[slow-poke]

Newbie here.

Preamble:

This is for hobby use not professional.

I have two manual mills, I converted one of them to CNC about 10 years ago using NEMA34 steppers and using Mach3 to control. I made a custom control panel it all works quite well and I'm quite happy with it. Only complaint is maximum speed, I'm using the original ACME lead-screws. This discussion is not about that conversion, only to give readers some idea of where I'm at with CNC type stuff.

I now want to convert my new (old 1989) 8 x 30 knee mill, I'm considering using servo motors this time. Not sure if I will use Mach3 again or something else, that's another discussion but do like the idea of using servo's with simple step and direction signals for drive.

I know someone that has converted a similar knee mill and he used Clearpath SDSK 3421S-RLS servos (NEMA 34, 289oz-in continous, 1100oz-in peak) directly driving the screws and he is quite happy with the performance.That servo sounds perfect specification wise, but are expensive for my hobby type requirements.

I have read that there are now more affordable (Ali-Express etc) servos, would appreciate any information/suggestions for these lower cost servos and suitable drivers that incorporate the feedback from the encoder.

Images (everyone likes pictures). Green is old, white is new.