After our visit at Rümema last year (wether I should spell Rümema oder Ruemema is something I still have to figure out - see http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb...s-pics-301415/ if you didn't follow the beginning of the adventure), I talked about our experience to a few friends of mine here in France.
It happens to be that one of them was in the market for a high quality lathe and was considering the purchase of a used Schaublin 125 as it seemed to him that model lathe was the perfect fit for his needs.
He had considered all the machines that were offered on the web, visited all the dealers he could, but was always disappointed.
All the machines that were offered to him were used machines i.e. machines that been *used*. Some more than others, but all in all, he was not offered a single machine he felt he could buy with absolute confidence in the precision and service he would get.
And unlike me, that friend is far from being a cheapskate !
We’re talking about machines in the 15/18.000 euros range, wich is a fair amount of money for a small manual lathe.
I had told him about Rüdiger Kramer’s work. At first, the price tag was a little frightening but after thinking about what was behind the numbers, he began realizing Ruemema machines were worth considering.
18.000 euros for a used machine bought “as is” from the word of a dealer or 30.000 for a fully rebuild Leinen… Hum. May be it was not so crazy.
So after a few mails back and forth, things got a little more precise and we went to Oberhausen to see a Leinen DLZ 140 rebuilt by Ruemema…
As a side note, I have to confess I’ll use several pictures of my previous visit along with newer images, because I didn’t take as much as I wanted this time. This was not due to restrictions from Rüdiger, but being there with friends who constantly disturbed me with their “ohhhh's !” and “ahhhh's !”, I think I was kind of sidetracked of my initial goal of keeping pictured records of everything…
We began with a coffee talking machines with Rüdiger Kramer, wich is always a nice way to start a good day.
We had taken the opportunity of that visit to set an appointment with Peter (peterve) and another friend of mine so despite the stakes of the journey, the atmosphere was very relaxed and friendly.
Rüdiger is an incredibly nice and warm host who will put you at ease right from the start.
After our second coffee, came the time to get down to the shop and inspect the the Leinen for wich we were there.
By the time we were there, Rüdiger explained us he had just finished the overall preparation cleaning of two Leinen lathes, and that was the reason why the shop was much dirtier and dis-organized than for our previous visit. Well, I wish my shop was dirty like that !
There were indeed parts almost everywhere, but always clean and in organized way.
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The Leinen DLZ140 was sitting in a corner of the shop, under power and quietly waiting for us. Discovering a machine from Rümema is always a blast.
Everything is clean as a surgical instrument down to the slightest part. Dead perfect.
One can really feel that each and every part down to the most remote obscure screw was taken apart, cleaned, checked and replaced or rebuilt.
You'll notice that some of us had really hard time hiding their excitement and happiness...
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After the usual “handwheels spinning tests” and instead of talking hours about the machine, Rüdiger offered us to fill the Prüfprotokoll of the machine on ourselves, performing all the tests, checkings and measurings involved.
That’s what we did.
I must say that reading a machine tolerances sheet is one thing, but actually performing the tests to fill it is another thing. Actually doing it put figures in perspective much better.
So Rüdiger gave all the equipment we needed : a Mahr Millimess indicator, test bars for the spindle and quill tailstock, some stock and a Mahr digital micrometer (with micron readings too) and we performed all the tests on the data sheet.
I noticed a detail that clearly shows the quality of Rüdiger’s work : he did not demonstrate the machine for us.
Intead, he let us do what was to be done on our own.
That’s a huge difference because on a lesser machine, one realize that there could be some “tricks” to obtain such or such result.
An operator knowing the machine could easily perform such or such operation in a certain way so as to get the desired readings... Details in the way to operate the machine, tighten the locks and such…
We all know what it takes to accommodate a machine that’s not absolutely perfect.
Not in that case.
The quality of the machine takes the operator out of the equation. Well to some extend of course !
The operator has to know what he’s doing, but you get the picture.
So Rüdiger put us right in front of the machine and let us do everything by ourselves.
I must admit we had to check if the tip of the indicator was in touch with the part checked on several occasions ! And that was a Millimess !
We tested the ways parallelism, squareness, the spindle runout and performed all the acceptance tests to fill the sheets below :
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The eagle-eyed reader will notice that the sheet is from the 14th of november 2015. That's because this was the date the machine passed final inspection after completion of the rebuilding. I didn't scan the sheet we filled in person, but I can testifty those values are correct and I have witnesses !! :D
As an example, we tested the action of the tailstock quill lock.
Put the tip of the indicator on the quill, and tightened/loosened the quill lock with various forces.
Well, the needle of the indicator refused to move. Not even a micron.
