Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Knee Mill Z-Axis CNC Conversion Alternatives...

I went through the same questions a month or so ago... search the
archives.

For a whole number of reasons, we've chosen to CNC the knee by replacing
the entire knee drive with a 1" ballscrew setup. We've got the parts
for the Z axis machined and ready to go in but we've yet to install them
because the machine is still in use. Maybe this week...

As far as counterbalancing the knee, we purchased 2 175 pound gas
springs.

We are using nearly direct drive from the servo motor to the ball screw>
20 tooth driver pulley to a 25 tooth driven pulley so that we get
0.0001" Z axis resolution from our 0.25" pitch ballscrew.

All parts were purchased from McMasterCarr.

The motor used for the Z axis is a 600 ozin, 2HP (Continuous) treadmill
motor. We may yet use a 3HP 900 oz in motor.

Kim

On Sun, 2003-11-09 at 14:35, j_t_wright wrote:
> Folks,
>
> Newbie question: I am looking at an old Clausing Atlas mill and would
> like to be able to convert it to CNC down the road.
>
> There appear to be two likely ways to convert the Z-axis:
>
> 1. drive the existing fine feed, or
> 2. drive the existing manual knee feed.
>
> Either would mean living with whatever backlash is present (or
> tweakable) in the existing mechanisms. Actually converting either of
> these mechanisms to ball screws would appear to require a non-obvious
> approach.
>
> Am I missing something? What do folks actually do to CNC the Z-axis
> on knee mills?
>
> Thanks in advance...
>
> Jim
>
> "Gnats *gotta* stand on the shoulders of bigger critters!"
>
>
>
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