[pete from TN]

Hey man that is some very nice work on those heli parts. Gonna hafta try to build one someday.....

I had a really wonderful weekend with my family, I finally got around to adjusting the chain on my daughter's Manco dirt go kart and we all went ripping around on if yesterday. that damn thing actually goes pretty fast even with me on it and we had a blast. Nothing fancy really, watching star trek episodes on netflix and makin' homemade cookies....I mowed the lawn and got all the edging and weedeating done so the yard looks nice and the go kart seems to run faster when the lawn is mowed too lol....

Hoping for a speedy turnaround of the power supply repair and praying for good luck and a good working machine after that. Also gonna drop in over at that job opportunity and see if I can persuade them a little bit. Wish me luck guys....

Listening to hearts of space on my studio headphones right now.....absolutely beautiful spacial music....this one's called "Beyond the sky"...... Gonna hit the hay early tonight hoping for a more productive week......Peace guys.

Pete

[michaelthomas]

I can certainly relate to the ups and downs of your story so far. I bought a Mazak Quick Turn 20n a few months back, and it has been a slow, painstaking process to get it going again.

Perseverance will pay off. It's the one sure thing!

Keep at it, man.

Mike

[pete from TN]

Hey man your first name would not be phillip now would it LOL? Yeah it has been and interesting if not painful experience getting this thing going and I'd be lying if I said I had not seriously thought about throwing in the towel on this adventure but as I said I am at least hoping the worst is behind me with it. Been really mostly trying to concentrate on other things while I wait for repairs.

It has been my intention for some time assuming the mill works right to eventually buy a decent user cnc lathe too how is your machine coming along? There seem to be lots of lathe type parts out there needing to be made, have you been able to take advantage of that at all yet? Either way thanks for sympathizing LOL...

Woke up way too early with the dog here going back to bed now zzzzzz...

Pete

[michaelthomas]

No....not Phillip....I'm as pale as they come.

I stumbled across my lathe sitting out in a field by a local airport. I eventually found the owner by another coincidence and learned he was going to take it to the scrap yard, but had put it off because it was going to be a project to move. Its about 11,000 pounds and change. I told the guy I would be interested in it, and he said he would take $800 if I got it out that day. I figured I didn't have much to lose, since I could get that back in scrap. He claimed that the thing ran before he put it outside nearly a year before....but he never saw it run. He bought two monstrous cam grinders from Crane Cams when the sold out, and this lathe came along as part of the deal. I figured the control was probably junk, but I had just finished a retrofit of a Studer S35 cylindrical grinder for another guy in town and already had another Dynamotion package sitting at home.....so I was intent on just yanking the control and getting the Kflop put in. I have heard nothing but fantastic things about the Mazatrol conversational, so I thought I would just see if I could get it to work before I junked it. Long story, short.....I did a ton of exhaustive checking at the component level to find lots of bad IC's. I replaced what I found bad, and also had to buy one used board with the eproms for $250......and the control is up and running like a champ. Mechanically......the machine is very sound......a few issues here and there.......but nothing major. I'm replacing the bearings in the hydraulic chuck actuator right now, and after that I should be making some chips.

All told, I have less than $3000 in it which includes $750.00 for the manual set, and the rest is mostly paint, cleaners, and tooling.

I couldn't be happier, really. I was ready to throw in the towel, too......about a hundred times. I'm glad i saw it through, now. I'll have a really nice machine that is WAYYYY more than I ever hoped to own when its done.....and it will have cost me a ton less than even the puny lathe conversion that I was considering. It actually runs fine, now.....but the growly bearings in the actuator are ready to seize at any time, so I figured Id just get them out of the way.

The hardest part for me is the waiting for parts or components, putting them in to find other components that need to be replaced.....then waiting on those......blah, blah, blah. I'm by no means an educated electronics guy.....I have just read about how to test individual components on the internet and put it into practice. It was initially very intimidating, but brick by brick I made it through. I fixed the spindle drive and drive card for $10.00 in transistor arrays and a lot of patience. Mitsubishi wanted $3850.00 flat fee. The control cost me $275.00 to fix and a lot more patience. Mits needed anywhere from $4-6000 for that. I see why people dump these things for next to nothing if they aren't willing to dig in themselves. I got a bunch of great advice and help from the Mazak guys over on practical machinist. Can't say enough good things about that bunch.

