Taiwanese Deckeloid Value?

B

British Steel

Forum Guest
Register Today
Deckeloid small.jpg OK, so I've seen a grubby, scruffy Taiwanese "clone" of a Deckel FP1 (with some differences in construction and quality!), appears to be in working order, comes with a basic 3-axis Anilam DRO, humungous-looking vice, some collets, a beaten-up rotary table and some Misc., probably dates from the 70's or 80's - I'm assuming it's 3-phase so I'll have to add a VFD / rotary convertor (or swap in a single-phase motor if the original's not 2-speed like the Real Deckel), I have a tug and trailer I can use as it's probably only 1/2 ton, couple of willing helpers, so far so good.... It'd be nice not to have to pull the topslide off my lathe to use it as a milling machine!

My quandary is how much to go to - it's in a sealed auction so my bid has to be a) the highest and b) not too much more than it's worth ;)
Any clues? Please?

Dave H. (the other one)
 
I'd say it is not worth very much. Obviously parts are non-existant (anything it needs, you'll have to make - which is fine). It "appears to be in working order" - can you test it? If it can be tested, then the price goes up (because the risk is less). You are correct, that it is most likely 3 phase, and perhaps 600V (neither is a big deal, just another thing to sort out). It probably uses as second 3 phase motor for the feeds (likely just X and Z) - so the RPC is perhaps the easiest choice.

I have the Maho equivalent of the FP1, an MH 600 (600V 3 phase - I'm powering it with an RPC and transformer) - it is a small machine. There may be quite a bit of metal there (both the FP1 and the MH 600 weigh in at 2000#), but the work envelop is small. Using collets is a tremendous help in opening up some room (tooling goes right up into the spindle). What collets does it take? If it is the long U2 collets, they are easy to get (of course you need the adapter - hopefully it is with the misc. stuff). Getting some of the larger SK40 or MT4 collets (depending on the spindle) are harder to come by.

These machines shine, because you can get a lot of attachements, then you can set up a great variety of jobs (of course the set up time kills them for most commercial applications). However, it sounds like you have only the fixed table and the vertical head (which is a very common set up and how my machine is configured most of the time). It is unlikely that you will be able to find the attachments (have a look now, and consider the result of your search in your offering price).

This style of machine is great, and I really like my little Maho. However: it takes up a lot of floor space for such a small machine, it is a heavy piece of metal (transport issues), it has power constraints (compared to a newer machine), the spindle top speed is only ~1600rpm, I got most of the available attachments (only missing the high speed head) - you do not, I have quite a few collets - you do not(would like to find the x1/32 collets, perhaps metric too - at the right price) and it has a small work envelop.

I picked up a regular size knee mill; so plenty of daylight under the spindle and decent table movements, and a nice fast spindle speed. If you can make it work, it could be a good machine, but you will soon find out that you need a second mill (I understand the FP1 was originally designed for machining camera components - i.e. small items).
 
Thanks David, useful input :)

My current thinking is to offer what I could sell the "extras" for - the DRO, vice, rotary table etc. plus a little over scrap value for the machine itself - that way if it turns out to be a complete turd I'm not out a lot other than a day fetching it and some petrol. So: about 500 bucks in US terms?

Whatever it's like, if it IS working well or even barely adequately it can't be worse than a tired (or new, IMHO) Chinese mini-mill! Probably cost less, too...

Re power for it, I doubt it's 600 v (here in the UK we have 240v single-phase, 415v 3-phase) and if it's genuinely based on the design of a 60's Deckel it has a single motor with separate belts and gearboxen for speeds and feeds. Suds pump not necessarily included, but I have a 240v pump currently doing duty cooling blades on my Saw of Danger for cutting ceramics, a one-off job so shortly to be spare.

The collets look to be the U2 (20S?) as used on the real Deckels, understood that the plain table is a limitation, I may be able to make up a tilt/nod arrangement for the table once my welding's back in practice? Like the real thing, it has the T-slotted "knee" to mount things to and I can be pretty ingenious :)

Small work envelope... well, I'm tight on space as it is, and it'll be put to use making small parts for motorbikes (fork yokes, USD fork extensions, disabled adaptations to start with) alongside the Holbrook C13, I'd love a K&T 2CH or similar (Dufour 53 perhaps, the Euro K&T) and a bigger (Holbrook) lathe but just don't have the room (8 foot by six minimum for a K&T/Dufour, 10 foot by six for an H20), would have trouble powering them (10 HP each...) and it would probably be overkill!

Thanks again,
Dave H. (the other one)
 
Well, it went to more than I thought it was worth, so I won't have to worry about those difficulties...

Thanks all the same!

Dave H. (the other one - now looking for something a little bigger and heavy enough to scare off the other small-shop shoppers!)
 
Back
Top