Re: Knee Mill Z-Axis CNC Conversion Alternatives...

Kim,

Many thanks. Will do. Seems I gotta make a choice in
the next day or so between the Clausing (w/knee) and
a Sieg X3 (one of the last the importer has or will have
for a while).

Jim

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com, Kim Lux <lux@d...> wrote:
> 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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> Kim Lux <lux@d...>