As far as work for it......I get a few jobs a month that I do on another guys cnc lathe. He charges me 70.00 an hour to use it, and I still make OK money. I'll do a lot better on my own.....lol. His machine is a Yugo by comparison to mine.....but a Yugo that cost him 30,000.00. Manual chuck, manual tool changes, manual tailstock, no tool setter, less than 1/2 the power, smaller tools, coolant so-so, partially enclosed, etc.

You will get there if you keep at it.....then all that frustration won't seem like anything a year down the road. After a serious crash and burn of my former business in 2008, I vowed to never take another loan. Stay small and lean, and owe nobody anything.....that's my new motto....lol.

Keep up the fight and you will emerge victorious.

PS.....I have a converted RF-45 here like you did, too.

[pete from TN]

LOL nice to hear you have been there and done that like me. There are a bunch of RF45 cnc conversions going on and some are quite nice. That Mazak sounds like a nice machine. I am sure it is quite powerful too. Most of those lathes are like 20HP plus which is more lathe than I can use here. Sure would be nice tho and as you already know a man can make some decent money with a quality lathe. If this machining center pans out and I can finally start making some money that is where I am going too but with perhaps a much smaller machine. Congrats that you have it running reliably, it must be a good feeling. I know who to call to quote some lathe parts now I guess LOL.... Peace

Pete

[pete from TN]

well I have been sick with some kinda nasty stomach flu or something for the last few days....finally starting to feel better today. Heard back from the repair facility about the power supply and they apparently fixed it and tested it for 24hours so it should be back here either Friday or Monday.....Prayin' for a good result here. Hopefully the machine will run and run well for awhile here now. would be nice to have it back here before the weekend. peace

Pete

[pete from TN]

Well I am FINALLY starting to feel better here. Had some real crappy stomach flu for awhile now. Did manage to get the basic frame of my tubing bender built when I felt like going out into the shop. Everything went pretty well altho I did manage to get two spots where I think some damn cutting fluid from the bandsaw contaminated the weld just a bit. I intend to try to cut that out and redo it but it is just a small spot maybe a half inch long in both places. My bandsaw uses a heavy oily cutting fluid that came with the saw when I bought it and it works so well I have not tried anything else. It does get everywhere tho and makes a mess and of course when you cut tubing it runs down the inside of the tube and drools out the end during the cut. I usually leave the tubing leaning against the coolant tray for ten minutes or so to drain it all out before I try to do anything with it but it seems that may not be enough. Anyone got any recommendations for a coolant that will not contaminate a weld if it gets somewhere inside the tube a bit. Cutting this thick walled steel tubing cannot really be done dry on my bandsaw from my experience it will eat the blade rather quickly.

Other than that I am still waiting on the delivery of the power supply for the machine. hoping to see it tomorrow sometime but who knows. Work is real slow in the shop right now and I would be very pleased to have the machine running to make parts with, still praying the repaired power supply will fix this machine once and for all but no guarantees. I did have a little bit of luck. My oldest Daughter works for Nippon Denso here in East Tennessee and she told me she was talking to a co-worker about my machine and shop and he works in their robotics and CNC machine maintenance department. He told her that if the power supply does not fix the machine that he would not mind coming over to have a look at it. I told her perhaps I can machine or fabricate something for him in return but she said he did not want anything. That was a welcomed break, having someone who works on PLC and CNC equipment every day might be just the ticket for my machine. I am decent with looking into the issues but I am no professional troubleshooter. We will see what happens here I may just need his services.

Other than that I am still working on some things in the house and shop and trying to keep the folks who want CNC parts made waiting patiently for the machine to come online. NOT an easy job....

Here's hoping all of you are having good luck with your CNC adventures and making cool good paying parts. Have not heard from Thefu recently, perhaps I pissed him off, dunno..... Peace

Pete

[pete from TN]

I have some good news and some bad news here. I will start with the bad news first. I received the power supply in the mail and installed it into the machine and tried to run it. I immediately started having some issues. With a call to Rob Varney at Mag we troubleshot the machine and got it working again and everything was really starting to look real good. I got it all aligned and setup and was ready to start running my test program and then I turned it off to go meet my wife for lunch and when I came back I powered up the Rotary phase converter and fired up the machine. The second I hit the energize servos button I heard a really loud pop and saw a flash of light from the back of the machine and smelled smoke. I hurriedly slammed the estop button and ran to the back to disengage the machine from the power and was extremely pissed to find that the Y axis SPARE servo drive fried on me. I do not know what the hell went wrong with it and I was EXTREMELY PISSED OFF!! I killed the power to the entire shop and went inside and had a LONG HARD THINK about what the hell I am going to do here. :drowningwedge)(nuts)(nuts)

