[Greenbuggy]

Just agreed to purchase an Excello 602 CNC with a GE 1050 controller 2 axis + quill, Z has a handcrank, serial 60211604 for a thousand bucks with some tooling...I'm told everything "works" but the controller is "flaky" so I'd rather upgrade to a PC based control/geckodrive as soon as I can save up enough for it, in the meantime probably just use it as a manual machine with the jog controls. I haven't picked it up yet but trying to get my ducks in a row to start figuring out a longer-term plan to make this machine work in my shop, and an upgrade path that will have me down for as little time as possible.

I've seen a couple posts here and elsewhere about people wanting to upgrade the GE control but looking for specific details from anyone who has done it...what motor drivers did you use? What software? Did it have servos or steppers? How did you find home? Any roadblocks you ran into? Did you do anything to control spindle speed? Was it worth it? Also, anyone know close or exact weight? I've been told 2500-3000 lbs but would like to know exact if possible. Also does anyone have a manual for the NC/CNC 602? I've got a manual 602 manual but it looks like there's quite a bit of difference between the two

Especially interested in the GE 1050/602 people on here, I've seen a few posts on the 602 with other controllers (mostly newer) but I'm interested in any machine-specific advice I can get. Thanks!

[Greenbuggy]

pics of machine/control:

[Al_The_Man]

That looks like a 604, the 602 is smaller.
You most likely can use the original DC brushed motors, if going Mach or similar however
you will need step direction drives.
The motors may need in excess of 120vdc and AFAIK Gecko's do not go that high?
You could look at Dynomotion with the Kanalog boards and may be able to use the existing drives.
Al.

[CATCH22]

I agree with Al, that looks like a 604.

[Greenbuggy]

How do I tell the difference being that there's 602 and 604 in the serial? anybody know whether the models in the front or back of the serial? anybody with the 1050 control that's done a retrofit?

[Al_The_Man]

What HP is the spindle?
I know whenever I phoned Excello for parts for the 602 knee mill, they would say there was two models and ask if it had the X-CELL-O or X-L-O on the nameplate, mine was the latter.
Al.

[Greenbuggy]

Mine says Ex-Cell-O. Seller says its got a 3 HP spindle

[Al_The_Man]

AFAIK, the 602 only had two spindle options, 1.5hp & 2Hp.
Al.

[isaac338]

Just to wake this thread from the dead - does anyone know the approximate weight of the Excello 604 mill?

[CATCH22]

I think its about 3500lbs.

[dholzric]

Did you ever get your Excello running? I have one almost the same. The head does not pivot forward and it came from the factory (i think) with ball screws and pneumatic brake on the left side. Mine has a 3HP GE motor on it. I tried to get mine working with the original DC servo's but I had trouble with the drives so (for now at least) it's running with steppers under Mach3.

[Greenbuggy]

Did you ever get your Excello running? I have one almost the same. The head does not pivot forward and it came from the factory (i think) with ball screws and pneumatic brake on the left side. Mine has a 3HP GE motor on it. I tried to get mine working with the original DC servo's but I had trouble with the drives so (for now at least) it's running with steppers under Mach3.

Seller ended up backing out on the deal so I ended up buying a 1979 Lagun and doing a retrofit on it. I would do what you can to keep the servos even if you end up with newer drives (which is pretty likely). Don't know if that machine would have had resolvers or not but if so replacing with encoders is pretty easy. On my Lagun I ended up buying much newer Baldor servos from a mid 90's Lagunmatic 320 that was parted out on another forum. You'll never get the rapid speeds out of steppers that you will with DC servos and proper belt ratios

[dholzric]

I may switch it back to the servo's at some point later but i have it running now with the steppers. The machine did have resolvers on it but i had already installed 1000 line encoders (and had them working.)

[Karl_T]

FWIW, I've had my Excello 602 for years. Started out with a bandit control with servos. then installed AHHA - a great dos based stepper control for its time. Went to Mach 2 for a while then a major upgrade to Camsoft and back to servos.

Its been a great machine and made 1000s of parts.