The intensifier that was originally fitted was a multi stage type and it took 4 or 5 cycles to release the drawbar, took about 3 or more seconds.  I got a single stage one from a friend and it releases the drawbar instantly

The ballnuts have a spacer between the two halves, you could split them and grind the spacer I suppose. I am more inclined to think the bearings will be the culprits though, certainly was on mine.

I totally rewired my machine, the AC servo drives I use connect direct to the mains, single phase for axis and three phase for spindle.

Laptops can work ok, some do some dont but older ones seem to have a better chance. Of course that is when using the parallel port, when using an external controller such as the SmoothStepper then most l;aptops would be fine.
I use a Via Pico motherboard in my machines, they are only 100mm x 72mm

Hood

Oh meant to say, the head on yours looks standard enough at the front end and it seems its been chopped a bit at the back and added to.
Hood

Yea it's a bit of a frankenstein, the x and y servo mounts are very retro looking in comparison to the smooth enclosures on your mill,
the x servo sticks out about 8" out front of the table.

The intensifier looks like what you describe.

I thought the same about the ballscrews, the hurco had .2mm backlash on the x and it turned out to be play in the taper bearing, got it down to .02

did your mill originally have linear scales and tachs?

It originally had tachs but encoders on motors. I was going to use the original drives but they whistled at a frequency that annoyed me so I  had to get rid of them. Talked to a service guy and he said that some people heard it others didnt, sadly I did. He also said there was a mod that could be done to quieten them but when I looked mine had been done already so what the hell they would have been like without the mod I hate to imagine.

Attached a pic of the original intensifier, also a pic of the autolube on the left of the screenshot.
Hood

Yea I remember the hurco's westamp drives, jesus it was like an old turbo spinning-up when they energised.
Yea I reckon the intensifier is what I have in the cabinet, how is it controlled, does it recieve a signal and go through a relay loop to energise, de-energise, energise, etc or has it a flip flop valve or something?

Cheers.

Just need to control the air solenoid from 24v, on and the intensifier will unclamp, air off and it will clamp.
Hood

Sounds like a perfect job for a KFLOP conversion  I "think" it can use the tachs(maybe just resolvers) AND the old drives as well. Plus it has plenty of I/O.

(;-) TP