Picked this mill up about a year ago. Existing electronics all powered up so I left the existing steppers on the machine and DC spindle control in the cabinet. Swapped controls to Acorn and a Gecko G540 I had on hand from an abandoned Sherline mill project. Spindle on/off is cnc controlled but speed is a potentiometer due to floating ground on the spindle speed control board input and my not wanting to smoke anything expensive. Probably a way to control it through the G540 but I might try to figure that out at a later date.
First cuts were a simple keyway slot in O1 steel which work beautifully. Second project was profile cutting in cast iron which pushed the machine pretty good due to my poor feeds and speeds selection.
I love robust simplicity of acorn and cnc12 so far and look forward to making random hobby parts. I can’t thank the contributors to this board enough for sharing all the knowledge and lessons learned that helped me complete this retrofit.
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