Nice Hurco at auction

Looks pretty awesome.

i

Waste of floor space IMO.

Hard to make any money if you have to constantly hover over a machine sweeping up chips, changing tools by hand, etc.

The Torq-Cut 22 might be worth while if not for the POS DX-2 controller that damn near brought Bridgeport to its knees about 10 years ago.

When a business is auctioned off, usually there's good reason....

Yep, ain't nobody in industry gonna bid on this. Now, it would be one hell-of-a toy for an HSM type. I think it will go cheap, could be wrong.

Karl

In fairness, I miss only one thing from the more industrial CNC machines: the tool changer.

i

Try running A2 die steel dry with carbide insertable then

( I dare you )

--As soon as a couple of blue chips end up inside your shirt you'll instantly regret not having the full sheetmetal enclosure.

I had this happen on the manual Bridgeport. It was unpleasant. Here, I do have an enclosure, and additionally, coolant.

i

Yep, but an enterprising guy can design and build sheet metal enclosures. Don't ask me how I lnow that. LOL.

You'd also want to throw out the POS control on an old Hurco. And the servo's.

Great value today would be an old Rambaudi, OKK, Droop and Rein, or SNK. Especiallly the D&R.

Why the servos?

i

I'd want to buy an integrated package for one thng. They are DC for another, at least I believe they were in that vintage. The iron was about the only thng worth having and that is marginal given the other possibilities. Glorified Bridgeport comes to mind.

Were it me, I'd hold my fire while scrounging around for something really good. Heidenhain, for instance, makes a plug and play retrofit for the older 5 axis JOBS milling machines. Cables, servos and all. Boeing surplussed a boat load of these and you can have them for little more than the cost of tigging and transport today if you can find one. Cool stuff for a garage.

Siemens has a kit for old DC Droops. You'd need a floor.... Their small machine would fit in a garage but they weighed in at #38,000.

27 Kw geared head and ball screws all the way back to 1967. Just needs a control and drives. You could climb cut all day long with 2 inch diameter HSS end mills.

Near as I can tell the servos are fine (and plenty powerful) on mine, but the encoders are crap by today's standards. Heck, two out of three of them fell apart. The third one might when I get around to taking it off. Its on the top of the spindle screw and its awkward to get to, but away it goes when I get there. Not enough resolution either.

...

Yep. I like the Sandvik R390 insert. Run it dry and it puts all the heat in the chip. Even 4140 comes off red hot. But I haven't got room in my crowded home shop for full enclosures. So I just put up a piece of sheet metal. At least for an HSM open machines make it easier to work on oversize parts.

Now, I would like a tool changer. My lathes have one and its real handy. Maybe someday for the mill.

...

FWIW, i really like the usdigital.com encoders. Get differential units around 2000 count

Karl

Yep a tool changer would sure be nice. Probably never do it on the mini machines, but I have an idea for the Hurco. Have a couple ideas that I need to experiment with when the retro is done.

I made open top full enclosures for the mini mills. The Hurco will get a fence enclosure on the table when I get everything else figured out. Something that will set inside the outermost boundary of the table. Won't be as good for spray, but then at a third the RPM it won't need to be.

Seems to me somebody here uses 40 taper

Quite a few items of CT40 tooling here.

Lots 80 thru 122

Brian Lawson

I was very happy with US digital encoders, I have five on my milling machine.

i