Spring 2024 meetup in Calgary - date Saturday, April 20/2024. discussion Please RSVP Here to confirm and get your invitation and the location details. RSVP NOW so organizers can plan to get sufficient food etc. It's Tomorrow Saturday! you can still RSVP until I stop checking my phone tomorrow More info and agenda
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Spring meet up in Ontario, April 6/2024. NEW LOCATION See Post #31 Discussion AND THE
NEW LOCATION
This is my first post and current project (so go easy on me if this isn't any good!). I am in the process of restoring a circa 1999 Rockford Pro2000 CNC lathe (this is the North American version of the Hercus PC200) and is a very well built unit (they were made in Australia). The machine arrived to me in decent shape but had a failed spindle driver and needed a deep clean. I have almost got it beat (I am in the final process of fine tuning). Here's what I have got so far!
And...here's where I am as of today; the machine is cleaned, properly lubricated (using OEM fluids and grease), and the new spindle driver is installed (and working!).
I found it in Victoria (I'm in Calgary) and the gentleman selling it crated it for me and sent it over! It spent most of its life in Washington though. I've been doing a bunch of learning about it and Hercus put quite a bit of care into making them, its fitted with ballscrews, servos, and an 8 tool turret (that's driven with a stepper motor). It's still running the original Rockford/Hercus control software on an old PC...its actually pretty decent and easy to use and seems pretty stable.
Yeah, I have a Prolight 1000 CNC mill in the background, it has been retrofitted with Clearpath servos, a Vital Systems Motion controller, and is running Mach4. I'll post a better pic here (am I allowed to do that in this thread??).
More pictures of the lathe tomorrow, it's just about 100%!!
wow that is some high-end compact equipment. I like small CNC equipment,good quality hobby sized machines are very difficult to find. you have a couple of winners there.
wow that is some high-end compact equipment. I like small CNC equipment,good quality hobby sized machines are very difficult to find. you have a couple of winners there.
Thanks guys! It has been a real process but it was quite a bit of fun. I actually listed it today on Kijiji...I found another lathe...the sibling to my Prolight mill! It looks to be in rougher shape, but with enough time (and I'm sure money), it should be awesome. If anyone is interested in the Rockford lathe, let me know! Price is negotiable!
I'm taking over this thread. I bought the machine from Hutch. The electronics were somewhat flaky and the software was very dated, windows 98?, etc. etc. So I took the plunge and had a willing friend (and I paid him) gut it and replace all the electronics, servos, drives, controller. It now has a centroid acorn controller with some clearpath servos and other bits. I have finally taken the time to figure out various things and get it calibrated. It now will run basic hand bombed cnc programs. I still have to get the tool changer figured out and the spindle blows motor drive fuses when I run it over 3000 rpm. Still it's working. Here are some pics.
A few details for those who want to know more. The bottom board is the centroid acorn board. The red gecko drive operates the tool changer. The tall black relay thing is the contactor to engage the 240 volt power. the lathe has two plugs, one 110V for the electronics and servos. The second plug is 240V to run the spindle. The contactor engages the 240V to the minarik drive which runs the spindle. The spindle drive is housed in an external blue box sitting on top of the lathe. All the parts won't fit inside the enclosure. what else... Lower down in the second picture of the inside you can see above the fan is a big aluminium heat sink thing, that is the x and z axis servo drives. last box above that is the low voltage power supply for the boards.
Finally the whole thing is controlled from a windows 10 PC. Ethernet runs from the computer to the acorn board for communication. The software is CNC 11 from centroid and it's their proprietary lathe/mill cnc control software. It also has a touchscreen windows screen. I'm not as pleased with the touch screen as I thought I would be as real buttons are much easier to manipulate while you have your eye on the tool. I'm thinking about buying the wireless pendant that they sell.
I ordered two small jacobs drill chucks which I will mount to the 90 degree tool holders. I'll have to make a special 3/8-NF to 0.625" diameter adapter. Sounds like a good lathe project. I hope it will do threading but it may need another upgrade for that to work.
Here are a couple historic photos. This is the original insides before we gutted it. The old computer had a couple AT boards inside and big D connector cables went from there to the control in the lathe.
This is my first post and current project (so go easy on me if this isn't any good!). I am in the process of restoring a circa 1999 Rockford Pro2000 CNC lathe (this is the North American version of the Hercus PC200) and is a very well built unit (they were made in Australia). The machine arrived to me in decent shape but had a failed spindle driver and needed a deep clean. I have almost got it beat (I am in the final process of fine tuning). Here's what I have got so far!
