Adding motion control to my Z-axis

Hello Everyone,

The time has come to consider how I want to add a proper Z axis to my machine. I have an old 1983 Tree 200R Milling Machine. I've worked very hard on and off over the past 7 years to convert a $1000 huge hunk of iron into a precise machine. My spindle was badly bent from a crash in the past and it's now running with less than .0001" of runout. I have my X and Y dialed in and running on LinuxCNC very well. I built my own 3-phase rotary converter for my machine and just replaced the bearings in that so it's nice and quiet now. Currently the knee on my mill is controlled by an analog switch that reverses my 3-phase wires to run the motor one way or the other. It's one rapid speed up/down depending on the switch. The motor in place now is 1400RPM 1/2HP 3-Phase. I would like to swap that motor out for something I can easily control with my existing LinuxCNC setup.

My current setup is a MESA 7i43-4U card with a MESA 7i49 card for my servo / resolver channels. Right now I only use 2 of 6 possible channels because I have just X & Y. I also have a MESA 7i42TA card for my limit switches and whatnot. That 2nd card is not really used at this time but will be put to better use soon as I figure out proper integration to my safety switches and other add-on's.

I know I could probably do this a few different ways but I would like to keep costs to a minimum if it makes sense. I know I could get another servo motor with a resolver to use my existing 7i49 resolver card. But I don't know how big of a servo motor I need and they seem to be hundreds of dollars. Still if that price is my only hurdle maybe it's the best way since I already have working servo / resolver pairs and this would just be 1 more. I just need help picking a servo motor with a resolver for my Z axis.

I could also remove my 7i42TA card and use that other channel on my 7i43 board for a new MESA card. Perhaps one that runs a stepper motor since they are cheaper right? But can a 7i43 control a servo card (7i49) and a stepper card (7ixx??) at the same time? I am also quite sure there are other options I'm not aware of so please help me figure out what my best options are here. I thank you for any help you can offer.

If you want to see my machine you can view it on OUPower.com or look at my youtube channel (user Hatch789y) and you'll see a bunch of old videos with my machine as well as much newer ones this year. This project has spanned 7 going on 8 years!

Here's the servo motor that I have in my possession. CMC PM Servo Motor 3528000M5000TAA-CO ...It appears to be new (old stock) and never used. It has an encoder on the back. I'm trying to find the literature for this one but can only get close, not exact. There is info on 3528 series servos but none with the M5 encoder which mine appears to have. My current hurdle is to figure out how to wire this puppy. I have done some searches but it's not information that appears to be readily available. Hopefully they are standard and easy enough to figure out.


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Unshielded (Grounding wire?)

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