I bought an HBM Profi 45 a couple of days ago. The main reason for selecting this machine from many options was its ISO-30 taper.

My plan is following:
  • Closed loop motors
  • Ball screws with double ball nuts
  • Full enclosure
  • Flood, mist and air cooling
  • Original spindle, gearbox and motor but VFD drive
  • One shot oiler
  • Counterweight for Z axis
  • Touchscreen for control
  • Power drawbar if easily possible
  • At least a provision for tool changer if power drawbar is built


So far I have pondered a few design choices:


  • Mach 4, LinuxCNC or some other control software?
  • Closed loop steppers or actual servos? I want high performance but is it really worth putting servos on a non production machine?
  • Direct drive or belt drive motors? Normal way seems to be direct drive, but with belt drive the motors could be moved to a more protected position.
  • Fieldbus based control system or traditional? The fieldbus based control systems are really interesting. They seem to have much fewer parts than traditional systems which also compensates the higher cost of the components.


I'll begin by disassembly and CAD modeling of the machine as it gets delivered. My goal is to build full CAD model for easier design of the drive system, enclosure, base etc.