Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Bridgeport Boss 5

Hi Nathan,
It is possible to cheaply rebuild a BOSS 5 to run from a PC but you will
have to spend some time working everything out. You will need to buy the
following:

3x Gecko G201 or stepper drives.
1x breakout board such as the one from <http://www.campbelldesigns.com/>
1x PC with at least a 500MHz processor, preferably >1GHz
1x copy of Mach2 from <ww.artofcnc.ca>
A few relays to control the oiler, coolant and spindle

You can buy a power supply or rewire the existing 110V transformer to
give out 55V then use some capacitors and a bridge rectifier rescued
from the old control cabinet.

This is what I did with mine and I get rapids in the region of 2.5
m/min(100IPM) and it is so much smoother than the original system.

Les



rocketscientistnate wrote:

> I haven't had time to keep up with the posts lately, so I apologize
> if this issue has been recently addressed. I have a Bridgeport Boss
> 5, and I think this time it finally kicked the bucket. I've checked
> with placed like Centroid and Ajax, and while they offer good
> products, they're out of my price range. Can anybody tell me what
> the cheapest way to do a retrofit would be? The stepper motors are
> all in good shape so I would like to reuse them, and I have two
> extra so I would like something that coule be upgradable to 4 or 5
> axis later, but its not crucial. Also I've never quite figured out a
> comprehensive list of all the parts needed to make it go (drives,
> controllers, power supply, software, probably a pc, anything else?)
> and where does one find a good kit that includes all of them. I'm
> not particular about the software, I'll probably program my own g-
> code anyway. I don't need any kind of speed records with rapid
> travel or anything, and I mainly cut 6061 Al. I just need to make
> it go.
>
> Thanks in advance
> Nathan Clymer
>
>
>
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