Burgmaster CNC

Hi

I'm considering buying an old CNC machine, but I haven't been able to find any information about it online, so I'm not sure if it's a good investment.
The machine is based on a Burgmaster with a Föhrenbach DCNC 82V4H plate (built in 1987).

Originally it was equipped with DC servo motors, but after the original controllers failed, the previous owner retrofitted it with NEMA 34 stepper motors, inexpensive digital stepper drivers, and Mach3 running on an old PC through a parallel port.
Mechanically, the machine appears to be in very good condition.
Specifications so far:

Approximate travels: 700 × 500 × 200 mm (X/Y/Z)
Weight: 800 kg
Cast iron construction
Precision dovetail (prismatic) guideways
Fine-pitch lead screws on X and Y
Ball screw on Z
2 kW belt-driven spindle motor with manual pulley speed selection
6-station mechanical indexing turret tool changer
Threaded collet holders on each station (one currently has a 16 mm end mill installed)

I removed the way covers to inspect the machine. The guideways, lead screws, and table all appear to be in excellent condition. There is virtually no visible wear, and the machine seems to have seen relatively little use. Most of the cosmetic damage is simply from having other equipment and materials stacked against it over the years.

My only concern is the spindle. There is a slight amount of radial play that can be felt by hand with a tool installed, although I haven't measured it with a dial indicator yet. I plan to do that on my next visit.

The mechanical turret and spindle arrangement make me think it was originally designed primarily for drilling and tapping, rather than as a conventional milling machine. However, I mainly plan to machine aluminum and plastics (Delrin, nylon, PTFE), not heavy steel.

The alternative would be buying a manual milling machine and performing a complete CNC conversion myself, but by the time I add motors, drives, ball screws, and a controller, the total cost would be very similar to this machine.

If the spindle eventually turns out to be the weak point, I would even consider replacing it with a modern spindle in the future, while keeping the existing cast iron structure.

My questions are:
1. Has anyone seen or worked on a Föhrenbach DCNC machine like this?
2. Does this sound like a drilling/tapping center with limited milling capability, or a light milling machine?
3. Would you consider this a good candidate for a LinuxCNC retrofit?
4. Is the combination of dovetail guideways, lead screws on X/Y, and a ball screw on Z a significant limitation for aluminum machining?
5. Assuming the spindle bearings are still in reasonable condition, would you consider this machine worth buying for around USD 4,500? (kind of a good price in Bolivia)

Any advice or experience would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks! 
 

A quick Google said:
Burgmaster turret drills are well-regarded for automating multi-step machining. They house a cluster of spindles that automatically index and rotate to the next operation—such as drilling, countersinking, or tapping—without requiring manual tool changes.

So my question is, is the turret under CNC Control? was this broken with the Mach3 conversion? Can the function be restored? That's the LinuxCNC opportunity.
Seems to be designed for drilling and tapping so caveats around milling would be similar to that for drill presses.

 

Thanks for the answer
Everything is expensive here, old beat up fadals goes for more than 22k an old bridgeport romi d 1250 without numeric controller and unknown state of drivers and servos goes for 13.5k but can’t afford them
I have worked on machines before fixing some retrofitting others but I have never had my own so I kind of know the market here.
Money is really tough here I saved for a long time so I don’t know if it will be worth it, at least is a working machine

rodw wrote:

A quick Google said:
Burgmaster turret drills are well-regarded for automating multi-step machining. They house a cluster of spindles that automatically index and rotate to the next operation—such as drilling, countersinking, or tapping—without requiring manual tool changes.

So my question is, is the turret under CNC Control? was this broken with the Mach3 conversion? Can the function be restored? That's the LinuxCNC opportunity.
Seems to be designed for drilling and tapping so caveats around milling would be similar to that for drill presses.


 

Yep the turret works mechanically by going up on the z axis to the very top so it activates and rotates one position, it has a bit of play on the tool bearings, I didn’t measure the play but it is really small but it depends on the tool station some have more some less, maybe changing the bearings.
I thought about taking out the turret head and replace it with a Chinese head and mount the turret on a manual drill press.
Or ditch the idea and start looking to other machines because milling is the main reason I want to buy a machine.


 

Play in the tool is not good for milling i would say. If you can feel it by hand it will probably not do the "trick" very nicely.
The machine itself looks interesting for a hobby project, but I would have thought it is much cheaper. Unless in running condition and known what it can do.
Seems more a drilling machine than milling machine if the spindle head is similar to the manual drill machines I found in the picture search.

If you pay everything in advance incl. shipping and get the transport organized, I send a machine your way . (lol).
www.acutek-tw.com/products/detail/96
rodw would point out that those FANUC electrics can get pricey when damaged and in Bolivia it might become a nightmare to replace those. 

p.s. no idea what he is asking and if it still for sale....

Before any other evaluation, check the spindle bearings to see if they are capable of handling real radial loads.

Manual or semi-auto drill/tap machines may not have angular contact (or tapered roller) bearings as they are only intended for axial loads.  It would be rather a shame to discover you can't do any reasonable side-milling without a major redesign of the spindle.

I've no idea what the situation is in your country, but if used machine tools are that expensive I'd think a self-built thing from scratch would be better than that Burgmaster.