[mike^3]

Hello WORLD!

So, I have been retrofitting machines for 8+ years. I have felt a sense of neglect to the community that has helped me so much, so I want to return the favors.

I purchased a 17"x40" Standard Modern CNC Lathe with 8 station tool changer on it. The control is a milltronics control (obviously outdated).

The machine looks to be in great condition, I will receive it next week.

Here is the plan:

I will make a multi part video series, here and on youtube, of me hooking up and retrofitting the entire machine. I will be going into the entire machine, selecting the best electronics, deciding whether to keep the servos and replace them with hybrid steppers (pretty cool stuff).

Electronics:

I have a ethernetsmooth stepper, with c32 board from cnc4pc (about $400.00), with mach 3 turn.
I may purchase a kflop and dynomotion to run the exhisting servos. OR...
I may purchase the CSMIO IP/A for servos, I have one already that works great on my Mill, I would just have to buy it from Poland :| and wait 2 weeks for it to get here...
I may purchase another system that can interface with servos...I forgot the name but will let yall know...Oh wait its dpsmc....

So first things first I will upload pics once the machine arrives, I will try to upload pics every few days of my progress

Stay Tuned!

[slammedxonair]

I'm interested in this any updates?

[Al_The_Man]

Electronics:
I may purchase a kflop and dynomotion to run the exhisting servos. OR...
Stay Tuned!

Why not look at Kanalog as well and run the existing servo's, if drives are needed, there are plenty of A-M-C analogue drives on ebay etc.
I would go with servo's over steppers any day.
Al.
Al.

[Sparky_NY]

Having used both Mach and Linuxcnc for various retrofits, I wouldn't remotely consider mach for a machine of this caliber. Linuxcnc is far more capable and a set of mesa boards would run that machine nicely (about $250 total). The toolchanger is easily handled in Linuxcnc also. Mach isn't too bad on a mill, but comes up way short on a lathe. Those amc drives that Al the man mentioed connect directly to a mesa 7i77 board and operate in closed loop. More than likely the original drives would also work nicely.

[mike^3]

Having used both Mach and Linuxcnc for various retrofits, I wouldn't remotely consider mach for a machine of this caliber. Linuxcnc is far more capable and a set of mesa boards would run that machine nicely (about $250 total). The toolchanger is easily handled in Linuxcnc also. Mach isn't too bad on a mill, but comes up way short on a lathe. Those amc drives that Al the man mentioed connect directly to a mesa 7i77 board and operate in closed loop. More than likely the original drives would also work nicely.

Hi Guys, I tried using linuxcnc before and had a hell of a time trying to figure it all out... I didn't get much help either....

I have a csmio IP/A which I starting wiring it up too. The csmio is an awesome device it only uses machs identified position to control the machine. The latency and issues within mach are gone using the csmio.

I have been making videos on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BkItAd8Xc8 this is the latest video update, I made more videos so check them out

Plus with Mach 4 being developing I think ill stick with mach. Linux is a completely different language and I didn't find much help on the forums or irc site....

More vids soon to come!

Also I bought a really night chnc4 which I will be retrofitting soon as well

[Sparky_NY]

The learning curve with linuxcnc is much steeper, you are correct on that but its well worth the effort. Linuxcnc is a true closed loop controller, with capability for handling toolchangers built right in. I switched from Mach when doing my last lathe retrofit when I was told by Brian that constant surface speed never did work right and would not be fixed until Mach4. That was over 3 years ago now and Mach 4 still is only partially complete and full of bugs. Tormach dumped mach for their new lathe and went with linuxcnc, probably for the same reasons. Mach 4 has been in development for many years and there is probably a few years left before the bugs all get worked out, hope you don't mind waiting.