cnc milling machine

[bigred5765]

retired disable person looking for mini milling machine that will run on mach3 etc
ether one already done or something I can convert, need to machine alloy plastic nylon and may be odd bit of steel must be small as needs to fit in spare room workshop could it be done for under £750

[GEOFFREY]

You should be able to pick up a Denford Micromill for that sort of money, that is based on the Sherline mill. A nova mill (easy mill etc. upgraded) is likely to cost a bit more, but is a far stronger machine and is a fair bit heavier. The micro mill may well struggle a bit with steel, but will do it if you take it very steady. Most of the Denfords would probably benefit from a Mac conversion. Good luck with your search. G.

Just noticed that there is a Novamill currently being offered on this forum. G.

[bigred5765]

thanks for the reply, I took a look around on here before the ones in for sale section had been sold when I asked unless its newly listed.?
ill keep searching

[JohnHaine]

I got a Novamill on eBay without its electronics for £610. Another 100 odd for electronics from eBay and it's working very nicely. As the other poster said, the Novamill is really excellent.

[bigred5765]

pm sent to you

[bigred5765]

thanks for all the reply's manage to get a boxford vmc300 now how and what to buy to get it on mach 3 ???

[bigred5765]

ok here it is nice clean tidy machine shame to rip it apart but a mach 3 ing I must go any help hints would be greatfully recieved

[m_c]

If you were wanting to go for maximum performance, ideally you'd replace the stepper motors and drives, however what you have should work reasonably well.
The first step is identifying everything in the control cabinet, and coming up with a plan of what to do.
Google is your friend here, as searching for anything that looks like a part No. or model, will usually help identify things. For example searching for GS-D500 as per the stepper driver, reveals it's a SGS-Thompson GS-D500 driver module, and a datasheet can be found at http://www.premier-electric.com/file...f/GS-D500A.pdf

I'd say you'll need some form of breakout board, along with either a PC with suitable parallel port, or external motion controller. Personally I'd go for an external motion controller, as they generally make for far easier setup, better reliability, and it'll be more future proof.

The biggest issue will be if the original control used 24V logic, as most cheaper breakout boards/controllers all use 5V logic. Are there any markings on the linear power supply (circuit board in the bottom right corner)?
24V logic is the usual industrial control voltage, and makes things more reliable and less affected by noise/interference, however it does make things a bit more expensive.
And after having a quick scan of the stepper driver manual, it could possibly run on 12V, as the drives use 12V for their logic.

Also, where do the cables that plug (silver/shielded plugs) into the top of the stepper drives go to?
There may already be some form of breakout board/controller that they connect to, that might possibly be useable.

[bigred5765]

I think from what im gathering is
power supply inside will be more than enough ?? DOES THAT LOOK GOOD / SOUND RIGHT
3 x stepper drivers 4.5 amp minimum 70-80 volt like theses CLICKY LINK (hope that's ok ?) remove if not sorry in advance
1 x motion controller my pc and laptop are 64 bit and have no ltp port so usb or ether net CLICKY LINK
1 x pendant not a must have but I want one ? CLICKY LINK

[m_c]

Personally, if you're going for new drivers, I'd go for some of the digital ones. I think the AM882s have been replaced with the EM series, but I'm not 100% sure on that.
However, I'd be inclined to try the existing drivers first. I know they're pretty old technology, but a quick scan of the datasheet reveals they were pretty advanced for their time. Even if using them doesn't work out, it'll be a pretty easy swap for new drivers.

The CS-Lab controllers are good. If you need any advice about them, check out the CS-Lab board over on the Mach support forum, that's if you've not already found it.