After a long sleepless night pondering what the hell I am gonna do about this damn infernal machine and a lot of long talks with my pal art I have decided that the original control in the machine is ENTIRELY too old, EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE to fix, and I simply do not know enough about it to be able to troubleshoot it adequately. The last couple times I had to repair things really puts it into perspective for me here . When this ***** breaks down I am gonna have a real hard time affording to fix it.

SO.............. I have a couple options. I can try to sell the damn thing for whatever I can get out of it and kiss goodbye to my dreams of machining parts for money and fun on a REAL machining center. I can sell it and try to buy another machine probably a used CNC knee mil or something like that which could ALSO have issues and will ALSO have an older electronics system on it. OR I can try to do a homebrewed retrofit on it myself and Keep the damn thing.

After a lot of thought and long conversations with my wife and art and other friends I have decided to do a retrofit of the machine. I will GUT THIS ***** and try to sell off all of the good working parts left inside it INCUDING the axis motors and remaining working drives and also the entire control system components and replace them with modern PC based components.

At this point I am ACTIVELY looking for two things. One is someone who has this same machine who would want to buy parts from it. The other is INFORMATION..... I want to hear ANY and ALL ideas about the best way to go about a homebrewed retrofit of this control to a PC based system. I would like to do this as SIMPLY as possible and result in a system that I can fix if it breaks and the parts are less expensive to replace as well as readily found online. I have been looking at using EMC2, Mach3, I really don't give a damn what as long as it is capable of supporting this machine entirely including tool probes and a fourth or fifth axis if I want. Basically I want to take this very nice and heavy duty good condition machine and exorcise the demons in the original control and replace it with something I can manage and repair should it break on me. I am ready and willing to listen to any ideas or suggestions as I am OFFICIALLY now putting this machine into the category of LONG TERM PROJECT DREAM. It is not gonna run no matter how much money I throw at it and this few little repairs I have done make me realize with painful clarity that the machine control is just not worth fixing since I do not know how long they will continue to support it and the parts are getting very expensive and some are apparently not replaceable anymore. It just makes sense to me that if I intend to keep this machine for any period of time that I am gonna have to bite the bullet and gut this pig.

So in that light I am now going to find a job full time and put this dream on the back burner at least for awhile. I have some other ideas about the shop and I am going to sell my Digi 256 20HP rotary phase converter because the new machine will be strictly single phase and I have some other ideas and things I want to try.

SO basically that is it in a nutshell. I am OVER the emerson control and not skilled enough with electronics to even try to fully troubleshoot the system and figure out why it keeps blowing drives and power supplies. I have however retrofitted another machine and I am pretty confident in my abilities to do that and while it will certainly NOT be easy I have to tell myself that it is the only way that I will ever be able to truly trust this machine and feel good about trying to run it. I have a couple select folks who have pledges their assistance and help with the setup so as of right now I am going to start pulling boards and motors out of the machine and put them on ebay or whatever for sale. If anyone here has this kind of machine with this kind of control and you want spares or whatever feel free to contact me. Thanks and peace

Pete

[Connor]

I have some good news and some bad news here. I will start with the bad news first. I received the power supply in the mail and installed it into the machine and tried to run it. I immediately started having some issues. With a call to Rob Varney at Mag we troubleshot the machine and got it working again and everything was really starting to look real good. I got it all aligned and setup and was ready to start running my test program and then I turned it off to go meet my wife for lunch and when I came back I powered up the Rotary phase converter and fired up the machine. The second I hit the energize servos button I heard a really loud pop and saw a flash of light from the back of the machine and smelled smoke. I hurriedly slammed the estop button and ran to the back to disengage the machine from the power and was extremely pissed to find that the Y axis SPARE servo drive fried on me. I do not know what the hell went wrong with it and I was EXTREMELY PISSED OFF!! I killed the power to the entire shop and went inside and had a LONG HARD THINK about what the hell I am going to do here. :drowningwedge)(nuts)(nuts)

After a long sleepless night pondering what the hell I am gonna do about this damn infernal machine and a lot of long talks with my pal art I have decided that the original control in the machine is ENTIRELY too old, EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE to fix, and I simply do not know enough about it to be able to troubleshoot it adequately. The last couple times I had to repair things really puts it into perspective for me here . When this ***** breaks down I am gonna have a real hard time affording to fix it.

