I’m going to abstain here.
To me, it seems a bit superfluous to spend $300 just to see if we can get the machines work, and then earmark another ~$500 to get them working.
I’m not a no because I think there is value here in having some larger 3-axis metal CNCs (selfishly because I want to eventually get around to making some stuff out of aluminum 
) but it does seem a bit risky to toss around $300 for a “guess,” even if it is well educated.
TLDR; I vote no.
As many of you know, I am a big proponent of Hive13 owning quality and reliable CNC machines. In fact, I am one of the few people that has invested A LOT of time and energy into learning to operate the Roland CNC, a machine that, frankly, I am in love with. I’m crushed by the suggestion that the Roland will go away.
I’m not fond of the votes that ask for money with a large cushion and the warning of needing more later. I don’t think you can really predict how much this will cost. Will this additional amount be voted on? What if we vote ‘no’?
Also, am I the only one that remembers just how much effort (and frustration) Kevin put into restoring and modernizing just one CNC? He had at least 18 months of effort and god only knows how much $$$ in it. I have little doubt that we have the skills to restore these machines and turn them into something really neat. But I have previously heard zero complaints about our current CNCs being insufficient and certainly not enough that we should embark on a group project that could drag on for ages and cost a truly unknown amount of money. Failure to follow through 100% would resulting a big pile of junk.
Does anyone remember the Gigabot?
Finally, I would LOVE to have a CNC lathe but my interest in it is for turning materials including wood. I suspect that the model that this vote wants to buy would (wood) not appreciate sawdust in its oily works.
No thanks…
Along those lines, could @Kmcleod or @Bradman give some idea on what sort of restoration/modernization effort they expect would be involved here?
I’ve seen the machines in person (there are some rough photos of the actual machines in slack, the ones above are of similar models I found online) I can’t say with 100% confidence till we start working with them, but they seemed to be in decent shape, no evidence of fall/drop damage like the Roland had. They also should not require the same level of spindle and motor replacement the Roland required (I designed and had machined a new spindle for the Roland because it used a proprietary collet system that was unavailable and had to replace the spindle motor and controller with a more modern motor because the original burned out almost immediately after I got it functional).
The only known mechanical issue is that the mill has one dead stepper motor. It is a NEMA 23 frame stepper that we likely have something suitable at the hive or in some generous member’s stash, but worse case the exact replacement is available on eBay for $125-200.
My hope is to get the machines functional with the existing controllers to start with. The maker of the machines is still in business, and the manuals and software for them are still available from them.
We have also talked about possibly replacing the controller(s) with one of the many import control boards that are compatible with Mach 3/4 or LinuxCNC, if we did that, the controllers would likely be in $100-300 range.
I really doubt we would spend more than $1000 between the two machines to get them operational, and when they pop up on eBay they sell for $2300-3000 each. I personally would have preferred to post this vote for just the $300 purchase price, then get them in to evaluate them before posting a rebuild budget vote, but Brad felt that we should have a bit of a budget when we dig in to them so we didn’t get blocked out of making simple fixes that would make them usable.
TLDR; What Kevin said.
These appear to be nice “training” machines that are used in trade schools.
Assuming they have all the parts, we will attempt to resurrect them as is. My biggest concern is the antiquated controllers that they use (Windows 95). The machinist that I work with said it is pretty easy to upgrade them to a new controller board that can talk to Mach 3 but we will wait till we confirm the basics are OK. That is the second journey for them. I’m sensitive to the “sunk cost” problem of continuing to pour time & money into a loosing proposition so I’ll stay of top of the final destination.
This has the potential for us to have some “real” CNC machining capability, which would be super cool. Not for everyone, but would enable us to make some very nice parts.
I vote yes.
I vote yes.
My vote is a yes. Even if it takes months of work to bring them online, isn’t that key to what many in the hive thrive on; rising to the challenge of diagnosing and repairing problems? I think that the interested members would rather find in-house solutions whenever possible vs. purchasing a fix; unless I am reading the Hive wrong.
Ha, as we get older we appreciate premade solutions, but yeah we would love to get it working with our own mojo.
With 19 yesses, 1 abstain, and 2 nos, this vote passes (08/16/2022).
