Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Vero Machining Centre

baccus61 wrote:

> Hi to all,
> I am looking at an advertisment for a VERO Vertical Machining
> Center/Drill for sale and I am wondering if anyone has had anything
> to do with them. It has a Plessey NC tape control, 630 x 380 table
> and a 5 tool turret. The machine is in working condition.
> I would like to know if it has ball screws or normal acme thread
> screws, What type of drive motors and whether it has encoders for
> positional readout. The working machine comes at a price of $1200
> and looks to be in very reasonable condition. Would it be worthwhile
> buying and trying to convert to a CNC. I wanted to ask of all your
> knowledge
> before contacting the vendor and your help will be much appreciated.

Guessing from the vintage, I would be pretty confident to say it would
have ballscrews, and DC brush motors. Feedback could be optical
encoder (good) or resolver (not so good). You can get interpolator
boxes that convert resolvers into encoder signals, but they are not cheap.
Servo amps might be usable, but at this vintage (early '70s at the
latest, if it is true NC, not CNC) it might be better to retire all the electronics.
Watch out for light bulbs in the encoders - they burn out monthly,
always when the machine is running! (You could replace them with
IR LEDs, though.)

The gotchas in such an old machine are wear in the ballscrews (can
be rebuilt for reasonable cost) and wear on the ways (can also be rebuilt,
but can get expensive!) Also, the spindle bearings may be worn, and
are usually expensive.

I think US $1200 would be too much to offer, and in Canadian $ would be
a reasonable deal. I'm not exactly sure where the AU $ falls, but I seem
to remember it is in between the two. I would try to offer less and see
what happens. If you can take some gauges there, you could try to
measure backlash and how much you can swing or rock the table (won't
be much, but you can get an idea for the amount of wear in the center
of travel.) You can also study the frosting patterns on the ways to
determine depth of wear in the center of the travel. A flashlight is helpful
for that.

Jon