Some time back i was offered one of DD's Heidenhain retro fit Deckels from a local member here. Control was fitted to an early FP2NC, and my long range plan was to remove the control and
cables and transplant everything to my trusty work FP4NC. I made the deal and moved the machine to the shop where it sat mostly little used for the past several years.
Just never seemed to find enough time to tie up the "4" long enough to make the change over.
Well, life has a way of sneaking up on you when you least expect....so it was with me. Several month ago i got a PM form a member here (reads this forum but never as far as i can tell posts)
who offered me a machine. Turns out this person is pretty interesting....has a business a bit south of me and has an incredible collection of rare Euro machines.
Anyhow i returned the message an it turns out that he owns a late FP2NC "Flip" head machine. Fitted out with a Dialog 4 control having some "ups" including one of DD's LCD display screen and
the DNC option. The say the least i am intrigued.
Made a survey trip south and inspected the machine....Paint a bit worn , but in general in overall good condition as far as i could tell.....Some indications on the inside face of the box ways as is
not unusual on the CNC's....
Discussed the machine with the owner,who is a real nice guy by the way, and turns out that he has never powered up this machine and it has been sitting for some time...
We arrived at a deal and i resolved to return and take the machine away....
![]()
Original machine configuration before moving.....
![]()
Made the trip south with truck and trailer , picked up the machine and returned to the shop.....Now i am the proud owner of 2 FP2NC's....
Now begs the question, what the heck is the plan? Shop space is limited! I do not have room for two FP2NC's....so one has to be moved on. I am interested in the later machine because of its
ease of conversion from horizontal to vertical use without the need to tram the vertical head after the change over...this has big appeal.
That and the fact that the "flip" has the 6300 RPM vertical spindle...something i would love to have on the FP4NC.
Also the general condition for the "Flip" is better and it has a longer "Y" travel than the earlier machine. So i decide that the later machine is the one to keep....But what about the Heidenhain control.
Now in a perfect world i would be fine keeping the Dialog controls....But my belief is that the HH control is the path to extending the life of these machines....Service and parts for the Dialog controls
is getting harder and i want to keep my Deckels running into the future....
Part of the long range plan here (work) is to bring the next wave of guys here up to speed, pass along some of the things i have learned so that the work (in theory) can continue after
i have stopped coming here every day....Some might call it retirement, but its my belief that guys that work with their hands never really retire.....For me it will be the shift from coming here every day to
working in my home shop every day....Anyhow there is a fellow here that will be doing more with the machines as time goes on. I am not ready to hand over complete access to the FP4NC at this time,
But seems that the FP2NC (in which i have little emotional investment) would be a good training platform for the "new guy".....
So ......I decided to swap the HH control between the two FP2NC's...The FP4NC will get reworked at a future date.
At face this seemed like a relatively simple task....same machines so just swap the main casting that supports the operators station with all its conduits and wiring..could swap servos as well by just unbolting...mechanical stuff and seemingly pretty simple.....WRONG!
Turns out that the "Flip" has a different conduit system for containing the cables....The early conduits use a harder plastic and as most of you likely know it is prone to cracking with time and use.
Lots of the early machines have broken conduits running to the "X" axis at the servo....I have changed out this conduit on my FP4NC twice since i have owned that machine...The last time the replacement
conduit was supplied in the later more flexible style, needing adapters to couple the housing to the ends on the machine castings....I should have remembered this!
So short version is that it really is not possible to swap all the parts, well not simply.
I decided to change out everything...That meant removing all the cabling from the early machine, and rethreading it into the later conduits...Of course this meant that i would need to first
remove all the Dialog cabling from the "Flip"...Got the picture?
Well just in case...here are some shots of the work in progress..................................
![]()
I moved both machines into the fab shop at work as was where i had the greatest clear space in the shop.
Work was done over the week between Christmas and the New Year . I choose that time as the show was closed and everyone was off, so no distractions and there
wouldn't be any [problems getting is some one's way......
As you can see the job is well along....All the HH cabling has been removed from the older machine and has been fed into the conduit of the "Flip"..
You have to be careful here...some cables have factory finished ends with connectors that won't pass through the conduit once it is mostly filled with other wiring..
so you have to do those first......
