With a shop with aging equipment, when should you pull the trigger on upgrading? What we have works for what we are doing, but as they get older, drive and computer issues start to cause downtime. It hasn’t impacted us too much… yet.
1 Like
I would be looking into the stepping up a newer CNC machine can replace maybe more than one piece of old equipment. Depending on what your shop has and what is needed to keep your business growing. I have always been told to have a account or portion set off to the side monthly or quarterly depending when is best for you. That way when you have a machine down you can upgrade it at that time.
1 Like
You should upgrade or replace machines when you feel it has a proper return of investment. I agree with Mike Jones that one new Machine can outperform 2 older machines in certain circumstances.
1 Like
Yes, I agree; always have said, if you’re not pulling the trigger, your competition is. They are solid pieces, but do lack some of the options we want. I’m ready to hook a chain to them and drag them out of the shop when they breakdown, though.
3 Likes
Greg you ask hard questions 
The real question is: Would replacing a machine increase your production capacity and do you need additional production capacity? When to replace? At the first sign of computer/controls failure. The other consideration is your income and taxes. It may make sense to buy or lease new equipment if you have enough income to justify that. A chat with your accountant would be a good first step here. Right now the tax laws are very favorable especially to small businesses and avoided taxes can just about pay for a machine. If it comes down to giving my money to the government or buying a shiny new machine, the shiny new machine is going to win out every time.
I have a little different take on things. If your machines are in good mechanical shape and they are working for you now, then upgrading the controls is my prefered method of getting a ‘‘new’’ machine. Replace the motors, drives, and computer system. We did this for our 30 year old Hardinge Conquest 42 lathe and are very happy with the result. We added features and capabilities and did it for about $7500, far less than buying even a used machine with similar features.
If you want (need) more spindle HP and overall higher production capability, then a new or used machine would be the best option. We needed an overall higher production mill than our CNC knee mill, so we bought a year old Haas.
2 Likes
Yes, we make good money with what we have and they usually run great. They have shown their age, as backup batteries, hard drives, etc . have failed over the years. We 've used the A2100 control for years, very familiar with it and being about 5 hours away from any technician, have learned to repair these, to a point, as well and have very good help when needed. Once we have gone through the normal aging parts as described, they have been running well. We have a lathe that was in storage for over a year and that one has tested everyone’s patience. It just comes up with off the wall problems; it’s ran enough that it has paid for itself, paid for all of it’s repairs and made us money; just every now and then it has a problem that requires a repair that takes 2- 3 weeks to turn around the part. That hasn’t really hurt us yet, as it does not run at full capacity.
I believe the owner wants to keep using these for now, unless something catastrophic happens, as we’re contemplating a move out of CA; if that happens, might be a good opportunity to unload these and not have to move them and continue on with newer equipment.
thanks for the input!!
1 Like