Customer stopped-by, yesterday. I have had his machine for 12 months for a simple control retrofit.

The report was that the machine wouldn't run and as is typical, the OEM stated that they don't support this machine anymore (it's like new) and that he should spend £150K on a new machine.
I do this stuff all the time but this will be the first to be fully PicoMite controlled.

However, the panel-PC is dead and all the other electronics for the servos, etc., just don't work. I don't believe in coincidences and so I can accept a single failed component...but ALL of them?
I commented to the customer that the only time that I'd ever seen anything like this was after a lightning strike at John Deere which took-out six robots.

Customer: "Yeah, that's what happened, we were hit by lightning and we lost a lot of equipment, including this machine"

Tells me 12 months later  . Why not up-front?  

So, to heck with it, it's getting new everything and he's happy to pay.

Well just increase your price by a factor of 5 and when he asks why just say you forgot to tell him

  Bryan1 said  

Well just increase your price by a factor of 5 and when he asks why just say you forgot to tell him

Apart from the above, he's a great customer. He has endless work for me and I charge an awful lot less than the cost of a new machine.
The main reason for the visit was to see if I had room for yet another machine but I already have five, sitting here on the floor.
This particular CNC tube bender (80mm diameter) is the first that I have tackled from this manufacturer and there are many like it elsewhere that are dying so once I have this done and documented, there's plenty more, too many for me to handle and I have no competition at all