Hi all,

I'm looking for a little advice. I recently bought a 1989 Somab Transmab 400 CNC lathe in great condition for next to nothing. It has a Gamet power chuck, powered tail stock, Sauter 8 turret tool changer, swarf conveyor, 10kW spindle motor and came with 40 tool holders! It is controlled by an old Num 720 system which I'm looking to replace with a Mach3 setup.

Keeping it short and to the point, electronics currently consist of:

2 x Indramat TDM 3.2 AC servo drives
2 x Indramat MAC 090A AC servo motors
1 x Indramat KDV 1.3 power supply (100amp)
1 x Indramat KDA 3.2 spindle drive
1 x Indramat TBM 1.2 Bleeder
2 x litton G58LSLDBI encoders (not sure on spec)

I'm thinking I have the following potential options:

1. Keep AC power supply, servos, encoders and drives (no doubt analog - need Step2Linear). Mach3 via PP and breakout board? This would be easiest option if it was lucky enough to be that simple.

2. Keep AC power supply, replace drives with suitable AC step/dir units, keep servo motors, new encoders?

3. Removal ALL, use new servo motors, new step/dir drives, new encoders and power supply?

Machining of parts / modifications to fit new components is not a worry.

Which ever method you guys deem most suitable I then need to consider spindle speed / direction control through Mach3 (hopefully I can mate it up with the KDA spindle drive which I assume will be analog 0-10v), the Sauter 8 turret tool changer and numerous relays controlling the powered tail stock (on/off), coolant etc etc.

I have already converted our 3-axis Bridgeport Mill to Mach3 using CNCDrive DG4S drives, encoders, breakout board etc so I have an idea of whats involved. However I know this conversion will require most likely ALOT of work.

Any thoughts much appreciated.

Thanks,
Jim