I have an older Busellato machining center that was used for cabinetmaking. The machine was taken offline when we purchased our Northwood, and has been in storage ever since. From a physical machine perspective it has a full compliment of tooling in good condition and no significant maintenance needs beyond lubrication and general 'out-of-storage' stuff. This machine is truly a workhorse, overbuilt in every way and extremely well equipped. It features a rotating linear ripping saw, bidirectional horizontal boring, multi-spindle shelf pin boring (which can be adapted to any vertical boring operation), and all of that works in support of the main 3 axis routing functions.
I want to explore the possibility of completely changing the controller so I can adapt the machine for furniture making and CNC classes at The North Carolina Furniture School. I have seen clever hacks for similar machines, where people overcame outdated controllers and software with low cost solutions - BUT - that kind of computer expertise is totally beyond my abilities and information seems sparse on this kind of stuff. From a software perspective I have most of what is required for this machine to be made current - all current AutoCad, Fusion, etc. as well as Cabinet Vision Screen to Machine.
So with a machine that features the very best quality servos, spindles, bearings, electronics, etc. I think there has to be a low or no cost solution to wake this thing up and welcome it back to life without dumping tons of money into it.
Am I dreaming or is this possible?