Saw a shop in Cleveland running a 1998 Fadal with a new control retrofit

I was dropping off a part for a buddy at a small job shop near the airport last week. They had this old Fadal VMC 4020 from the late 90s still on the floor, but it had a brand new Centroid control on it. The operator said they did the swap about six months ago for under ten grand. He showed me how the new screen made conversational programming way faster for their one-off parts. The machine itself was solid, just the brain was old. It got me thinking about the cost of a new machine versus keeping a good iron frame alive. Has anyone here done a full control retrofit on an older mill, and was it worth the hassle?

2 comments

2 Comments

mitchell.mark7d ago

That part about keeping a good iron frame alive is spot on. My friend runs a two man shop and did a similar retrofit on an old Bridgeport. He said the hardest part was just getting all the old wiring out. Once the new control was in, that machine could do things he never dreamed of, like rigid tapping. It added another ten years to its life for less than a new car payment.

jamiekim7d ago

Yeah, my buddy's old lathe got a new brain too.