[seapacer2]

Good Afternoon All,

Well my Bridgeport Series 1 Anilam Crusader M continues to go no further, I would like to retrofit my machine. Has anyone completed one of these retrofits before? I would like hear what others have done and why and would you be interested in explaining in detail? Would you do it again? Was it worth the cost? Approximate cost of retrofit?

Thanks,

[Jim Dawson]

I have done this exact retrofit. Not on a Bridgeport, but rather a clone, no practical difference. I reused the existing DC drives and motors.

In my case, my Anilam failed right in the middle of a production job, and I did the retrofit without even taking the job off of the table (not recommended), and was back up and running in 12 hours. I was planning the retrofit so had all of the parts on the shelf. I have done a number of retrofits so this was not new to me. https://www.cnczone.com/forums/knee-...24874-cnc.html

Would I do it again? Absolutely. I have a very low tolerance for antique controls.

The cost can be from cheap to crazy expensive. Running from a few hundred to thousands of dollars depending on the degree of sophistication. A good starting point would be the Dynomotion Kflop/Kanalog system because your servo drives are analog velocity control units, they can not be operated as a step & direction device. I went with a more mid range system and wrote my own CNC software.

I would also recommend using linear magnetic encoders for the feedback device to replace the existing encoders. Much more accurate than the original system.