[chich2]

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]

[epineh]

Sweet !!! Can't wait until that turns up

Russell.

[chich2]

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

[epineh]

Wicked

[timlkallam]

I have neve seen a turret like that . What is it called.

[chich2]

Good question. I've heard it refered to as a Durga turret.

Chich

[chich2]

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

[chich2]

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

[RayGardiner]

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

[chich2]

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

[epineh]

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.

[RayGardiner]

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.

[chich2]

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

[chich2]

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

[chich2]

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

[DMBGO]

Hi Chic,
That looks like a db25 serial port. Have you tried connecting a null modem cable from that to a pc to see what happens? Experiment with various comms parameters, but it's probably 9600, 8, n, 1

Cheers
Dave

[chich2]

Thanks Dave. I will try that. Is this smaller plug also called RS232?

Chich

[DMBGO]

No, I'm not familiar with the smaller 20pin? plug. Let me know how you go when you hook up your laptop to the serial port, did I mention that you will need to use a terminal emulator, such as hyperterminal.

Cheers
Dave

[chich2]

I placed 2 hydraulic jacks under the machine and raised it up off the trolley. Once elevated, I slipped 2 x 2 Meter lengths of 150 X 50 Box pipe under the lathe and chocked the machine up off the floor with enough height to get the new frame underneath. Once the lathe was securely in place, I rolled the trolley out along the track and removed it. I then removed the track and chocked the lathe up in the center for safety.

The next step is to install the frame.

Chich

[chich2]

I have now pretty much finished the lathe base frame. I have drilled and tapped holes in the frame for a few different things. There are 6 holes to bolt the frame down to the concrete floor. There are another 6 drilled and tapped holes in the top of the frame to bolt the leveling screws of lathe to. I have also drilled and tapped 4 holes on the bottom flange of the frame so I can remove the 2 foot pedals for the chuck and tail stock, and fit them to the frame down on the floor.

It was then time to slip the frame in under the lathe and mark out the bolt holes onto the concrete floor.

Chich