SO.............. I have a couple options. I can try to sell the damn thing for whatever I can get out of it and kiss goodbye to my dreams of machining parts for money and fun on a REAL machining center. I can sell it and try to buy another machine probably a used CNC knee mil or something like that which could ALSO have issues and will ALSO have an older electronics system on it. OR I can try to do a homebrewed retrofit on it myself and Keep the damn thing.

After a lot of thought and long conversations with my wife and art and other friends I have decided to do a retrofit of the machine. I will GUT THIS ***** and try to sell off all of the good working parts left inside it INCUDING the axis motors and remaining working drives and also the entire control system components and replace them with modern PC based components.

At this point I am ACTIVELY looking for two things. One is someone who has this same machine who would want to buy parts from it. The other is INFORMATION..... I want to hear ANY and ALL ideas about the best way to go about a homebrewed retrofit of this control to a PC based system. I would like to do this as SIMPLY as possible and result in a system that I can fix if it breaks and the parts are less expensive to replace as well as readily found online. I have been looking at using EMC2, Mach3, I really don't give a damn what as long as it is capable of supporting this machine entirely including tool probes and a fourth or fifth axis if I want. Basically I want to take this very nice and heavy duty good condition machine and exorcise the demons in the original control and replace it with something I can manage and repair should it break on me. I am ready and willing to listen to any ideas or suggestions as I am OFFICIALLY now putting this machine into the category of LONG TERM PROJECT DREAM. It is not gonna run no matter how much money I throw at it and this few little repairs I have done make me realize with painful clarity that the machine control is just not worth fixing since I do not know how long they will continue to support it and the parts are getting very expensive and some are apparently not replaceable anymore. It just makes sense to me that if I intend to keep this machine for any period of time that I am gonna have to bite the bullet and gut this pig.

So in that light I am now going to find a job full time and put this dream on the back burner at least for awhile. I have some other ideas about the shop and I am going to sell my Digi 256 20HP rotary phase converter because the new machine will be strictly single phase and I have some other ideas and things I want to try.

SO basically that is it in a nutshell. I am OVER the emerson control and not skilled enough with electronics to even try to fully troubleshoot the system and figure out why it keeps blowing drives and power supplies. I have however retrofitted another machine and I am pretty confident in my abilities to do that and while it will certainly NOT be easy I have to tell myself that it is the only way that I will ever be able to truly trust this machine and feel good about trying to run it. I have a couple select folks who have pledges their assistance and help with the setup so as of right now I am going to start pulling boards and motors out of the machine and put them on ebay or whatever for sale. If anyone here has this kind of machine with this kind of control and you want spares or whatever feel free to contact me. Thanks and peace

Pete

Dang, when it rains, it pours!

Okay, I might suggest, LinuxCNC (EMC2) with a Intel Atom board (can get you exact model # of the one I use if you need) along with Mesa. Mesa has I/O boards that'll work with Resolvers, or, you can use the standard digital I/O boards and get a board from pico systems which converts resolver to quaduature. The only thing after that would be finding the appropriate motor drivers for the servos. Are the servo's AC or DC ? Voltage / Amperage ? I'm sure they're others on here who have converted one of these beasts. You could replace the motors/encoders.. But, I don't think you need to with this option..

Thanks, Billy

[TOTALLYRC]

Hi Pete,
If the motors work I would take a hard look at keeping them. If they are DC motors around 100v then you could use Gecko drives. If they are AC or higher voltage DC then take a look at granite devices. I wish you were closer to CT.

I am sending you a PM.

Mike

[pete from TN]

Hey man thanks for the ideas. Honestly I am inclined to agree with you in part. I am seriously considering running EMC2 but I definitely plan to replace ALL the motors and drives in the machine with new ones. That is really the issue I am having here. There is not too much wrong with the machine as it sits right now in fact it will boot up and were it not for the blown drive it would be running right now. The issue here tho is the fact that any of these components blow and they are at LEAST $1000.00 to repair or replace. The control is about 15 years old now and it is not getting any younger.

