# Deckel FP 3 L



## RobinHood (Jun 21, 2021)

The machine is safely home. Used a lift bed trailer. We were able to drive the forklift with the mill up the deck that was lowered to the ground. The 5000 lbs forklift had to work a bit to get it in position, but it worked out.

Here is the load ready for the trip home. Yeah, I know, lots of straps.





We were offloading using a 5500 lbs pallet jack. The rope is there to control the speed down the deck. Right after we took these pictures, we had an unexpected move of the machine on the pallet jack. We immediately secured the mill with safety straps and regrouped our approach. Using a second 5500 lbs pallet jack from the opposite side, we were then able to bring the mill safely onto terra firma. Sorry, no pictures of that phase of the move as our focus was heightened on safely continuing the job and not taking pictures.










It is now safely on the concrete floor.

Then we got to do the unboxing... (the seller had everything neatly packaged up by the time we got to his shop). Here is a picture of the included accessories. On the left are Deckel collets that also fit my Deckel SO tool grinder, yeah... (I only had a 1/2” one, super happy about that). The tapered cone right beside them is the spindle adapter to direct mount the collets both in the vertical and horizontal spindle - saves a huge amount of head space.





A huge thank you to @Dabbler for his great help today. Much appreciated.


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## Beez12 (Jun 21, 2021)

Looks good! Glad it went to a good home’


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## 140mower (Jun 21, 2021)

Nice.... Glad I didn't see that, would have taken all of my will power to not be loading for a road trip.


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## PeterT (Jun 21, 2021)

Look at all those tools & accessories!!! WoW.

When Modern moved my mill he had an arsenal of rubber, different kinds of carpet, plywood... ready for whatever kind of situation I guess. My driveway had no slope or bumps but I recall him chatting that he always likes something in between forks & metal base unless its dead smooth surface. Looking back at the picture looks like he chose carpet but it had that kind of rubberized backing, maybe for a bit of stick-shun. Probably didn't want to scratch that roll on Tremclad finish... you know legal ramifications LoL. Looks like you guys had a bit of trailer slope to content with, yet another variable. Glad you guys got it in. I'm more of a rigger sideline cheerleader type LoL.


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## Dabbler (Jun 21, 2021)

This is the first 'unplanned movement' I've had.  Once it happened both Robinhood and I had *that* look - we both knew better.  I put wood between the pallet jack and the machine and Robinhood does as well.  We both had a real big brain fart.

It luckily only moved a few inches, and we had a belay on things, but even so an unplanned movement is really scary and we both now have a big reason to triple check our rigging.


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## YotaBota (Jun 21, 2021)

Neat machine, nice haul on the tooling.
Does the horizontal table get removed or just moved to use the 45* table?


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## RobinHood (Jun 21, 2021)

YotaBota said:


> Does the horizontal table get removed or just moved to use the 45* table?



If you want to use the slant bed, yes, remove the rigid table. It can be mounted in various T-slots for more or less headroom. Can also be moved to different locations in the X-axis direction. There is another table available, they call it an “universal” table. It tilts and swivels. It’s a bit pricey though.

So the somewhat unique thing about this mill is that the table and slant bed are fixed to the base and do not move. You get X-axis movement by the whole column sliding along the back. Z-axis is by the whole column moving up and down (in the pictures above, the column is most of the way down to lower the CG). There is a quill for more Z-axis movement on the “vertical” spindle. The head can rotate up to 100* +/- so you can drill horizontally in the X-axis. Y-axis is achieved by the movement of the whole ram FWD and BWD. Plus there is the horizontal spindle/quill. It has about 4” of Y-axis travel, like on a HBM.

All 3 main axis have power feed with adjustable mechanical feed stops. All 3 axis have rapids. There are 18 spindle speeds and 18 feed speeds, all mechanical geared in two separate gear boxes.

Found a little scoring in the vertical spindle bore - they ran the tooling without the “drive ears” on the 40 taper. I’ll be able to stone that out and make a special male-male drive ring.

I only have one draw bar - it is for the internal 40 taper heads. I do not have the original S20 internal buttress thread bar for the original Deckel tool holders. Will be one of the first items to make.

There is a drawbar in the horizontal spindle - it is some sort of telescopic affair (because of the quill) need to figure out how to get it out first.

It has an integral coolant pump.

All the dials are metric.

It has one 4 hp dual voltage 220/380 3 phase motor. I’ll be connecting it in the “delta” configuration (low voltage). It is presently hooked up to “wye”, 380 V which is standard in Switzerland - where the machine was exported to from the factory (have found the original wiring diagram in the electrical control cabinet). Will dig some more, maybe I can find a date.

Not sure how/when the machine ended up in Canada.

The 3 axis DRO was made in Singapore, the manual is dated 2005.

This will be a big project for sure. I am going to completely tear it down for inspection and cleaning; but not before I get the big lathe up and running.


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## Chicken lights (Jun 22, 2021)

Dabbler said:


> This is the first 'unplanned movement' I've had.  Once it happened both Robinhood and I had *that* look - we both knew better.  I put wood between the pallet jack and the machine and Robinhood does as well.  We both had a real big brain fart.
> 
> It luckily only moved a few inches, and we had a belay on things, but even so an unplanned movement is really scary and we both now have a big reason to triple check our rigging.


