Hi guys and gals;
I just sold my old BP and am looking for an upgrade that can hold a bit better tolerance and eventually would like to do some CNC work.
I stumbled across an older Partner III, 3 HP with a Centurion IV controller. I haven't yet gone and checked it out in person, but the owner says that it works fine as a manual machine by jogging it, but programming is a little sketchy and admits that it was mostly used as a drilling machine the last year it was in operation. Price is cheap, includes 10 Cat 30 tool holders.
That said I'm going to go look at it in person this coming week and want some more info on the machine - I can pick it up for a song and use it as a stout manual machine (which I'm fine with) but eventually I see myself upgrading the controls to something I can hook to a PC.
So if anyone has the answers to any of these milltronics n00b questions I'd appreciate it:
- What kind of steppers/servos does this unit most likely have? How do they keep track of their position?
- What would be a good, reasonably inexpensive drive to run them? Has anyone here retrofitted an older milltronics mill to a PC-based drive? Build thread/log?
- I (briefly) thought about CNC'ing the old BP I had but decided against it, did a lot of reading though. I have a pretty firm grasp of how a geckodrive type system works, but am fairly unclear on how people hook up the feedback (tach/encoder/DRO) back to their PC. Before someone tells me to just spring for a $10k controller solution from milltronics...its not going to happen, and furthermore not economical either.
- What does Partner I, II, III, ..... designate?
- What does Centurion II, III, IV .... designate?
I should add, intended use: I'm riding the line between extreme metalworking hobbyist and mental ward. I used the old BP for mostly precision drilling and milling slots, but have some grand plans that include making parts for my motorcycle and a couple inventions I've got plans in my head for.