WTB Your 3M Lava Form (Mill)

**DMC** · 09-01-2011, 05:12 PM

I am looking to buy another Lava mill used if possible.

Anyone looking to sell, please talk to me!

Scott

**JayH** · 09-01-2011, 05:30 PM

Try Issaquah...

**DMC** · 09-01-2011, 06:00 PM

LOL, they called me looking for a mill.

They are not selling. Besides, who wants one of their old turds that has had the 5hit beat out of it?

Kinda looking to buy from small lab that has not pushed the mill over the limits of abuse.

I give up on the Haas option after shopping for hundreds of hours. No tool sensor to detect breakage or set tool length. I have to manualy set the legnth of each tool. Not what I want to do in my spare time.

Haas sends me the 4th/5th axis unit in a box, and I have to put it together and center, etc. on the mill. They will not even install the darn thing if I buy a mill and 4th/5th at same time. Weird company.

**JayH** · 09-01-2011, 06:13 PM

Originally Posted by DMC

...Besides, who wants one of their old turds that has had the 5hit beat out of it?

Kinda looking to buy from small lab that has not pushed the mill over the limits of abuse.

What makes you think they abused their LavaForms? Is that what you do?

**DMC** · 09-01-2011, 07:11 PM

No, I mean they have the oldest mills in America, right?

And, all of their mills pretty much run 24/7, right?

If they sold one of their 10 mills, do you think it is going to be a winner?

Ball-screws are probably worn out by now. They'd sell their oldest mill first. (Going to be a Power Automation and have the most hours on it of all mills in the USA)

OK, You go buy it Jay.

I service my own mills and grease them 2x a year or more. I make sure to get the evil Z-axis Zerk fittings. Ya know?

I'm a small lab and paid for my mills with blood and sweat. I need them to run for a while, and no I do not abuse my mills.

Do you think the people who run the Lava mills at Issaquah give a rats ass if they are greased or not.

Jay, I think you asked a silly question. Yes, I think a used mill from Issaquah would be a turd. Crazy high spindle hours...automation and all moving parts sketchy by now being over a decade of use. right?

I'm looking for someone who has 1yr of bank payments left or maybe just finished paying the loan and is ready to get the mill out of their office. Five year old mill at max, and I hope with the Beckhoff PLC.

**JayH** · 09-02-2011, 09:38 AM

They weren't ever running 24/7, no and certainly not by the time I left. What was a 300+ unit/day operation when I joined was down to under 200/day when I left thanks to the influx of Zirconia solutions and the race to the bottom.

The oldest LavaForm there is M118. I'm thinking it was '02 or '03, yes but the latest is only about two or three years old. And the younger the mill didn't necessarily equate to the most consistent or least troublesome.

Every single one of those units also saw an Annual PM every year, and a semi-annual PM every year. That's a full check up, recalibration, and mandatory part replacement on specific parts, as well as the ones out of spec, every six months. And by a 3M employee, not someone who doesn't have the service manuals, specs, tools to do the job like the manufacturer intended. Roger Holman has got to be the most experienced LavaForm tech on the planet!

If I was looking for a LavaForm I'd go there first but I'm not looking!

The question was prompted by my taking offense to your suggestion that I didn't take care of my equipment when I was the manager there. That and it seems to me that you make statements/judgement calls based on analyses lacking all the data (e.g. you called me a 3Shape lover in the thread on white light vs laser scanning.) My apologies to you for getting defensive.

**DMC** · 09-02-2011, 10:18 AM

Why would they buy more and more mills if they were not running 24/7??

That makes no sense at all.

3m does the grease once a year with only one-two pumps of grease.

I think that is not enough. I have all the same parts as 3M. I paid Gates belt in England to make me 90 custom sized axis belts, I have new axis motors from Maxon, new air solonoids from Presto, etc... I am trained to service some complicated machines as well. I know how to keep the mills running. I have taken apart just about the whole thing by myself.

Anyway, Issaquah called me a couple months wanting to buy a mill.
I would take any mill over one of theirs anyday.