![]()
Photo giving some idea of the amount of wiring in one main conduit...remember i am going to do this X 4........
More to follow......
Cheers Ross
cables and transplant everything to my trusty work FP4NC. I made the deal and moved the machine to the shop where it sat mostly little used for the past several years.
Just never seemed to find enough time to tie up the "4" long enough to make the change over.
Well, life has a way of sneaking up on you when you least expect....so it was with me. Several month ago i got a PM form a member here (reads this forum but never as far as i can tell posts)
who offered me a machine. Turns out this person is pretty interesting....has a business a bit south of me and has an incredible collection of rare Euro machines.
Anyhow i returned the message an it turns out that he owns a late FP2NC "Flip" head machine. Fitted out with a Dialog 4 control having some "ups" including one of DD's LCD display screen and
the DNC option. The say the least i am intrigued.
Made a survey trip south and inspected the machine....Paint a bit worn , but in general in overall good condition as far as i could tell.....Some indications on the inside face of the box ways as is
not unusual on the CNC's....
Discussed the machine with the owner,who is a real nice guy by the way, and turns out that he has never powered up this machine and it has been sitting for some time...
We arrived at a deal and i resolved to return and take the machine away....
Original machine configuration before moving.....
Made the trip south with truck and trailer , picked up the machine and returned to the shop.....Now i am the proud owner of 2 FP2NC's....
Now begs the question, what the heck is the plan? Shop space is limited! I do not have room for two FP2NC's....so one has to be moved on. I am interested in the later machine because of its
ease of conversion from horizontal to vertical use without the need to tram the vertical head after the change over...this has big appeal.
That and the fact that the "flip" has the 6300 RPM vertical spindle...something i would love to have on the FP4NC.
Also the general condition for the "Flip" is better and it has a longer "Y" travel than the earlier machine. So i decide that the later machine is the one to keep....But what about the Heidenhain control.
Now in a perfect world i would be fine keeping the Dialog controls....But my belief is that the HH control is the path to extending the life of these machines....Service and parts for the Dialog controls
is getting harder and i want to keep my Deckels running into the future....
Part of the long range plan here (work) is to bring the next wave of guys here up to speed, pass along some of the things i have learned so that the work (in theory) can continue after
i have stopped coming here every day....Some might call it retirement, but its my belief that guys that work with their hands never really retire.....For me it will be the shift from coming here every day to
working in my home shop every day....Anyhow there is a fellow here that will be doing more with the machines as time goes on. I am not ready to hand over complete access to the FP4NC at this time,
But seems that the FP2NC (in which i have little emotional investment) would be a good training platform for the "new guy".....
So ......I decided to swap the HH control between the two FP2NC's...The FP4NC will get reworked at a future date.
At face this seemed like a relatively simple task....same machines so just swap the main casting that supports the operators station with all its conduits and wiring..could swap servos as well by just unbolting...mechanical stuff and seemingly pretty simple.....WRONG!
Turns out that the "Flip" has a different conduit system for containing the cables....The early conduits use a harder plastic and as most of you likely know it is prone to cracking with time and use.
Lots of the early machines have broken conduits running to the "X" axis at the servo....I have changed out this conduit on my FP4NC twice since i have owned that machine...The last time the replacement
conduit was supplied in the later more flexible style, needing adapters to couple the housing to the ends on the machine castings....I should have remembered this!
So short version is that it really is not possible to swap all the parts, well not simply.
I decided to change out everything...That meant removing all the cabling from the early machine, and rethreading it into the later conduits...Of course this meant that i would need to first
remove all the Dialog cabling from the "Flip"...Got the picture?
Well just in case...here are some shots of the work in progress..................................
I moved both machines into the fab shop at work as was where i had the greatest clear space in the shop.
Work was done over the week between Christmas and the New Year . I choose that time as the show was closed and everyone was off, so no distractions and there
wouldn't be any [problems getting is some one's way......
As you can see the job is well along....All the HH cabling has been removed from the older machine and has been fed into the conduit of the "Flip"..
You have to be careful here...some cables have factory finished ends with connectors that won't pass through the conduit once it is mostly filled with other wiring..
so you have to do those first......
Photo giving some idea of the amount of wiring in one main conduit...remember i am going to do this X 4........
More to follow......
Cheers Ross