On Mon, 6/24/13, Charles Steinkuehler <char...@steinkuehler.net> wrote:
http://kansascity.craigslist.org/tls/3892182813.html Can anyone advise if this looks like it would be a good candidate for conversion to LinuxCNC, and what I should watch out for if I actually go to inspect and/or buy it? Thanks! Machines that're already CNC ought to be easier to retrofit than manual machines, even if you take off all the original controls and motors. No motor mounts to build, no redundant parts to remove or modify. You have that giant box stuffed with old equipment, which the new electronics will use a fraction of. If the existing system works, you can peddle it on eBay - but don't get crazy on the prices. There aren't that many super desperate shops willing to pay *any price* for an old board to get a mission critical 25+ year old machine back in action. (However, I did get a good price out of a pair of 15+ year old compumotor 500 boxes. I didn't start them as a stupid high price.) If you can snag that for $500 - think of it as getting a huge head start and saving a lot of cash. It's a large machine and will take up quite a chunk of space, but I bet it'll be a while before you want to do a project that'll have you wishing it was just a bit bigger. ;-) People who don't know about software like LinuxCNC or don't have the skill or willingness to apply themselves to a retrofit or who just want to (and have the money to) buy a "plug and play" machine just see old CNC machines as old junk. Then there's those "affordable" retrofit systems that start at only $7,000 - why spend $7K on an old machine when that will go much of the way toward an all new one? A machine shop or manufacturing plant needs a machine in production ASAP and many are willing to go into a bit of debt rather than refurbish and upgrade - and owe nothing on it. I've had people tell me it'd take $10,000 to fix up a mid 80's CNC Bridgeport clone and all I'd have is a crappy old junk mill. They don't know scrounge-fu or the power of eBay and Craisgslist or just spending a bunch of time scouring the web until the right parts are found at the right prices. ;-) "You pay fright and installation, we will load on truck." Yeah, fright is right when it comes to what trucking companies want to charge for shipping machine tools! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This SF.net email is sponsored by Windows: Build for Windows Store. http://p.sf.net/sfu/windows-dev2dev _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
