Jon Elson wrote:

Pete C. wrote:


Ignoramus11594 wrote:

Pete, this mill should be easy to convert, it is very straightforward
in operation. Not sure how easy it would be to mount an encoder on the
spindle, mechanically, this may be an issue.

i

Yep, no easy place for an encoder, but given the large size it would
seem there should be room to sneak something in.

See http://pico-systems.com/bridge_spindle.html for how
I did it on a Bridgeport 1J head. There is a heavy casting that
completely surrounds the bull gear on the spindle, just about the
only thing that always turns at spindle speed whether in high-
or low-range.

This machine follows the same basic design as a 2J, but given it's
5/7.5HP size it's scaled up a bit. There should be room in there, and I
have manual mills to do any fitting.

I loaded up LinuxCNC
last night and was surprised at the continued lack of UI refinement, I
would have thought in the last half dozen years it would have improved.

Some of us really LIKE the UI, and don't want anything changed!
We have added the mocca GUI from Germany, and Touchy, for touch screens.

Which one? I looked at various screen shots from the LinuxCNC site as
well as samples from the install and none of them seemed to resemble the
UI of a "real" commercial CNC control which is what I consider the
standard for how the UI should look.


I've got some run caps on order to build up a 14HP RPC with a motor I
have on hand, I may see what I can powerup for testing with the 3HP RPC
I use on my lathe this weekend.

Really, there shouldn't be any need for a rotary converter on a CNC
machine. Use the VFD directly off the single-phase mains, and power
the servo amps and everything else from single-phase, too.

I'm not sure if the spindle VFD will take a single phase input,
certainly I didn't find mention of it in my quick review of its manual.
The coolant pump is also three phase, but perhaps I can set it up with a
static converter type setup.