Retrofit of my 1978 Deckel E3 (basically one of the first NC FP3's)

Hello everybody,

I'm Markus, 49 yrs and from Germany.

Some weeks ago I had the Idea to replace my small china mill - an CNC controlled 'Optimum BF' 20 with something bigger - preferably a Deckel FP.

I have had the short chance to practice on a FP2 some 30 years ago - so my wish to own one accompanied me half my life.
But - as everyone here knows - those machines usually are far from affordable. At least for me.

Incidentally several days later I stumbled upon an electrically defect FP on Ebay at a price I just couldnt say no. Exact type was not mentioned, I did a quick research on the net and hit' the 'buy it now' button.

So I ended up with this 1.5 ton piece - 300 miles from my home:





First I thought it was an FP4 - but I learned I had picked a rare 'E3' with 'E1003' Weinlich control from 1978.
So I - Deckel rookie and blindest of blind hens - have been so lucky to pick a machine with stepper motors and ballscrews on all three axles. Sigh.

Last week I picked it up on a rented 3to car trailer:








I unloaded it mith my pallet truck (not without denting the trailer - sigh :-( ), but nevertheless the mill ended up in my garage.


Here a picture of the stepper motors with encoders (at least I guess so):





Vogel lube pump:





Nixies were state of the art back then :-) :





70s style control:








inside - capacitors sized like beercans:





160V transformer (power supply for the steppers) weighs at least 80 pounds :-) :





the giant stepper amplifiers:





cards, cards, cards... imagine my rolling eyes when I saw this first time.





there are virtually inches of space between the conducting paths. Let the good ol' times roll...:





On the left hand side the Vogel lube timer - only thing I'd miss when the cabinet will be gone:








see the tube type socket ? Tubes weren't long gone by then.





huge Resistors: