I picked up this 1981 Series 1 CNC for $500 today. Not sure if I should have, but I’m currently using a small grizzly mill that’s 3/4HP and have been wanting something bigger.
What I’m wanting to do is install a VFD so I can run it on 220 single phase and upgrade all the servos and controller so I can use fusion 360 to make some parts on it. Figured the old tapes are hard to make lol.
Anyone done something similar can guide me on where to start?
Does anyone sell a complete kit for this mill?
Just got on this forum. Here's what I did 15 years ago. Back in the early 80's, my company bought a 1970's vintage Bridgeport Series 1 CNC, BOSS 5 as our introduction to CNC. After maxing out the BOSS 5 with jobs, we bought another one, brand new from the factory (our company was in Bridgeport), a 1984 BOSS 6. This was the last of the steppers but it was OK with us as we already had the tooling (Ericson 30 QC), programs, knowledge, operator, etc., plus got a good deal, including warranty. Eventually, on both machines, we got tired of replacing the switching transistors, etc. and attempting to keep the 1970's technology alive. Enter the PC, Mach3, breakout boards, etc., so I decided to rehab the BOSS 5. Here's what I did:
Gutted the 2 cabinets (saved parts, except the huge transformers), scrapped the "control" cabinet and moved the smaller "power" cabinet to the right side.
Bought Gecko G203V stepper drives (4, as I have a Haas rotary table for a 4th axis). Mounted them on an aluminum heat sink.
Designed my own 63VDC power supply using a toroidal transformer, a bridge rectifer and the old (big) capacitors for filters.
Bought a breakout board and other related boards from CandCNC. Found an old XP computer and monitor and installed Mach3.
Wired it all up and, voila! It worked...and worked well. All for about $1000.
After a few years of use, the rotary drum switch for the spindle motor failed and it was unavailable for replacement so I hooked up a Hitachi VFD so the spindle is now controlled from the Mach3. Now the machine can run on 220 single phase. In fact I don't even need the 220 but it was wired up that way for the spindle motor.
The machine has been very reliable and has been used in this configuration for 15 years in short run jobs, 5 to 100 pcs typ. It has never skipped a beat (or step for that matter). The BOSS 6 machine is waiting for the same treatment and I will probably do the exact same thing. They just don't make more solid machines than these, IMHO, and I already have the Gecko drives and much of the needed parts. I also have a plethora of 2N6547 transistors if anyone needs them.
Rob