Fadal VMC
 

Anyone know anything about a Fadal 904-1 with a Fadal 88 controller? I just bought one cheap, not sure if it was a good idea or not.

I have a 906-1 with an 88hs. I LOVE mine. There is a fair bit of difference between the 88 and the 88HS. Don't expect to do much 3d surfacing with the 88 controller. We drip feed ours 100% of the time and it does fine unless we get a file with 50,000+ lines of code and it can lag on some of the abrupt 3d moves.

The 904-1 is a good machine. Only downside to them is they generally have linear rails instead of box ways like the 906-1 (4020) machines. They are robust machines and every part on them can be purchased still. Easy to work on if need be as well. Our monitor took a chit in transport. We had an LCD upgrade the next day and we were up and running. The LCD screen is so much nicer anyways I wasn't too upset.

As for the 88 controller. Do not worry. If you fall in love with the machine you can do the Calmotion controller upgrade down the road. It is pricey at $8000 IIRC but it transforms the machine drastically. New controller and screen brings it into this century.

So at least it sounds like there's hope it'll be a decent entry level machine. I figured for $2k it was hard to get hurt too bad.

In my opinion it is the best machine for the dollar. 10k spindles, rigid machines, and parts are cheap. If you get it home and there are some bad cards I would just go straight to the Calmotion upgrade assuming the ways/turcite are good and spindle isn't wrecked.

The problem I used to see with machining centers is they are just worn out, lots of slop on the ways/screws.

OK machine for prototype work. Lots of them around. They even made a small machine that ran on single phase power.
RonA

It'll be a pretty low production machine, hopefully just a stepping stone.

Would that be the VMC 15?

They CAN all be ran on single phase. Even the 4020 can be converted with a new transformer. You lose a fair amount of power but we haven't come close to using all 15hp on ours yet.

There is no reason it couldn't be a production machine to be honest.

Not sure. I had a guy do some engine assembly for me several years ago and he had a Fadal in his garage. Said it ran on 220 single phase. I ran a mill on a phase converter for several years(only around 10hp total) and it worked well so I've not looked for a single phase machine.

Rotary phase converter, I'm assuming? It's crazy that I have 3ph power 15' above my roof, but since it's zoned residential property I can't get the power company to even quote the hookup.

Yep. Ag zoning saved my backside here.

Turns out we have 3 phase electric right out at the road. We were under the impression that it was 1/2 mile away, and was going to cost 50k to get it here. We have a 10 horse and 50 horse rotary phase converter, two static converters, and have been fighting electric issues for years.