Finishing some one elses project sugesstions appreciated

I recentley bougth a started cnc router project for a god price on fb marketplace.
the machine was a bit bigger than i thougth. the machine is bassed on a moving gantry and two ballscrews connected with a belt to be driven by a single servo motor.
A big motor to drive the axis was included and some smaler nema 23 servomotors for the other axis. but no drive electronics. the z axis is quite tall and seems flimsy to me compared to the rest of machine round supported linear rails there. the original designer / builder of the machine is no longer alive so i do not know what it was designed for.

the plan is to use a mesa board and get some new servo motors to drive the x and z axis and likley run everything with linux cnc.
for starters i will use a 2.2 kw chinese spindle since i have one at home already. then i will probobly upgrad the z axis with some square linear rails and maybe a beffier plate.

any suggestions would be nice and also if anyone could have a idea what the original designer had in mind.
all i know is that he was an enginner working @ hagglunds (now BAE) and built the machine in their shop

for now i keep it in temporary storage becus i will get my hobbyworkshop in december. it's a bit to large for my 2 bedroom apartment =)
so i will hopefully get started with it after the new year.

som pictures of the machine

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It definitely does have some height going for it. What still needs to be done? What's the cage for - the hamsters that make it run?

whats left is to pice it togheter fully and squaring the parts. the legs with the ballscrews is one part then there is a pice mounted on top with the rails for the gantry. then the cast table for work holding and wise. and the gantry. i moved the machine in these separate parts on the trailer. there are no electronics / motors mounted so that needs to be sourced and fastend. so as it stands it's a bare shell. i hope the x/z will take nema 34 otherwise i will get the most powerfull i can in the nema 22/23 formfaktor or try to remake the mounts. then mounting a spindle. spindle and mesa bord for linux cnc is something i have from a smaller project i was building on earlier.

the cage is just a part of the trailer that i used to move the machine =)

If I stumbled across a machine with components of that quality I would be very pleased.What to do with it would be my next consideration as the potential for flexing of the gantry and the absurdly long Z axis could have serious effects on the accuracy with which the tool could describe the trajectory required for the programmed path.I suggest you try a test by locating a dial indicator by the lower end of the Z axis and apply a push with your hands to see how much movement occurs in the X direction and then repeat the test in the Y direction.I expect you can calculate the force imposed by the servos reasonably closely and then there will be the effect of the resonance of the cutting flutes.

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Originally Posted by routalot

If I stumbled across a machine with components of that quality I would be very pleased.What to do with it would be my next consideration as the potential for flexing of the gantry and the absurdly long Z axis could have serious effects on the accuracy with which the tool could describe the trajectory required for the programmed path.I suggest you try a test by locating a dial indicator by the lower end of the Z axis and apply a push with your hands to see how much movement occurs in the X direction and then repeat the test in the Y direction.I expect you can calculate the force imposed by the servos reasonably closely and then there will be the effect of the resonance of the cutting flutes.

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Yes i will defenitly try with a force gauge and a dial indicator and se what the results are. have not checked the brand of the linear rails but the ballscrews seems to be NSK.
i guess the scrap value for the metals could be more than what i paid about 600eur. so the parts to finish it will be a tad more. i got recommended to get a servostar 610 controller for the gantry motor and does seems to go vetween 500-1000 eur used