Looks like I got a full size Vertical mill coming home. Its a Supermax ycm-16vs I believe. Ground and hardened box ways, 3hp varispeed head, one shot lube. From swarf in the nooks and cranies I have found it looks this machine was only used on aluminum and plastic. Not one steel chip in sight.
It used to be owned by tektronix and they retrofitted it to cnc. The replaced the lead screws in X and Y with ground ballscrews and removed the original knee mech. and replaced it with a custom made knee horn and ballscrew. It has three good sized PM servos with tach feedback. All axis' have heidenhain glass slide with pulse multipliers in the cabinet. I can remember who made the controls but it dosnt matter as I am not going to use them. I will use one of the cases
So my question. Whats the best way to re-retrofit it? I plan on using Mach. So far my possibilities include:
1. It has good servo drivers and motor power supply. +/- 10v in. Use either the skyko or rutex step to analog converters. Question is do I install encoders on the motors or can I use the glass scales as feedback? This would be the cheapest option since the skyko pixies are only $69 per axis.
2. replace the servo drivers with Gecko 320/340. Again, can I use the scales or do I need to install motors. Also should I go with the 320 or 340?
I eventually want to go with using the G100 as soon as it is a viable option to run the drivers (maybe after the next firmware update?)
Also the spindle motor draws 7 amps, I have a VFD that will output 6.8. Think I can get away with using it till I score a larger VFD?
Lastly the knee motor does not have a brake on it so when the machine shuts down the table drops down to the bottom. I was thinking of installing a brake? How could I hook up a electric brake to release before it makes a movement? Use something to monitor the state of the step pin and when it is idle for a long enough period the brake would come on?