We have an older 1986ish Hurco SM1 CNC mill. The machine itself is in pretty good shape (ways, ballscrews, etc). We have run it occasionally for a couple years but have had multiple problems and each time we replace something, another issue seems to arise. The machine has the original servo motors, but the servo drives were upgraded in 2005ish by the previous owner. I am ready to invest a bit of money to try to make this machine reliable but I feel like I should ultimately put a new controller on it.

I'm trying to figure out everything I will actually need to get this machine running. I'm assuming that I'll be able to use the existing servo drives and servo motors. The centroid Acorn looks promising and I like everything I've read about it.

I should mention that we have a pretty new Shopsabre CNC router that we use for production work and I really like the WinCNC controller on it. I do all of our CAD/Cam using Fusion 360 so that is our typical workflow. Our Hurco will be used for prototyping of steel and aluminum parts - nothing production oriented.

I have never replaced a control before so I'm sure it will be a learning experience but I'd like to estimate the total cost and learn as much as I can before I start the project.

Thanks!