Thanks for that report, Mike, I appreciate the details.
I especially like that story of the 2" hogging mill. I wanna do (and hear) that.
Obviously, if I bought an older machine, it would be a retrofit candidate immediately. I suppose a person could dispense with some of the complexities of the head if going to a modern controller, like going to rigid tapping and a VFD spindle drive.
I wonder if a person would have to replace all the servo drives, or whether they are "good enough" for a new cnc. I suppose they used resolver feedback? Any idea what size servo motors would be on a massive machine like that?
BTW, with this floating tap feature, how the heck would you maintain accurate Z position between holes?