On Sat, 21 Aug 2010 15:15:30 -0500, Jon Elson
wrote:

Ignoramus25139 wrote:
Karl, maybe next year, I still have a lot to do. So tell me, those
Hardinge HNCs, which I also saw selling for $1k, can be refitted with
a new control easily? (easily, to me, means, not harder than my
Bridgeport). Docs available? Do they have an indexable turret?


There are several Hardinge machines running with the PPMC interface.
So, it would be quite similar and familiar to you. One detail is that
most Hardinges
have resolver feedback, but you've already seen how to do that, too.
Yes, usually an 8-position tool
turret, with a magnet/reed switch encoder. I can refer you to the guys
who have done the retrofit.
EMC2 has all the features in the tool table to handle both Z and X
offsets for lathes.
On the older machines, you really don't want to save much of the
original control,
on some of the later ones, you might keep the servo amps.

Jon


Im not a big fan of the turrets myself. A LOT of the machines I gut and
retrofit are being done, simply because the turrets themselves have come
un****ed and are not economically repairable. You can fix them yes
indeed..but next week, something else turns to ****.

Now on the other hand...in a hobby environment...you would not be
running 8-16 hours a day, 5-7 days a week, so it may take you 6 months
to a year before that something else happens. Or even longer if you
replaced most of the electronics and took it easier on the machines than
they do in production shops.

Gunner


I am the Sword of my Family
and the Shield of my Nation.
If sent, I will crush everything you have built,
burn everything you love,
and kill every one of you.
(Hebrew quote)