I wish I could but, thats not my business plan
If I'm going to upgrade the controller.... I'm going to upgrade the machine....
Unless I'm running some really obscure or one off machine, the machine ain't worth having a new control on it or the logistics. I'd rather put it down on a Nexus machine all together.
I can only say one thing about your position, Mazak loves you and is dying to talk to you! They have designed their entire sales strategy to suit your "throw away" (actually its probably "sell and buy the new and improved") machine ownership strategy. Best of luck to you with thatbut, that looks too risky for me.
If I were a shop running 24/7/353, I'd do the same thing and in a few years after I wore those suckers out, I'd sell them for way more than they were worth, after 25,000 hours of on time in 4 years.
My shop and strategy are the exact opposite of that. Since I am attempting to set up as a prototyping and soft tooling shop, doing my onsi-twosie parts, and some foundry tooling, and short runs, what I need are quick setups and versatility, so retrofitted old machines that are a little slower on; movement, rapids, and Spindle HP will not hurt me at all, and might save me a lot more $$ than I could ever make with new machines anyway. I'll also be able to pick up spare machines for parts on the cheap to keep the machine iron up and running, and I will not have a big "principle and Interest" hanging over my head as I get started into all this.
I'm looking at standardizing on only one brand of machine for all my old machines and so far that brand looks like it will be late 1980's to early 1990's model Mazaks lathes & mills and one controller but that I'm still working on. It probably will be Fanuc.
These will last me about 20 years in my shop, unless I change my business plan and start changing over to run as a production shop, who knows. Then I'll be right beside you guys at the IMTS booths looking for that perfect machine for that big new contract that I just signed to be a JIT delivery partner to all my customers, etc.. and be lean on every part and delivery/purchasse. Maybe in 10 years we'll be bidding against each other for that limited production run of new "self controlled" machines that do everything including boxing and affixing postage, and they phone you when its time to go home and come to work, just to keep up the appearance that we work for a living, thats the new machine I want to buy.