Milling machine controller

[Jpippin]

I have a Webb mill with a 10”x50” table it was set up for a two axis cnc type mill when I bought it it has two KL34-180-90 motors on the X and Y axis and it has a mount for one on the quill but no motor was mounted. It has a 70 volt dc power supply a 24 volt power supply and a 5 volt power supply and two gecko g340 drives in the panel when I jump power to the motors they both run it has a touch screen monitor and a keyboard also I would like to find a controller that I can put on it and maybe another motor to make it a three axis machine.

Thanks

[admin13o5]

You need to look at our MP3700 series annd th eone for a rrouter.Since you already have the motors and the drivers (Gecko 340) which are servo drivers. I don't know about your touch panel and how it connects to the drivers or what software it was supposed to run. Our systmes are all based on a PC running LINUX and our adaptation of LINUXCNC called CommandCNC> While our promary focus has been plasma and router we have recently started to expand the router (rotary cutting tool) part of the line. You did not stat what kind of spindle motor you have and if its speed controlled via a VFD or has the mechanical speed controls like some mills. Fora ll intents a 3 axis router with a Spindle is the same as a Mill except the work travels instead of the spindle like it does on a router table.

One down side you may face is Keling (where that motor came form ) no longer sells the 34 frame brushed DC servo motors and encoders . We MAY have one we can provide you but they have gotten really scarce and expensive. You really need a Z motor but the Z feed off the shaft is rarely without a lot of backlash on most mills. The knee is a beetler place to have the Z motor BUT its also the most challenging to mount and gear correctly to give enough torque to lift it .


The G340 is a G320 with a pulse divider built in which in this case is not needed with a modern controller taht can generate sufficient PPS to get to the correct RPM. In the old MACH parallel port days the max pulse rate was about 45,000 per second per axis. That sounds like a lot until you look at how the encoders work . Typical Servo/encoders send 2000 to 4000 pulses per REVOLUTION.

To get decent rapids the older PP at 45 KHZ could not supply higher line count encoders and were speed limited. New Ethernet connected pusle engines like CommandCNC cna easily do 45 times what the old PP could.

The User Interface on COmmandCNC is not optimized for Milling BUT it does 3, 4 or 5 axis control and will sow toolptah in 3D (isometric) display.

The biggest question will be the design software you will use for Milling and what you want to do. simple 2.5D (contour cuts and straight sided pockets) is easy . To do full 3 axis sculpted top (quasi 3D) cuts is another story. You need the 3D design tools to do that and the CAM program to do 3D type toolpaths. Will the control coftware (CommandCNC) run sG-code and can move as many as 5 or 6 axis the CAM program has to be able to furnish those moves . There are several options and the design part and CAM part can be together (usually expensive) or separate (more flexible and less money)

You first need to find a way to get a motor onto the Z. If it has 34 frame type mounts (like X and Y) then you need a big 34 72VDC brused servo motor. If its for a smaller motor it would be the 23 frame smaller servo and probably needs a reduction gearhead on it