Late FP2 and FP3

Can anybody enlighten me on the differences between a last generation non active FP2 and an FP3, apart from the obvious increase in X and Y travel.

Size wise they look virtually the same with the FP3 being just 25mm taller and 100Kg heavier according to the sales info. The main body looks the same, the front carriage is wider and the head sections longer.

I see lots of late FP2 but very few late FP3 active or not. Reading old PM threads there are very few in America so assume Germany was the main sales area. I believe a new FP3 was £20,000 in 1980 which was a lot of money for a milling machine, about the cost of a small house so I expect not many in the UK.

Adrian.

adrian said:

Can anybody enlighten me on the differences between a last generation non active FP2 and an FP3, apart from the obvious increase in X and Y travel.

Size wise they look virtually the same with the FP3 being just 25mm taller and 100Kg heavier according to the sales info. The main body looks the same, the front carriage is wider and the head sections longer.

I see lots of late FP2 but very few late FP3 active or not. Reading old PM threads there are very few in America so assume Germany was the main sales area. I believe a new FP3 was £20,000 in 1980 which was a lot of money for a milling machine, about the cost of a small house so I expect not many in the UK.

Adrian.

Click to expand...

I've had both...side by side....and there really is no difference except the X and Y travels. The height difference may be the FP3 ram may be taller since it is longer, so as to have similar rigidity. I was lucky to have the final generation FP3 when I bought the final generation FP2, as the FP2 needed so much electrical related work due to previous owners removing the Activ DRO, the Z axis scale and rewiring in their own DC drive...very handy to have the FP3 to reference how it was supposed to be.

I've mentioned this before but in case you missed it, the only reason they conjured up an alternate DC drive was they were unaware all they had to do is jumper two wires to get the original DC drive back working perfectly. (this only necessary because they removed the Activ DRO which has those two wires interfaced so as to shut down the drive when the programmed axis travel number is reached)

It is amazing thinking back on it now how much complexity and time they must have spent on the alternative DC drive when all they had to do is screw one wire into the same terminal block as the other wire !