Need parts for Milltronic MB20 Partner??

I recently acquired a Milltronic MB20 partner bed mill that had been cannabinolized of some parts. Is there any good sources for new or used parts for these? Does Milltronic still offer parts for there older machines? Thanks for any help!!

Depends which parts.

Most of the mechanical stuff on them, is pretty much stuff you can track down by size. Bearings, seals, bolts etc.

The odd stuff pops up on fleabay, boards, servos, drivers, and the odd batch of goodies pops up on here. There was someone that gave away a set of servo drivers for free a while back, which I should have spoke up for at least one of, if not two.

You should contact them and see if they still offer the single board computer upgrade, if the machine does not have that. It used to run about $2K, which was a bargain as those things go. It didn't upgrade the software, but got you that much further up the food chain for the computer itself.
For my CentV controller, that means going from a 386, up to a (IIRC)233 Pentium, with an increased memory and some increases in the ability to transfer and hold files. Seems primitive, but all it has to do is read the instruction, follow the instruction...
I had great results talking to them on the phone while troubleshooting the machine at work and learning it's foibles. They were able to send me several pieces of documentation to help learn the system, and were not all tight-ass about getting a credit card before they would even talk to me.

Otherwise, you might be looking at either breaking it for parts, or stripping the controls out and retrofitting something.

There's "a guy" on the other forum (that will remain nameless here - wink wink), goes by the name of "sporty bob". Do a quick search and try contacting him - he is an encyclopedia of knowledge on the milltronics.

Thanks for the input! Sorry trevj, I should have gave a few more details so you wouldn't have had to make the long response.

The ball screws are there but the support bearings on the ends are gone. Plus I would like drive motors and manual cranks. I will not need the bed to be computer controlled. I know this sounds like I'm going backwards but that's all I need for my application and this MB20 is so much more solid than a Bridgeport style machine.

straightaxle65 said:

Thanks for the input! Sorry trevj, I should have gave a few more details so you wouldn't have had to make the long response.

The ball screws are there but the support bearings on the ends are gone. Plus I would like drive motors and manual cranks. I will not need the bed to be computer controlled. I know this sounds like I'm going backwards but that's all I need for my application and this MB20 is so much more solid than a Bridgeport style machine.

Click to expand...

The bearings you can poke around through the manuals if you have them, or simply dig through the various bearing house catalogs to come up a set of thrust bearings and the adjustable cinch nuts that lock them on either side off the block that the screws go through.
Need to know inside, outside diameters, and thickness, typically all in millimeters.

Dunno if you will be really happy trying to run ball screws with a hand crank, as the pitch is steep enough to allow the screw to be pushed around, by the cutting forces unless the axis is locked down. A locked down axis is a pain in the ass to use, as it means constantly locking and unlocking.

Might be better off getting over that idea and setting yourself up with a drive system that would allow you to manually jog the movement around using servos and a hand held dongle. With the original control, you could select the use of the manual pulse generator, and the step per click, ranging from a tenth of a thou, up to .1 of an inch per click. Or you could jog the movement in a continuous fashion, with a similar range of speeds. If the original control is gone, a retrofit to a system that would allow you to use a joystick would be a way to have a intuitive manual(ish) control over the use of essentially, power feeds on the axiis.