Putting my Boss 5 on a Diet?

I'm trying to arrange my shop to fit my new BOSS 5 CNC. It's a home shop and space is an issue. I'd like to keep my manual Series 1 Bridgeport also, so I need to make room. The problem is those two huge cabinets. They not only take up room, but I need to leave space to access both the back and the side. I've already ordered a Hillbilly Bob controller. That empty's out half of the right cabinet. What if I got some Gecko's with a Gecko power supply? Could I then ditch the right cabinet completely? What about the rear cabinet. With a Gecko power supply. Could all of those transformers be eliminated? Along with that annoyingly loud fan on the back door. It's so loud, I can't hear my annoyingly loud phase converter.

Unless I'm missing something seems like all I would need is a PC, a Bob, 3 Geckos & a Gecko power supply which could all be mounted remotely. Then just the main power shutoff, fuses & the relays for the spindle motor which could be put into a much smaller enclosure and be mounted in a more convenient spot.

What am I missing? I'm sure something important!

Thanks

I had similar space concerns in my shop and here is what I did with mine.

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=66994

It sounds like you have it planned out well.

Mike

Mike,

Nice work. The wall mounting of the electronics may be the way I go also. The one thing I forgot about is that I would need that Big T2 transformer still for step power. What does T1 do? How about SX1 SX2 & SX3? Anyone have a wiring diagram for this thing?

I have a Boss machine I have retroitted with a BOB and 3 Geckos and a Torroidial power supply. The contactor for the spindle motor is 110 so that is easy. The spindle brake and speed control options are 24 Vdc so you need a power supply for those. or keep the 24 volt supply in the cabinet. The whole low voltage power supply in the control cabinet can be scrapped. If you replace the 24v supply with a new used one for 30-40 bucks you could fit every thing into a 12 X 24 x 24 cabinet. I kept nothing from the control cabinet. But I used the huge Heatsink on the rear to mount the Geckos to since the motor wire are already on the bottom. They stay very cool even on the hottest days. I have the wiring Schematics if you have any questions let me know.

HI, im retrofitting a bridgeport with bob and geckos. Id love to see your schematics for your set up, im having some trouble.

Roger,

Don't remember if you have 3 phase in your house or not. I don't, so started pulling out everything in the rear cabinet. In my case, I ended up pulling out everything in the rear cabinet, and already had everything out of the side cabinet. I moved the rear cabinet to the side, as it's a bit smaller than the side cabinet. The side cabinet and a bunch of stuff was sold for scrap.
Mounted the VFD right up beside the spindle motor, in order to keep the leads short, which helps reduce the amount of radio frequency interference.
I bought a 56/5 volt power supply from Kehling. I'd buy perhaps a 70 volt next time. Later learned that the 5 volt is a small add on, and I'm thinking that he could also add another 24 volt in the same space, with no problem.
I built a 24 volt, 2 amp power supply from scratch. Doubt if I'll ever use more than 1 amp. Go cheap on the 24, suspect you could almost use a 24 volt wall-wart supply.
I'm learning that an awful lot of the stuff I did in my cabinet was overkill. I've got 5 volt fans all over the place. I've now disconnected most of them.

Go here and you'll see my almost complete wiring. Hasn't changed much since then.
Tom Wade Machinist -- Back Plate Wiring In Progress

Tom