[workaholic_ro]

The beast has two side identical arms (only one shown in the picture) and a lot of useless small parts, including a prehistoric Renishaw probe head and a couple of worn out pneumatic spindles. Made in 1978 with an optical reading system and converted to DRO years later (not anymore working, one of the Heidenheim linear encoder is damaged). It had been bought from a surplus warehouse and the plan now is to convert it to a CNC router. To cut foams, LDPE/paraffin mixture and other soft materials.
I think it is going to become a pretty nice tool, the table has 6 per 2 meters, enough to cut a full size car or a small boat model.
Now the problems:
1. I'm afraid that the moving parts are not enough rigid for a 5 axis machine, an acceptable alternative is to cut the model layer by layer (10 to 15 cm each), 3 axis only. In order to do this I can connect the two horizontal beams and move them up and down as they work now, instead installing a Z axes. The table is very strong but not the moving parts.
2. The racks and pinion are module 0.5 and have an unacceptable play, they need to be replaced. Rack and pinion or belt ??
3. Spindle - I am thinking about 3kW as a maximum, air cooled, 18000 rpm, maybe 24.
4. The big question - servo or hybrid ? Closed loop is a must, hard to connect the sides mechanically, therefore I need 2 motors for X, 2 for Z, 1 for Y.
It could be something like this 【DE Stock】 Nema34 8N.m Servo Motor Closed Loop 116mm+HSS86 Hybrid Driver CNC Kit | eBay
...or like this BL60-400W AC servomotor - CNCdrive - webshop
This is all I have in mind so far, I'll keep you up to date. Suggestions ?

Attachment 338860

[workaholic_ro]

More pictures:

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