Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Stupid Newbie Tricks

William Scalione wrote:

>At the local state surplus agency there are a couple of racks of IBM tape
>drives, probably a dozen or so, that they want $100.00 for. I was thinking
>about buying them for the servo motors, but I was unsure as to what kind of
>motors were in them. Can't remember the model numbers of the drives right
>now but they are large cartridge type drives, not the reel to reel type.
>Anyone know if these are worth going after?
>
>

Those would be 3480 or 3490 type. they have tiny spools of 1/2" tape,
and so the motors would
be only a little larger than those in a casette deck. I have a bunch of
CDC Patriot drives that
use the same tape but different format. The motors weigh about 6 Oz.
These won't be of
much use for motion control systems.

The 12" reel tape drives are the ones you want. The Ametek motors come
from CDC "Keystone"
tape drives. These have a Gast carbon vane compressor for the air
bearings that is also a
useful component. Any 12" reel computer tape drive rated for 75 IPS or
higher tape speed
should have some DANDY servo motors for the reels. If it is a
direct-drive hub, so much
the better. Kennedy tape drives use a smaller servo motor with a belt
reduction drive, but
these would be useable on smaller mill-drills, perhaps. Oh, the CDC
drives were also
made under the name Magnetic Peripherals Corp. Either way, they are
models 92181 and
92185. Pertec T8000 and T9000 series drives also have great DC servo
motors. Digital
Equipment (DEC) sold the Keystone as TU80 and TU81 models, the T8000 as
a TU45,
and the T9000 as TU90 and TU91, I think. There were plenty of other
brands and makes
that had nice servo motors, too.

Jon