Hello
I am thinking about transforming my old mill to a powerful cnc, i already bought mach3 for my hobby cnc, which is run with g201, but the problem is when i try to mill Steel.
I wanna transform my machine so i could use mach. Mach works fine with the gecko drive, and i think it would work fine with the g320, but i am not sore it will be strong enough.
Does anyone have any experience fitting more powerful motors with mach, and what kind of electronics did they use.

I hope i did not go to much of topic here

Hi ziga
I coverted a Atlas 9 x 42 vertical mill (bridgeport look a like). I  used 1200 oz in steppers, gecko 201 drives and a bob.
I built all the other parts and it came out very well. I do mostly wood items on it, but have done several items in steel / aluminum.
I have had no problems, other than the learning process. If I can be of further help let me know.
olf20

I have a Bridgeport Interact 1 Boss 6.1 control that I converted to Mach, it uses steppers like the original did but I gutted out all of the old stuff and fitted Geckos etc. My Lathe is big, can swing 290mm over the crosslide and 520mm over the beds, the turret,toolpost, cross slide and sadlle weigh in around 400Kg so it needs big motors. I have used AC Servo drives and motors and its working very well.
 I am also converting another mill at the moment, a Beaver NC5 which is bigger than the Bridgeport. On this mill I have similar AC Servos and drives as the lathe (just a bit smaller).
 Below is a pic of the Bridgeport after conversion, the Lathe as I got it and the only pics I have so far of the Beaver mill, first is thecabinet with the servo drives, second is the computer, breakouts, smoothstepper etc.

Hood

I think you will have sussed the reply.

You are asking the wrong question - of course Mach 3 will run any number of axis in a professional manner - comparable with the any bespoke software (and you also get the benefit of this forum)

The output from Mach 3 is 2 wires per axis (step and dir) so all you need is a system to convert this to drive your machine.

Now you'll get the forum arguing about the best system !!!

All those pics of Hoods machines, and I get stuck pondering over the brick pavers for the road. Hehehe. We don't see stuff like that around here. Looks nice. Machines as well.

All those pics of Hoods machines, and I get stuck pondering over the brick pavers for the road. Hehehe. We don't see stuff like that around here. Looks nice. Machines as well.

Thats at the Harbour where my workshop is, we call them cassies. They are big lumps of granite about 10 inch long 4 inch wide and 12 to 18 inch deep into the ground. They are a pain in the arse but as the area is what they call a Heritage area you are not allowed to put anything else in their place even if it would make everyones life a lot easier.

Hood

I am running a 9x49 bridgeport clone with no problem as well as my most recent conversion a 30 hp lathe . The software isnt the limiting factor on machine size and speed , its a matter of choosing the proper drives and motors for your application.  AutomationDirect as well as yaskawa, mitsubishi, allen bradley etc have ac servo motors and drives cabaple of positioning any load you can imagine
I have used quite a few of the commonly avail software packages , break out boards and drives over the past ten years and Mach is by far the easiest to configure with all the bells and whistles to match any possible configuration.

The only thing missing I would like is a qaudreture encoder input for rigid tapping and spindle indexing on the mill, Would also be nice to be able to use the live tooling on my new lathe also



For my 30hp lathe I used the 2kw brushless ac servos and matching drives from automation direct and am able to move the saddle/cross-slide/ tool changer assembly at 800IPM , over 600lb assembly.

The support avail is also above and beyond , Hood has gone way far out of his way to answer all my questons no matter how stupid and has helped me get the 12 station tool changer running. You wont find a better group of guys to help you out when a question arises.

hood
How powerful ac servos are you using? and what cind of drives, sincce gecko does not run ac servos?

Panaceabeachbum,
 relieved to see you posting again, was wondering how the turret worked out, I was hoping that I hadnt killed you with my poor attempts at VB and PLC Ladders

ziga
 I am using Allen Bradley DSD and  Giddings and Lewis DSA drives (same thing) got them from UK ebay, they dont come up very often in the UK but when they do they go cheap. As an example I just got Brett (Chaoticone) a 4075 motor a few days ago, it cost the equivilent of $26 with $16 shipping, it will cost 3 times that to send it to the USA for him though LOL
 On the lathe I have 4075 motors, they are 10Nm continuous torque and I have them connected 1:1, on the Beaver Mill I am doing I have 4030 motors which are only 3.5Nm continuous but should be more than enough. I also got a nice big AC Servo from eBay that I am planning on using for the Mills spindle motor, it is 5.5Kw and has a continuous torque of 18Nm and a peak of 55Nm. I got the motor for $160 but had to buy a smaller motor to rob the encoder from as it had a resolver on it. I also had to buy a big drive and could only find one in the USA and that cost me $350
 Not worked out how I will do it yet but I needed the servo on the mills spindle so I can build a toolchanger, need the positioning that a servo can provide, also rigid tapping will hopefully be an option in the near future, maybe not on this version of Mach but on the Industrial version that Brian and co are working on.
Hood