[IHateMayonnaise]

Folks,

An auction near me has offered up a CNC Baron, and I am on the fence as to whether to proceed. I currently have an RF-25 which I've had for about 5 years, and have a rudimentary CNC working on it currently, although I've spent a lot of time filling with epoxy-granite, in addition to some other mods. It has weak motors and the original ACME lead screws, and I already have some larger motors/drawings for mounts to do a ballscrew upgrade. Not planning to do one-shot, even if I really want it. The fact that it is a round-column drives me bananas, but I've found ways to live with it. The largest advantage for me in moving to a system like this would be the ballscrews, the larger servo motors, and that it already has the controllers, limit switches, etc built in. There is risk in purchasing this, because it will be purchased sight-unseen. If I had to guess this machine will go for about $800-$1000, which is by all means a great deal, but it's a calculation that I need to make nonetheless. I don't expect any of y'all to help me decide whether changing/upgrading to this larger machine is betters vs keeping my old one, I include these details here for background (and because I'm a blabbermouth).

I've always gone out of my way to not post "should I/shouldn't I" threads, but the auction has 3 days left (ends Monday 02/21), and I'm not finding much in the way of immediate answers when searching.

My questions:
-Does anyone know whether it's possible to control this CNC with other software (Mach3, LinuxCNC, etc)
-Would CNC Masters be willing to offer software at a reasonable price (I sent an email to them asking, but I've heard nightmares about dealing with these guys)
-Type of bearings on headstock (tapered/angular)
-How similar is this machine to an RF-45?
-Seems like the quill has the CNC motor on it, not the dovetail vertical movement. This seems backwards to me, correct me if I'm wrong..

Anything else. I assume this is a Taiwan machine, but wouldn't surprise me if it's China.

Once again... most profuse apologies for such a lame post. Thanks guys and gals

Cheers,
IHateMayonnaise

[metalmayhem]

the company are goofs , so don't expect any help what so ever on a used mill , I know that from personal experience after helping a guy who had a different machine from them . They won't even answer software questions if you don't buy direct from them .
With that said , you don't need them anyhow . Their software is absolute junk and the best thing would be is to break it down and get it running on mach or ucnc . The x and y axis should be properly retrofit and that z would need to be done better in my opinion . Pretty much a complete proper retrofit is needed

I'd basically look at it as what the castings are worth if bidding at auction , there is some value it them in the right hands . At the right price I'd buy it , but it would have to be really low priced knowing it was something from those morons

[IHateMayonnaise]

the company are goofs , so don't expect any help what so ever on a used mill , I know that from personal experience after helping a guy who had a different machine from them . They won't even answer software questions if you don't buy direct from them .
With that said , you don't need them anyhow . Their software is absolute junk and the best thing would be is to break it down and get it running on mach or ucnc . The x and y axis should be properly retrofit and that z would need to be done better in my opinion . Pretty much a complete proper retrofit is needed

I'd basically look at it as what the castings are worth if bidding at auction , there is some value it them in the right hands . At the right price I'd buy it , but it would have to be really low priced knowing it was something from those morons

Yeesh, you just have me all the info I need to know, thank you!

[metalmayhem]

sorry if my convictions sound strong but I was far from impressed when I talked with them .
Overall if you can get it for a decent price then it might be well worth putting the work into it

[Halfnutz]

I looked at a used one once, its basically an RF-45 clone with a poorly designed conversion. It had the ballscrews directly connected to the steppers on X and Y with some crazy connection that had the ballscrew end bored out and a shaft extension that bolted onto the stepper end. It had caused the poorly designed motor mounts to wobble loose, both of them, but it still worked with the motorsoving around on it. The Z axis is just a belt attached to the fine quil feed with maybe a dampener of some type. The software is proprietary and the drivers are what appeared to be a gecko clone of some type. I ended up passing on it, but I did see some really nice parts that were made on it. I would give a grand for one, just gor the mill. It did have a three phase VFD and spindle motor, running on single phase, and it was a solid rf45 which is worth a grand anyway.

[dawizzard]

the contoller ... steppers... ball screws on this machine is junk....

stay away from this crap. i have this setup and regret it

[vonnyvaulx]

The art of throwing an auction is a dying one and the thrill of the bidding war. There's something so fun and exciting about being in a room with many people all trying to get the same thing. It can be exhilarating just to watch, but even more so when you're in it. These days, though, participating in any kind of bid is challenging. Everyone is skittish about spending too much money or looking like they're spending too much money. That's why I would advise you to work with https://bidwritingservice.com/what-i...to-tender-itt/ . They know what to do.