What I am currently investigating and this is all very tentative is to purchase some Teco drives and motors from Machmotion and build the rest using hopefully either mesa cards, Kflop, or galil components. Not entirely sure just yet but I am counting on the simplicity of the matched drive/motor setups with pre made cabling to significantly simplify this thing. Then it will be an effort to get the basic machine running and working with the spindle and power drawbar followed by instituting the carousel toolchanger. I welcome any input and ideas/help with this thing and initially this will be my efforts to try to sell the components to pay for all of the new stuff as much as possible. I am also planning to sell my very nice GWM Digi 256 20hp rotary phase converter. So anyone interested in any of these items give me a shout okay... peace

Pete

[ad_bfl]

I have been using Galil for a couple of projects lately and am very impressed, great stuff, and importantly, when you call them you can actually speak to a live person who knows the products real well.

If you have any questions PM me and I will help

Hey man thanks for the ideas. Honestly I am inclined to agree with you in part. I am seriously considering running EMC2 but I definitely plan to replace ALL the motors and drives in the machine with new ones. That is really the issue I am having here. There is not too much wrong with the machine as it sits right now in fact it will boot up and were it not for the blown drive it would be running right now. The issue here tho is the fact that any of these components blow and they are at LEAST $1000.00 to repair or replace. The control is about 15 years old now and it is not getting any younger.

What I am currently investigating and this is all very tentative is to purchase some Teco drives and motors from Machmotion and build the rest using hopefully either mesa cards, Kflop, or galil components. Not entirely sure just yet but I am counting on the simplicity of the matched drive/motor setups with pre made cabling to significantly simplify this thing. Then it will be an effort to get the basic machine running and working with the spindle and power drawbar followed by instituting the carousel toolchanger. I welcome any input and ideas/help with this thing and initially this will be my efforts to try to sell the components to pay for all of the new stuff as much as possible. I am also planning to sell my very nice GWM Digi 256 20hp rotary phase converter. So anyone interested in any of these items give me a shout okay... peace

Pete

[pete from TN]

Not sure what exactly I am going to be doing with the retrofit as I just decided the direction to go this morning. I will still have to gut the machines control and sell the components before I can start thinking about what to do with the machine. I am ready to hear any suggestions and this is of course going to be a reasonably low budget build so I am certain that there are avenues that I will not be able to go down. Gotta see what is the best most reliable and backed setup for this particular machine. SO far all I know is that the Teco motors and drives are looking real good and the X and Y motors on the machine are something like 2000RPM 1000w and 4nm torque rated so I will need to source motors/drives that work with those setups. The rest of the system will be done with whatever single phase 10hp vfd I can find reasonably priced that looks like a good unit. At this point the factory 10HP spindle motor will be used unless it cannot be for some reason. If any of you are familiar with JHchoppers from machsupport I am somewhat friendly with him and he has agreed to help me with information and I intend to follow his lead at least to a point. Not sure I want to use Mach3 tho.... Anyways, thanks for all the kind suggestions and I sincerely hope I can find someone who needs the components to keep their working CT FNC control alive. Peace

Pete

[Connor]

If the motors work I would take a hard look at keeping them. If they are DC motors around 100v then you could use Gecko drives. If they are AC or higher voltage DC then take a look at granite devices. I wish you were closer to CT.

Yea. That was my thinking.

Pete. Not sure if Kflop works with LinuxCNC. Mesa is the defecto standard if not doing parallel port.

[pete from TN]

pretty sure the motors are ac with resolvers and they are both old and expensive to replace so I am aiming for replacing them unless I see a more sensible option but I doubt it. They sure as hell wont be running on any sort of gecko drives that is clear unless they have SERIOUSLY upgraded the geckos since I last checked. These are high powered motors and the machine rapids at well over 400 IPM in stock form. The Teco amp/driver packages are looking real good right now. The rest I will try to sort out as I go.....peace

Pete

[michaelthomas]

Pete.....I would give the Dynomotion stuff a serious look.

I have done a few machine retrofits with their systems, and they are very, very capable and versatile. They are not really plug and play.....but anything that is will be lacking in some department.

The Snapamp will run about anything.

