Brand new machine arrives in used condition.

[Firestopper]

For those of you that don't have a trailer and truck to pick things up for yourself. I highly recommend a company called "Long Haul Trucking" Their home base is in MN, but they haul all over the USA. The have hubs on the east and west coasts too. Their men are well dressed and speak English.

Their truck and trailers are new equipment and they use Conestoga flatbed trailers . If you not familiar with that sort of trailer. It looks like a regular semi trailer but it's a canvas top that is attached to a rolling frame so no tarping is needed. Weather proof. I also know Tom Dou at Acra personally and he is a good guy, but he also uses LTL truckers for the best price. Long Haul isn't cheap, but you get your monies worth.

I used to own a used machinery company and we always called Long Haul to haul the machine anywhere in North America and never had a problem or complaint. Rich

Hi Richard,
Good information there, I would have paid a little more from the get go knowing that. I will keep Long Haul in my memory bank for future needs.
Tom Dou is a nice man and didn't hesitate to make things right.
Thanks for the contact info.

Paco

 

[Richard King 2]

That show of the Taiwan factory was out-standing. I have a lot of pride in their scraping as I taught scraping classes for the Taiwanese machine Industries on and off for 30 years. I worked with TAMI and PMC. They presented me with an award for changing their scraping quality industry. The machines Tom Dou buys in Taiwan are Industrial grade A machines. If you see that the machine was made in Taiwan you will be good, but the ones made in China...be a bit more cautious.

I have known Tom Dou the owner of Acra for 20 + years and he is a straight shooter. Next time you talk to him say hello from me.

 

[mksj]

Modified the micrometer stop for this lathe, the stop was beautifully made and about twice the size of of the one on my 1340GT. It required a new design for adding a proximity stop mechanism, the floating hub was also slightly different and I went with some 1" round naval bronze for the hub. Designed a new control system with a few more VFD tricks, will be ordering in parts next week for the build. Look forward to getting this beast up and running. The build quality is truly impressive.

I also bought my knee mill from Acra, Tom Dou, and have been very happy with it.

 

[BROCKWOOD]

Most excellent read! The liftgate delivery Grizzly sends my way is top notch. So I tried an Order from ENCO, just to spread the wealth a bit. Local warehouse lacked in every way. I had to go to the warehouse to help ID my package. It wasn't there. But what I did see was a full 30+% of items in that warehouse damaged. My item arrived the next day with damage on every part. It's no wonder ENCO sold out to MSC within a month. A company is only as good as the weakest link. Shipping is every bit as important as fit & finish.

 

[Firestopper]

Modified the micrometer stop for this lathe, the stop was beautifully made and about twice the size of of the one on my 1340GT. It required a new design for adding a proximity stop mechanism, the floating hub was also slightly different and I went with some 1" round naval bronze for the hub. Designed a new control system with a few more VFD tricks, will be ordering in parts next week for the build. Look forward to getting this beast up and running. The build quality is truly impressive.

I also bought my knee mill from Acra, Tom Dou, and have been very happy with it.

View attachment 257633View attachment 257637
View attachment 257640

Wow! once again, outstanding work Mark. That looks purrrdy . Apparently you don't sleep either, that stop wasn't in your hands more than 24 hours before you reworked it and designed the schematics. I got some catching up to do!
Thank you Mark.

 

[Firestopper]

Most excellent read! The liftgate delivery Grizzly sends my way is top notch. So I tried an Order from ENCO, just to spread the wealth a bit. Local warehouse lacked in every way. I had to go to the warehouse to help ID my package. It wasn't there. But what I did see was a full 30+% of items in that warehouse damaged. My item arrived the next day with damage on every part. It's no wonder ENCO sold out to MSC within a month. A company is only as good as the weakest link. Shipping is every bit as important as fit & finish.

It's really unfortunate that failing to spend a few minutes protecting a load negates all prior efforts in a quality product.

 

[extropic]

I forgot to "Watch" this tread so, I just caught up.
Glad to read that your trip was without problems and the machine is looking good.

 

[Firestopper]

I forgot to "Watch" this tread so, I just caught up.
Glad to read that your trip was without problems and the machine is looking good.

Thank you,
yes, the trip was a bit long but worked out in the end. I had to avoid looking at the lathe today if I wanted to get anything else done. She's soo puuurdy.
Looking at DRO's tomorrow.

Paco

 

[ddickey]

Great looking lathe Paco.
Did you buy this direct from Acra?

 

[Firestopper]

Modified the micrometer stop for this lathe, the stop was beautifully made and about twice the size of of the one on my 1340GT. It required a new design for adding a proximity stop mechanism, the floating hub was also slightly different and I went with some 1" round naval bronze for the hub. Designed a new control system with a few more VFD tricks, will be ordering in parts next week for the build. Look forward to getting this beast up and running. The build quality is truly impressive.

I also bought my knee mill from Acra, Tom Dou, and have been very happy with it.

View attachment 257633View attachment 257637
View attachment 257640

I wanted to show the quality of Mark's mill he purchased from ACRA sometime back. Tom Dou does sell top notch machines, this mill being an example. After Mark designed and installed his ultra custom control system on this machine "its over the top".

Look at that beautiful table. I think Richard King 2 would agree its nicely done.

Direct drive head is very quiet at 4K RPM.

I thought you guys would appreciate this. I still find myself mesmerized by its beauty and quality when I visit Mark.
BTW, the truck driver that delivered this machine was a true professional and prideful of his work.

Again, just wanted to show the quality ACRA has to offer.

Warm wishes,
Paco