I have a 1981 Excello 604 cnc mill with an old dynapath m5 control that I am going to convert to Mach3.
The mill has 85volt 28amp 1700 rpm servo motors and westamp drives as of now.
I am thinking of going with either Granite drives or the Dugong drives for my conversion and was wondering if anyone has any opinions on these or
other drives I would really appreciate it.I am trying to keep this conversion at a reasonable cost so anyone with a different drive that will work and save me some cash would also be a consideration.


Thanks Mike

I don't know about either of those drives you mentioned, but I do know Automation Direct drives get good review. If your interested in the AD drives, I could save you a few bucks. I have one brand new 1kw drive and motor with cables (about $1400 on the AD site) I'll sell you for a lot less then that. I was going to use it on my gantry router build but decided to go a different route. Let me know if your interested. Good luck with your conversion.

The economy approach would be to use your existing drives and power supply and get a control board that can run your drives.

Just a thought(;-) TP

If the drives are not burned out, I would stay with the Westamp drives and powersupply, plus motors.

I converted a similar vintage mill with Westamp drives, and retained all of the original motors, power supply, and encoders. My motor encoders have been changed over the years, but everything else is original. When my original CNC control died, and the manufacturer had gone out of business, I had it sitting in my shop for about 10 years. The Vital System dspmc controller made a perfect match for the +/- 10v. Westamp drives, and the motors run smoother and faster now than with the original controller.

In the 1980's, Excello was a top level machine tool manufacturer, and I am sure they matched everything pretty well for the size of the machine.

You still need to build a control panel, and wire up a lot of switches and connections to get everything working. If after using the machine, and you want more speed and power, you can move up to later state of the art AC brushless servo's and drives, but the costs will be a major outlay.

John
  
 

+1 on the DSPMC.

Galil is another nice option if you can get a complete setup at a reasonable price.

I purchased TECO drives from Machmotion.  They have been running continously doing production work without any trouble.

It doesn't look like they sell the Teco Drive by itself they are all priced with servo motors,unless there is somewhere else to purchess them?

Thanks Mike

They do sell the drive by itself (call or write them). I do not know about compatibility issues.

Remember you have to match the type drive to the type motor.

Brush to brush
Brushless AC to brushless ac

AND then sometimes the AC units do not match up well with some AC motors

You more than likey have DC brushed motors.  The amps you have are well matched to your application (;-)  I would talk to TOM over at Dynamotion (Kflop) Iam sure he can fix you right up with a control board solution that interfaces your drives/motors with MACH3.

Just a thought, (;-) TP