I found a local company that repairs Bridgeport mills. I decided to pay them for a visit and to look at the mill and find out what is wrong.
As you recall, what I have is a monitor that is completely dead.
Someone came out to look at it (it is still in my friend's warehouse).
He brought two spare monitors. Connecting either of them to the control did not help matters and both of them also appeared dead.
The first thing we noted is that the iron is in a very good shape with minimum wear.
His conclusion, that I agree with, is that it is the control that is most likely broken, and that there is no evidence that my monitor is bad (which could be the case, we just do not know).
He took out the control.
He said that Heidenhain in Schaumburg may be able to repair it, the cost depends on what is wrong with it, but it could be under a grand. I will call Rick at Heidenhain (great guy) tomorrow.
He also told me that TNC151 is a great control that will let me do pretty much anything I want, especially with RS232 input for G codes. That it is a full 3D control and hooking up, say, an indexer to it is a piece of cake.
They also have a spare TNC151 from a parts machine and that could also be a viable option.
I am very undecided on it, but if I get the old control to work, maybe it is a better option than a retrofit, from all standpoints.
Just wanted to see if anyone else has some related experience. I do not want to do something very stupid.
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