Cardboard or rubber (mudflap found in parking lots) works well too between metal on metal


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## 6.5 Fan (Jun 22, 2021)

Nice machine and lots of goodies to go with it. Congrats


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## Tom Kitta (Jun 23, 2021)

Tooling alone is like $1000.


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## Dabbler (Jun 23, 2021)

Tom Kitta said:


> Tooling alone is like $1000



We're pretty close.  I estimated that in that condition the tooling was like 1300$ of the price - nice mill for 700$


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## YotaBota (Jun 24, 2021)

RobinHood said:


> If you want to use the slant bed, yes, remove the rigid table


Just a couple of bolts and "walk" the table to the bench, right! LOL. It must only weigh what ,,300 plus pounds.
I saw a couple of pictures online of the adjustable table, I imagine it will be pricey.


RobinHood said:


> You get X-axis movement by the whole column sliding along the back. Z-axis is by the whole column moving up and down


So you move the head around over the table where as with my mill I move the table around under the head.
You've definitely upped the ante on the cool factor.


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## RobinHood (Jun 24, 2021)

There are 8 M16 bolts holding the rigid table to the slant bed. I have not found any numbers (as I don’t have a manual yet), but my guess it is in the 500 lbs range.






Yes, that is correct. The table does not move at all.


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## RobinHood (Jun 27, 2021)

Did a bit of detective work today. Found out that the electrical control panel was tested/certified 25 March 1974.





The panel itself is a work of art.





The electrical schematic that was inside the door has a “d)” amendment dated “8.8.75”. So the machine found it’s way to Switzerland no earlier than August of 1975.

Still not sure yet when it came to Canada - I do have a lead on that info, just no details yet.

Looks like it will be a relatively straight forward electrical hook-up. The only thing I may need to buy is a heavier motor protector because I’ll be running it at 220V (12.3A) vs the original 380V (7.1A). It might even work fine as long as it don’t hog stuff.

I’ve already changed the motor to “delta“ connection.









I’ll change the plug and do some circuit testing before I power it up to see if everything works.

Sill lots more inspecting/cleaning to do before I’ll call this job done….


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## Janger (Jun 27, 2021)

RobinHood said:


> The machine is safely home. Used a lift bed trailer. We were able to drive the forklift with the mill up the deck that was lowered to the ground. The 5000 lbs forklift had to work a bit to get it in position, but it worked out.
> 
> Here is the load ready for the trip home. Yeah, I know, lots of straps.
> View attachment 15641
> ...


Are those  cat 40 tool holders?


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## RobinHood (Jun 27, 2021)

ISO 40 and Deckel 40 with their S20x2.0 external buttress threads. So I guess not technically CAT 40 as you would use them on your machine.

It‘s a mix of internal metric, imperial and the external threads. Just need the correct draw bar. I don’t have one for each type yet.


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## RobinHood (Jun 28, 2021)

Powered up the mill today. Can only run it on low speeds up to about 250 RPM without the OE (7.5A) motor protector tripping. At least we know it is doing its job. Will for sure need to buy an appropriately sized new one.

Noticed the input shaft pulley wobbles causing a vibration. Did not pull the back cover off yet, so not sure what’s going on there.

All feeds (and rapids) work except for Z-axis down. I did see a pin that was sticking out of a coupling in the bottom of the column when I was cleaning old grime out.

One shot oiler is pumping oil - just can’t see any evidence of it going onto the ways, like on my BP where the lube starts to ooze out once all the ways are saturated. Maybe just empty oil passage ways that need filling before I see it coming out? There is a sight glass in the vicinity of the oiler with a note saying to ”fill above the glass level once daily“. Not sure what to make of that just yet. I pumped about 250 ml of oil, but saw nothing.


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## fraydamccaughey (Jul 29, 2022)

You’ve got a good pallet jack. What brand is that?
What do you think? Is it a good idea to buy a used pallet jack, or should I look for a new one instead? I have seen some good options on this website about forklift training. They are new and nice. However, I have also seen some ads from local guys selling their pallet jacks for less money. the brands are nice, and I thought it would be a good thing to save money on this. Is it safe to buy a used one, and what do I need to check before buying it? 
I would make really good use of it on my farm, but I need to make sure I buy something qualitative.


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## Dabbler (Jul 30, 2022)

fraydamccaughey said:


> Is it a good idea to buy a used pallet jack



I bought both of my pallet jacks used.  My narrow one was under 70 dollars.  I paid 175 for my wide one.


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## RobinHood (Jul 30, 2022)

@fraydamccaughey , both pallet jacks I have are “TSP 5500”. They are both used. Both items were destined for the metal dumpster. Some of the parts I replaced: steering wheels, lift wheels, grease fittings, bearings, bushings (custom made to account for some wear) and a broken handle spring. Everything was cleaned, lubed and reassembled / adjusted. They both work perfectly.

Would I buy a used one - yes, but only after a thorough inspection.


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## buckbrush (Aug 15, 2022)

$700.00 for that mill is a real steal of a deal. I did some control work years ago on a similar mill. It was not a Deckel however, it was a Ferrari ! The shop owner was Italian of course, if he was German it would have been a Deckel.


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## RobinHood (Aug 16, 2022)

Yes, it was a good deal.

The machine is presently apart for trouble shooting a non-working Z-axis power feed in the down direction (up works)…


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