degrees and I noticed one of the cabinet fans wasn't working.

On the flips side here you need to invest in air conditioning. It will reduce your electronics failure rate. 98° ambient air temperature can be very hard on computers. This especially the case in panel boxes that run hotter than average.