If you have C programming knowledge.....you will have zero trouble with their stuff. If you don't, but have some ambition to learn......it's doable, at least to the extent that you will need to complete your retrofit. Tom Kerekes is the owner, and his customer support it incredible. When i first started to work with the Kflop I was so lost.....but now that I look back on it I can't figure out what was so tough.....lol.

I made the decision to yank the control on my Mazak about 5 times......then some new kernel of knowledge would be exposed to me that caused me to give the Mazatrol one last try. It is working great right now, but who knows.....I'll always have the Kflop and the Snapamp waiting in the wings if it decides to give me some lip.

I assume you have all the electrical schematics and ladder diagrams (if that's what it uses) for your machine.

The big break for me came when I finally learned to read a ladder and use the diagnostic screen on the Mazak. Everything made sense after that.....even the dumb random crap that doesn't seem to have a cause became obvious. The PM guys on the Mazak forum helped me a ton. I see you've been there, too.

Good luck with whatever you choose. It's good to not burden yourself with a time frame. That only creates stress.....and who needs that, anyway.

Here is a before and after of the Studer S35 control I retrofitted with Dynomotion. The machine will also grind threads, now. The old control was a Grossenbacher.

Mike

[pete from TN]

Thanks for that information. From the looks of it the retrofit is a MUCH cleaner setup afterwards. To be honest I think that while the Cincinatti control setup is clean inside it is also unnecessarily complicated. This machine has basically torn out my last nerve here and I seriously doubt that I could recover from a blown spindle drive or some of the other uber expensive parts in there. Besides to be honest if I did get the retrofit to work I can also look forward to inexpensive setups for future fourth axis as well as probing and whatnot. It makes sense at some level to try to do this for me since I am not in a financial position to be able to repair this machine. Even if I could scrape together the money right now to get the drive repaired which is basically about a grand all told I would be freakin' terrified to install it into the machine for fear that the thing would blow up on me again. At least if I go with these retrofitted motors and drives when one blows I can either get another one for much less money or adapt a different but similar motor and driver to the machine and keep going. I am just not looking forward to doing all of the figuring out of the inputs and outputs for the control again. That can be a real PIA. The only thing that would make me reconsider this right now is if I find that I can sell the whole shebang for a good price. I don't see that happening altho I do not have too much money into it I would definitely at least break even I think. Gotta do some other things around here and get the shop going in another direction and start tearing into the machine in my spare time. This is going to fundamentally change how I do things in the shop for quite awhile. We shall see how it goes. Peace

Pete

[michaelthomas]

I forgot to mention that there is someone who has undertaken an Arrow 500 on the Dynamotion yahoo forum.

I just remember seeing the title.....never really looked at it too much. The guy may be worth talking to, though.

The Mazak stuff is ridiculous for repair cost, too. I had a short chat with the woman from Mazak that gives the bad news (parts and repair quotes).....I asked if she ever got irate customers taking it out on her? She laughed and answered with a very sarcastic "no". Poor lady.

Mike

[skray775]

I am really sorry to hear all this Pete. I was hoping you would post today with a picture of your first part machined! Sorry I cant help with any of the retrofit its way beyond anything I have done.

[pete from TN]

Hey thanks man... What can I say the machine kicked my ass..... It is what it is and I tried really hard and have been all up inside that electrical cabinet and read all I could about it as well as talked the ears off of poor Rob Varney trying to get it all sorted. We checked the drive motor and wiring and really could not find anything specific that would cause the drive to blow like that but at this point it really does not matter. I simply cannot afford to put any more money into it the way it is. I am basically terrified every time I turn the damn thing on that something else is gonna blow that cost a small fortune to fix. At least if I retrofit it I can build it how I want to build it and if I have a problem I can maybe fix it. The sad fact is that someone in a better financial position would probably just pay a pro to come over here and fix it and get the damn drive repaired and the machine would work great. I have just basically spent my last thin dime on it and I cannot afford nor justify putting any more money into it without absolutely knowing it will work and make me some money. My wife and I have talked about it at length and I spoke to several helpful friends who gave me suggestions and I honestly think I can make this happen. I mean even if I just get the basic machine working IE x,y,z, spindle control, and the power drawbar which is completely pneumatic I can run the machine and make parts. If the toolchanger turns out to be a major ***** I can always work on it over time. The goal here will be to try to get the basic machine operational as quickly as possible. I really dunno how or what I am gonna do yet to make that happen and I am just now starting to investigate it. Wish me luck man....peace

Pete