[H.I.P.]

I wonder if a somewhat better informed person than myself can help me out with this:

Is Tecno Inc, Techno Isel and Isel the same company, or an older company broken up or what?

As far as the wonders of Google can guide me, it seems Techno Inc is a US company, Isel is from Germany, but some Techno Inc. products are branded as Techno Isel........

I used to be confused, now I'm not so sure

I alway thought of Techno Isel as German, why I dont know.

The reason I confused myself with all this, is I want to buy and refurb an old Techno Isel router from a place I worked at a few years ago. The machine has been out of comission for the last 10 years or so.

IIRC it had a bed size of about 1000 x 700mm (or there abouts) and a 1000W Kress spindle. Ran off a DOS program on an ancient PC.

I scrounged the net, but cant seem to find info on such a machine. Any guess which machine would fit the description?

I want to upgrade the router by fitting new Nema23 motors in the 290 - 425 oz range, preferrably with a microstepping drive. Maybe the usual Gecko 540, maybe Chinese breakout board with 3 seperate microsteppinng drives. TBH, I'm not too concerned about speed, although with fairly powerful stepper motors I should be able to get decent speed from it, even with microstepping.

The router is supposed to be just a toy at home. Making toys for the kids, brackets / fixtures / hair brained ideas etc. I had to make a choice between building a router, refurbishing this old T.I. or buying a generic Chinese router - 4060 or 6090. I'm positively addicted to CNC gear. I spend 12+ hours per day running a big Enduro router at work, and then come home to spend a few more hours on YouTube watching other people's routers working

BTW, I'm from Namibia. Not really a hub for CNC fans. I'll be surprised if there is 20 active CNC routers in this whole country...

[victorofga]

you seeing right.. it is a german company.. isel has in many country distributors.. however tecno-isel more than a simple distributor..

for you in Namibia, I think ebay and Chinese suppliers can make a good deal..that kress motor you can swap to a spindle, a watercooled spindle... 800 or 1.5 kw..
they are very close in price so you can go for the 1.5 kw..

for control, you can buy as aprts, you also can try to email salecnc ..
they are present on ebay also they have own website.. and buy a ready to go control.. so you just hook the exist steppers on the new control box..

[H.I.P.]

Thanks for the reply.

So, it's a German company, but I seem to get to an American site if I go to the Techno Inc/Isel site??

Does not really matter.

Yes, the plan is to fit a 800W water cooled spindle, and also to make (as a DIY project) a +/- 200W DC spindle with an outrunner RC brushless motor.

Its been a few years since I saw the machine, but IIRC it looks pretty much the same as the Gantry1 machine. It dates from the late 80's. But I could swear the milled area of the spoilboard on this router was about 1000 x 700mm, where the Gantry1 is 600 x 750mm? Were the Gantry 1 machines made in a bigger than 24 x 30 inch size?

Could be my memory acting up. For my needs, a 600 x 750 working area is double the size of what I actually need, so it will be fine either way.

BTW, the breakout board, 3x micro step drives, and 3x Nema 23 425 oz steppers are about US$ 340.00 incl. courier fees to Namibia. Depending on what else I add to the refurb list (new ballscrews, spindle inverter, tool sense probe etc) I may eventually end up spending US$ 1500 on this project. A 4060 Chinese generic router is $ 2000 delivered, (with crappy controller) and a 6090 desktop about $ 3200 delivered. So this is a good deal, I can replace just about everything that moves / wears on the router, and have stronger steppers and up-spec'ed controller for half the money of the desktop 6090.

Now THAT is a good deal!

[H.I.P.]

So, its a done deal. Just transferred the money for the router.

I forked out only US$ 350 for the router. This includes a fairly knackered 850W Kress spindle, as well as a brand new, unused Kress 1050 Watt spindle. (Locally the Kress alone retails for around US$ 300 odd) And assorted bits and pieces that normally accompanies this type of machine.

I'll have a look once I have it in my hands. Maybe I can use the existing power supply for my rebuild? Should be a fun project in itself to revive this 24 year old router. Hopefully I can get another couple of decades of use from it.

[Larken]

Techno-Isel started German, then opened Techno in NY and now has gone...... to CHINA made machines !!! Yikes

[Pplug]

Techno-Isel started German, then opened Techno in NY and now has gone...... to CHINA made machines !!! Yikes

Yeah, that is disturbing. I guess that is the only way they feel they can compete in the CNC market. I hope they get bit in the ass by the difference in quality. Oh wait... They can make money from parts and repairs!

[ericscottf]

Oh, it bit us in the ass, alright. See my new post for more.

For what it's worth:
Techno is a US company and always has been. Several years ago, they became the exclusive US dealer for ISEL, a german company, but still sold US parts. They started using the German parts in machines, which had its pros and cons.

A few years ago, the decision was made to sell a line of import equipment "Chinese machines". Engineering thought this was a terrible idea, and Engineering was right!

[georgeklein2000]

I recently posted an explanation of what happened with Techno and the various forms that are now around. You can see it under the title Techno Inc, Techno Isel and Isel USA, Inc,