Oye I wish I came here long ago.

My company allso had an old MB-1 sitting collecting dust. Nobody seemed to know how the thing worked and wouldnt go near it.

As a Machine operator (not a machinist) I decided to crack my knuckels on it. It took me a few years of scrubing, tinkering and electronics hell but I got the beast to run! Few weeks later I even have runs of succesful parts under my belt (yea me) and the company is happy.

To me it's really impressive I can make 100 mounting plates and every piece be the same. But so far I have only done simple simon jobs. Some minor loops, hole patterns, slots and fixurs. Some questions I have came upon to ask of the Hurco vets...

Any time I try to face anything more then 2" wide the spindle jams. even if I'm only cutting .005 off. If I go over 3" wide I cant even face off .002 of aluminum. Yet I have the power to drill a 5/8 hole thru 1" thick steel like it was nothing. I have both a 3" and 3.25" cutters. Is it common for Hurcos to lose horsepower when working with tool Dia over 1"? This leads me to next question.

All the tooling I was able to find for the Hurco was rather small. The biggest shaft I can fit is a 5/8. I had to make my own fittings for anything bigger. The toolings are not like any others I have ever seen and can not find any and I fear I am stuck with the few I have. This makes it a bit of a issue as I now spend more time trying to get mills and drills to fit my tooling then it does to program and run the jobs themselvs. They are much smaller then the Mazak ones with 2 little nubs on the side.

Any time the power flickers, or the compresser overheats the Hurco autoshuts down and I have to re-zero my table. Has anyone ever setup a UPS to keep the settings?

the number pad sticks alot and makes it very hard to program. I have not found any replacment boards and its one spot I worry about taking it apart to fiddle with. any suggestions?

I'll have much more to ask as time grows but its late and this is plenty for now.