Originally Posted by Neal.R2E3  I just bought an R2E3 Boss 8 machine for $1000 and I got it home and cleaned it up it's in excellent shape. I'm currently getting information together to order an ajaxcnc Mach3 3axis retro kit the one with the third party servo card because i'll be reusing my existing dc servo motors and putting ajax 2000 line encoders on my motors. The ajax kit will run me $1550 w/encoders and the Mach 3 software (licensed) ran me $225 So for a grand total of $2775 I will end up with a pretty nice and modern cnc mill. I will say that i'm having a bit of trouble finding the Kwik Switch 200 tool holders. So if anyone has any their looking to sell let me know. Thanks. |
I am doing a similar conversion right now, on a V2E3 boss 8. I am reusing the power supply and ordered Dugong servo drives from cncdrives.com. I currently have a series one manual machine that I retrofitted with steppers a couple years ago but the ways were in horrible shape and the V2E3 was too good of a deal to pass up. The Dugong servo drives are getting fantastic reviews and have features/price that beats the others by far, anyone doing a retrofit should check them out.
Mounting new encoders on the powertron servos might prove to be a issue. (assuming you have powertron servos like mine has). The encoder is actually integral with the motor endcap. I ordered/have AMT capacitive encoders with selectable resolution that I will be using but it will require machining the motor endcap and new helical couplers to allow a protruding shaft to drive the encoder. Its one of those things you have to see to understand, the powertron does not have a stub shaft out the end for driving the encoder.
The old mill has a Kwik switch 200 spindle and it took me quite a while to hunt up a good assortment of tooling, so I know what you mean. I will be getting rid of the KS200 tooling as soon as the V2E3 is up and running so I sent you a PM.