How luck are you if you can find a CNC machine like this one for a few hundred dollars! That is exactly what happened to Dave Kush of BuildYourIdea.com. It wasn’t a fully functional machine so like any huge machine like this that’s sold as is who knows if it will take $10 or $10,000 to get it up and running again. Well thankfully Dave designs stepper drivers so he has more than a step in the right direction in resurrecting this beast. You can read all about the Shizuoka ST-N 3 Axis CNC Machine Rebuild here. After looking at what this beast can do I am glad that I started with my Fireball V90, but look forward to move into something bigger in the coming years!
“Well, I finally found a good deal on a piece of vintage Japanese iron: the Shizuoka ST-N 3 Axis CNC milling machine w/ Bandit control circa 1970’s. The machine itself looks like it hasn’t been used all that much and has been sitting idle for the last 10 years or so in a machine shop up in the California foothills. Apparently the machine was parked due to a bad axis and was given to the machinist to store in his shop. Time passed and the original owner never returned to claim his iron. Now, the machine shop is struggling so the owner is selling off some of the equipment. I found his ad on Craigslist for two machines and decided to drive up for a look. The AN-S model, which is in nearly showroom condition is much too big for my use and weighs in at 4500 lbs. But the ST-N model is 3000 lbs and is easier to move around with a small forklift. I made the owner a ridiculous offer hoping that he would laugh or just not respond. Time passed and he accepted my ridiculous offer. Now I’m on the hook to get this beast out of his shop and down into my garage.”
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