But barely touch the indicator holder with the finger and the needle would travel like crazy from one end of the scale to the other !
That says something.
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The quill on that lathe was hard chromed.
It happens to be that one of them was in the market for a high quality lathe and was considering the purchase of a used Schaublin 125 as it seemed to him that model lathe was the perfect fit for his needs.
He had considered all the machines that were offered on the web, visited all the dealers he could, but was always disappointed.
All the machines that were offered to him were used machines i.e. machines that been *used*. Some more than others, but all in all, he was not offered a single machine he felt he could buy with absolute confidence in the precision and service he would get.
And unlike me, that friend is far from being a cheapskate !
We’re talking about machines in the 15/18.000 euros range, wich is a fair amount of money for a small manual lathe.
I had told him about Rüdiger Kramer’s work. At first, the price tag was a little frightening but after thinking about what was behind the numbers, he began realizing Ruemema machines were worth considering.
18.000 euros for a used machine bought “as is” from the word of a dealer or 30.000 for a fully rebuild Leinen… Hum. May be it was not so crazy.
So after a few mails back and forth, things got a little more precise and we went to Oberhausen to see a Leinen DLZ 140 rebuilt by Ruemema…
As a side note, I have to confess I’ll use several pictures of my previous visit along with newer images, because I didn’t take as much as I wanted this time. This was not due to restrictions from Rüdiger, but being there with friends who constantly disturbed me with their “ohhhh's !” and “ahhhh's !”, I think I was kind of sidetracked of my initial goal of keeping pictured records of everything…
We began with a coffee talking machines with Rüdiger Kramer, wich is always a nice way to start a good day.
We had taken the opportunity of that visit to set an appointment with Peter (peterve) and another friend of mine so despite the stakes of the journey, the atmosphere was very relaxed and friendly.
Rüdiger is an incredibly nice and warm host who will put you at ease right from the start.
After our second coffee, came the time to get down to the shop and inspect the the Leinen for wich we were there.
By the time we were there, Rüdiger explained us he had just finished the overall preparation cleaning of two Leinen lathes, and that was the reason why the shop was much dirtier and dis-organized than for our previous visit. Well, I wish my shop was dirty like that !
There were indeed parts almost everywhere, but always clean and in organized way.
The Leinen DLZ140 was sitting in a corner of the shop, under power and quietly waiting for us. Discovering a machine from Rümema is always a blast.
Everything is clean as a surgical instrument down to the slightest part. Dead perfect.
One can really feel that each and every part down to the most remote obscure screw was taken apart, cleaned, checked and replaced or rebuilt.
You'll notice that some of us had really hard time hiding their excitement and happiness...
After the usual “handwheels spinning tests” and instead of talking hours about the machine, Rüdiger offered us to fill the Prüfprotokoll of the machine on ourselves, performing all the tests, checkings and measurings involved.
That’s what we did.
I must say that reading a machine tolerances sheet is one thing, but actually performing the tests to fill it is another thing. Actually doing it put figures in perspective much better.
So Rüdiger gave all the equipment we needed : a Mahr Millimess indicator, test bars for the spindle and quill tailstock, some stock and a Mahr digital micrometer (with micron readings too) and we performed all the tests on the data sheet.
I noticed a detail that clearly shows the quality of Rüdiger’s work : he did not demonstrate the machine for us.
Intead, he let us do what was to be done on our own.
That’s a huge difference because on a lesser machine, one realize that there could be some “tricks” to obtain such or such result.
An operator knowing the machine could easily perform such or such operation in a certain way so as to get the desired readings... Details in the way to operate the machine, tighten the locks and such…
We all know what it takes to accommodate a machine that’s not absolutely perfect.
Not in that case.
The quality of the machine takes the operator out of the equation. Well to some extend of course !
The operator has to know what he’s doing, but you get the picture.
So Rüdiger put us right in front of the machine and let us do everything by ourselves.
I must admit we had to check if the tip of the indicator was in touch with the part checked on several occasions ! And that was a Millimess !
We tested the ways parallelism, squareness, the spindle runout and performed all the acceptance tests to fill the sheets below :
The eagle-eyed reader will notice that the sheet is from the 14th of november 2015. That's because this was the date the machine passed final inspection after completion of the rebuilding. I didn't scan the sheet we filled in person, but I can testifty those values are correct and I have witnesses !! :D
As an example, we tested the action of the tailstock quill lock.
Put the tip of the indicator on the quill, and tightened/loosened the quill lock with various forces.
Well, the needle of the indicator refused to move. Not even a micron.
But barely touch the indicator holder with the finger and the needle would travel like crazy from one end of the scale to the other !
That says something.
The quill on that lathe was hard chromed.