We had a '78 Wells Index with a Bandit controller, it had steppers. When the only other CNC mill we had was an Acroloc(crashalot), it got a lot of work and made tons of money, I sold it off about 6 months ago since it was just sitting and collecting dust.
As for the limitations, well, its slow, I could never get any of the canned cycles to work or the tool length offsets. Not really a big deal, it took some creative programming, but it worked out quite well.
It wouldn't helicly interpolate, which was kind of a bummer, but at least it could make a straight 3 axis move.
The biggest drawback, boards burn out quite a bit, as HuFlungDung said, you will spend a bunch of time unplugging and replugging things in. If we still had that machine, I think I would retrofit it after one more board blew, it can get pricey. |