A rather large CNC turret mill, with a broken Anilam controller. I'm told the 7-layer motherboard is shorted. $8,000 for a new one.
Any words of wisdom? When the table is moved, it panics and shuts off the spindle. I was thinking of jumpering that out and using the display as a DRO, making a manual mill out of it as I know nothing about CNC.
Bits do turn up on eBay. I got my Traub CNC lathe as the previous owner was quoted £7500 for parts to fix it. I got everything I needed off ebay (eventually) for very considerably less. May take a while but there's many Anilams out there
Andrew
That's the kind of thing which can get you into CNC for low bucks, IF the machine is is very good to excellent mechanical condition.
The Supermax machines were pretty good Taiwanese iron, and Anilam retrofits generally used good ballscrews. First you look for good used parts on eBay, and failing that you find someone to repair the faulty boards. If that doesn't work you try to keep the ballscrews and servos, and get a new control.
Whoops, I wasn't clear. The mill isn't mine and has been sitting for a decade. I haven't looked in the control box, but it seems like jumpering the spindle motor to stay running and disabling the servos wouldn't be a difficult thing to do. Right now the machine is useless and there's little or no need for CNC in that shop. There are handwheels on the table, but they could be electronic for all I know.