I retrofit it, and I rebuilt it, and I repaired it many times. It still functions, but its in desperate need of repairs again. Both the X & Y
have excessive backlash. The Y is just old and worn out, but the X
probably needs a whole new ball screw assembly. In the middle of a job
it went from about .001 backlash to about .035 backlash. I'm sure
could sell the servo motors and the quill easily enough. The rest, who
knows.

I had been still using it for roughing blanks for use on the smaller
machines. Basically entering code one line at a time to do functional
manual milling using conventional only to take up backlash and measuring
the parts. Its usable that way. I'd been using it that way for quite a
while. Here is the thing though. I can slightly more easily do that
dame job on the new (last year) South Bend knee mill and it will make
cuts the Hurco will balk at, choke, ship weld, and break an end mill
trying. The South Bend has a modern 3 phase 5hp motor being powered
with a 7.5HP VFD proper power and current program for the motor. It
gives me pretty darn close to a real usable 5HP based on some of the
crazy cuts I've made with it. Trust me when I say I do more work with
the manual knee mill than with the CNC knee mill now... because its just faster.

Basically every time I fix its more than a minor little thing, and it
works great for a couple months until something else craps out, and I
just don't use it. I've got two smallish lathes I could put there and
get more use of the space and take up less space. I do use the lathes, although the smaller one may also be on its way out if I don't decide to
CNC it. On top of that I am working on a bridge mill that will do more
of the type of work I do on a daily basis, and at the moment I do not
have a place to put it. Of course power in my shop is an issue as well.
When I built the shop it was just supposed to be a warehouse. I
figured the 100 amp sub panel I put on it was way overkill. Well, not I
am constantly bearing that electrical capacity budget in my head while
running machines. What the peak "could" be and what the real load
"probably" is. If I eliminate the Hurco I can use its budget allocation
for the new bridge mill I am building.

I don't know. Just thinking. Just another one of the thoughts that
probably kept me out of the good schools.

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On Sat, 19 Mar 2022 15:06:46 -0700, Bob La Londe <none@none.com99>
wrote:

I retrofit it, and I rebuilt it, and I repaired it many times. It still >functions, but its in desperate need of repairs again. Both the X & Y
have excessive backlash. The Y is just old and worn out, but the X
probably needs a whole new ball screw assembly. In the middle of a job
it went from about .001 backlash to about .035 backlash. I'm sure
could sell the servo motors and the quill easily enough. The rest, who >knows.

I had been still using it for roughing blanks for use on the smaller >machines. Basically entering code one line at a time to do functional
manual milling using conventional only to take up backlash and measuring
the parts. Its usable that way. I'd been using it that way for quite a >while. Here is the thing though. I can slightly more easily do that
dame job on the new (last year) South Bend knee mill and it will make
cuts the Hurco will balk at, choke, ship weld, and break an end mill
trying. The South Bend has a modern 3 phase 5hp motor being powered
with a 7.5HP VFD proper power and current program for the motor. It
gives me pretty darn close to a real usable 5HP based on some of the
crazy cuts I've made with it. Trust me when I say I do more work with
the manual knee mill than with the CNC knee mill now... because its just >faster.

Basically every time I fix its more than a minor little thing, and it
works great for a couple months until something else craps out, and I
just don't use it. I've got two smallish lathes I could put there and
get more use of the space and take up less space. I do use the lathes, >although the smaller one may also be on its way out if I don't decide to
CNC it. On top of that I am working on a bridge mill that will do more
of the type of work I do on a daily basis, and at the moment I do not
have a place to put it. Of course power in my shop is an issue as well.
When I built the shop it was just supposed to be a warehouse. I
figured the 100 amp sub panel I put on it was way overkill. Well, not I
am constantly bearing that electrical capacity budget in my head while >running machines. What the peak "could" be and what the real load
"probably" is. If I eliminate the Hurco I can use its budget allocation
for the new bridge mill I am building.

I don't know. Just thinking. Just another one of the thoughts that
probably kept me out of the good schools.

Sell off the good parts you don't need and scrap it. Your other
machines will thank you. ANd you'll thank yourself too. There comes a
time when a machine nickels and dimes you to death (death by a
thousand cuts?) and it's time to do what you now know you should have
done fefore you dixed it last time. You've passed the point of
diminishing returns or you wouldn't even be admitting to the thought -
- - -

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On 3/19/2022 8:01 PM, Clare Snyder wrote:

On Sat, 19 Mar 2022 15:06:46 -0700, Bob La Londe <none@none.com99>
wrote:

I retrofit it, and I rebuilt it, and I repaired it many times. It still
functions, but its in desperate need of repairs again. Both the X & Y
have excessive backlash. The Y is just old and worn out, but the X
probably needs a whole new ball screw assembly. In the middle of a job
it went from about .001 backlash to about .035 backlash. I'm sure
could sell the servo motors and the quill easily enough. The rest, who
knows.

I had been still using it for roughing blanks for use on the smaller
machines. Basically entering code one line at a time to do functional
manual milling using conventional only to take up backlash and measuring
the parts. Its usable that way. I'd been using it that way for quite a
while. Here is the thing though. I can slightly more easily do that
dame job on the new (last year) South Bend knee mill and it will make
cuts the Hurco will balk at, choke, ship weld, and break an end mill
trying. The South Bend has a modern 3 phase 5hp motor being powered
with a 7.5HP VFD proper power and current program for the motor. It
gives me pretty darn close to a real usable 5HP based on some of the
crazy cuts I've made with it. Trust me when I say I do more work with
the manual knee mill than with the CNC knee mill now... because its just
faster.

Basically every time I fix its more than a minor little thing, and it
works great for a couple months until something else craps out, and I
just don't use it. I've got two smallish lathes I could put there and
get more use of the space and take up less space. I do use the lathes,
although the smaller one may also be on its way out if I don't decide to
CNC it. On top of that I am working on a bridge mill that will do more
of the type of work I do on a daily basis, and at the moment I do not
have a place to put it. Of course power in my shop is an issue as well.
When I built the shop it was just supposed to be a warehouse. I
figured the 100 amp sub panel I put on it was way overkill. Well, not I
am constantly bearing that electrical capacity budget in my head while
running machines. What the peak "could" be and what the real load
"probably" is. If I eliminate the Hurco I can use its budget allocation
for the new bridge mill I am building.

I don't know. Just thinking. Just another one of the thoughts that
probably kept me out of the good schools.

Sell off the good parts you don't need and scrap it. Your other
machines will thank you. ANd you'll thank yourself too. There comes a
time when a machine nickels and dimes you to death (death by a
thousand cuts?) and it's time to do what you now know you should have
done fefore you dixed it last time. You've passed the point of
diminishing returns or you wouldn't even be admitting to the thought -

It actually takes care of another problem for me. The new (year old
now) South Bend mill needs a better vise on the table. I threw an old
Enco (I think its Enco) vise on the table, but its not great. 6 inch
jaws only opens 5.9 inches. Oops. Not particularly parallel. Its ok
for quick work and to be honest I only threw it on the table for one
quick job 11 months ago. I'd been debating buying a couple 6 or 8 inch
vises to go on it. I have a pair (*) of 8 inch Shars vises on the table
for the Hurco. One or both of them would sure be handy on the South Bend.

(*) The Shars vises have been pretty good, but they say not to use them
as matched pairs due to height variance from one to the next. When I
used them as a pair I almost always put the part in the machined in
place step jaws, so that was never an issue. Shars still sells their
signature name, but now they also sell Kurt and Tegara.


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