Hi Guys, I just joined the group, althought I've been around Hurcos since 1983, when I first went to work for the company and learned about CNC machining. It seems people love 'em or hate 'em. I have fond memories of the times I spend with the company and the many opportunities they provided--IMTS, Indianapolis 500 and Brickyard promotions. Let me know if you love your Hurco.
Jenny
I never leave home without it.
Regards Daveb
Jenny,,
We have a 99 Hawk bedmill with the Ultimax II control. The guys that do occasional onsey twosey parts like it.
Personally, my feelings are closer to hate (or extreme dislike). It's just about the flakiest, quirkiest machine I've ever used. I have to take a valium just to get near it. The list of "weird" things it does are much to long to list here. The worst, by far, are the "navigation errors". One time, we were runnig ten or twenty fairly simple parts with one tool, a drill. We (actually a guy who works for me) ran about five or six parts, no problem. On the next part it decided it was going to drill right through the part, vise, table, and possibly into the floor. Scared the shit outa the operator.
Apparently, from what I've been able to gather, these types of events (and many others) are not uncommon, and Hurcoites have learned to live with them. I didn't purchase this particular machine. It was purchased for the engineers to make occaisional parts. It serves this purpose well enough most of the time. I would NEVER consider any machine, with this control, for production work.
On the positive side, It does run 3D G-code pretty good ("if" it's in a good mood) although slowly. You can't give it "arc filtered" 3D code though as it has a tendancy to interpolate the 330 deg sweep that lies "inside" the part, instead of the 30 degree sweep on the surface.
Give me solid firmware based control any day.
Mark
We have 2 of the older "B" control machines (KM-1, KMB-1) at the shop that have been pretty reliable. I have a KMB-1 myself. Still able to get parts from several different outfits that service these older machines too.
JohnF
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