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  1. #1
    Hi Guys,

    Stumbled across this site yesterday after doing some research, some awesome info on here!

    I currently have an old TOS-KURIM converted knee mill which uses an Anilam Crusader II and analog Indramat drivers for the DC motors. When I bought it everything was working fine but three years in storage while I sorted a home for it seems to have finished it off!

    I've had enough of putting hours into trying to fix it and decided it may just be better to upgrade it to something more modern.

    My plan is to rip everything out and replace all motors, and electronics and use something along the lines of MACH/Centroid to run it.

    That's as far as the plans gone though, I've got plenty of experience running machines but not building them! I'm a bit overwhelmed with all the different motors and the sizes and control boards etc.

    Any help would be awesome on what I need for a low budget install, this is purely a home machine for odd jobs so doesn't need to be amazing. I have access to much better machines at work for anything serious.


    Thanks,

    Jamie

  2. #2
    Hi Jamie,

    Some pictures of the machine will help to get a feel for what you have. I've not seen or heard of TOS-KURIM and a quick google showed me a gantry Mill with a boat on it.!!! . .Pretty sure your not milling boats...Lol

    Provided the machines not too massive then you might get away with some large Closed-loop mains driven steppers. They are very powerful and a lot cheaper and simpler than AC servo's. They won't give the speeds servos will but they will do the job if your not chasing high feeds.

    Centroid Acorn would be a good match for the controller.

  3. #3
    haha! definitely not going to be getting any boats in the garage any time soon! I've added some photos to help give you an idea of size but its not really much bigger than a standard Bridgeport to be honest. table length is a little over a metre..

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    Ok that's great, I'll have a look into those.

    The other things is I am almost certain the motors I have on it are still working well, so is it possible to leave them on and swap out the existing drivers for something newer/more reliable? apologies for my lack of knowledge on this...

    Thanks again
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  4. #4
    That should be a simple upgrade you have most of the hard work done in the form of mountings etc, just a few adaptor plates for different size frames with motors will sort it.
    I'm presuming you don't want to CNC the Knee.?

    You just need to decide if want servos or steppers.? Quite a lot more work in setting up along with big learning curve involved with servos but they do give higher feeds, more power along with smoother operation and accuracy.
    The downside is they also cost more money and require a higher level of the controller to get full use out of them. They can be much more temperamental than steppers and very unforgiving on poor wiring quality or practices.

    Steppers, on the other hand, are much simpler to set up with hardly any learning curve involved and quite a bit cheaper. They can be run on a lower level of controller.
    The downside is they are limited to roughly 1200 to 1500Rpm so feeds are lower. Resolution is lower compared to servo's but still more than enough for milling at this level.

    Choosing the correct drives and size is critical with large steppers because you don't have lots of spare power as you do with servos. So if you take this route then look for 220V Mains powered Drives rather than lower AC/DC drives running say 80Vac or 100Vdc.

    I've used these many times and they are a great set up with lots of power and provide reasonable torque even at high feeds. More than enough for your machine.

    https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3279...3cac6f37OxW5VA

    Hope this helps, got any questions just ask.

  5. #5
    It depends really on the servo drives and motors you have. Depends if they work properly and the cabling works properly. Meaning what type of signal the servo drives work with and if the board is closing the loop or the servo drives.

    If the board is closing the loop probably you will need new modern servo drives and board, suitable to your machine.


    Find the drives and motor names and you can start from there.


    Most of all solution will depend what type or style of machine and manual control you will like to have as an end result. A big fancy display and a lot of buttons and dros to play with, or just bring an USB stick, stick it in the machine, zero and play / thats me/
    project 1 , 2, Dust Shoe ...

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by JimJam View Post
    The other things is I am almost certain the motors I have on it are still working well, so is it possible to leave them on and swap out the existing drivers for something newer/more reliable? apologies for my lack of knowledge on this...
    Can't answer that without knowing more about the motors and the drives.
    They are probably DC Brushed motors and It's quite possible you can get away without drives but it will probably require a different controller that uses +/-10V analog signals and these get expensive quick and are not so popular as Step/Dir controllers. You can get DC Brushed drives which accept Step/Dir signals but they are often not cheap.
    It's often cheaper and better to just replace them as a set with modern AC motors and use a Step/Dir controller.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Boyan Silyavski View Post
    Most of all solution will depend what type or style of machine and manual control you will like to have as an end result. A big fancy display and a lot of buttons and dros to play with, or just bring an USB stick, stick it in the machine, zero and play / thats me/
    Aww no Boyan it's a milling machine for god's sake don't start muddy the waters by suggesting to using one of those DDVS stand alone things will be ok for this machine.! . . It needs more control that those things allow.!

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by JAZZCNC View Post
    Aww no Boyan it's a milling machine for god's sake don't start muddy the waters by suggesting to using one of those DDVS stand alone things will be ok for this machine.! . . It needs more control that those things allow.!
    I was going to say that it needs from the advanced standalone controllers or a good software/hardware solution. But now that you say it, DDSV could do the job fine Now you dont tell me that Mach3/4 is the way to go
    project 1 , 2, Dust Shoe ...

  9. #9
    Ok that's brilliant, I've decided to just ditch the old motors now and start again. Not knowing the true condition or specifications of the original motors I would rather not put more money into them and still be no further forward if they don't work.

    So based on my knowledge (lack of) and limited use it will have, it looks like I'm going to be better off heading down the stepper route.

    The link you sent through with the motor and driver, I would require three of those (one for each axis), plus a control board of some kind, and a PC based control system... Am I somewhere on the right lines here for all the stuff I need for a basic setup?

    Regarding PC control Software, what are the preferred options available? I don't want anything too fancy, just something that will jog axis, display DRO, and run code...

    Thanks for all your help so far

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by JAZZCNC View Post

    Steppers, on the other hand, are much simpler to set up with hardly any learning curve involved and quite a bit cheaper. They can be run on a lower level of controller.
    The downside is they are limited to roughly 1200 to 1500Rpm so feeds are lower. Resolution is lower compared to servo's but still more than enough for milling at this level.

    Choosing the correct drives and size is critical with large steppers because you don't have lots of spare power as you do with servos. So if you take this route then look for 220V Mains powered Drives rather than lower AC/DC drives running say 80Vac or 100Vdc.

    I've used these many times and they are a great set up with lots of power and provide reasonable torque even at high feeds. More than enough for your machine.

    https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3279...3cac6f37OxW5VA

    Hope this helps, got any questions just ask.
    Crikey these are hard to come by in the UK! plenty of 80V and 100V ones around but no luck on any mains powered ones!

    is that link you posted somewhere you've bought stuff from before?

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