Adding Motion control to my Z-Axis

Hello Everyone, I need your advice... The time has come to consider how I want to add a proper Z axis to my machine. I have an old 1983 Tree 200R Milling Machine. I've worked very hard on and off over the past 7 years to convert a $1000 huge hunk of iron into a precise machine. My spindle was badly bent from a crash in the past and it's now running with less than .0001" of runout. I have my X and Y dialed in and running on LinuxCNC very well. I built my own 3-phase rotary converter for my machine and just replaced the bearings in that so it's nice and quiet now. Currently the knee on my mill is controlled by an analog switch that reverses my 3-phase wires to run the motor one way or the other. It's one rapid speed up/down depending on the switch. The motor in place now is 1400RPM 1/2HP 3-Phase. I would like to swap that motor out for something I can easily control with my existing LinuxCNC setup.

My current setup is a 7i43-4U card with a 7i49 card for my servo / resolver channels. Right now I only use 2 of 6 possible channels because I have just X & Y. I also have a 7i42TA card for my limit switches and whatnot. That 2nd card is not really used at this time but will be put to better use soon as I figure out proper integration to my safety switches and other add-on's.

I know I could probably do this a few different ways but I would like to keep costs to a minimum if it makes sense. I know I could get another servo motor with a resolver to use my existing 7i49 resolver card. But I don't know how big of a servo motor I need and they seem to be hundreds of dollars. Still if that price is my only hurdle maybe it's the best way since I already have working servo / resolver pairs and this would just be 1 more. I just need help picking a servo motor with a resolver for my Z axis.

I could also remove my 7i42TA card and use that other channel on my 7i43 board for a new MESA card. Perhaps one that runs a stepper motor since they are cheaper right? But can a 7i43 control a servo card (7i49) and a stepper card (7ixx??) at the same time? I am also quite sure there are other options I'm not aware of so please help me figure out what my best options are here. I thank you for any help you can offer.

If you want to see my machine you can view it on OUPower.com or look at my youtube channel (user Hatch789y) and you'll see a bunch of old videos with my machine as well as much newer ones this year. This project has spanned 7 going on 8 years!

You should post questions about hobby controls on a forum targeted to those. Much better chance of getting some help.

Yup....surf on over to the c-n-c-z-o-n-e-.com

Remove the dashes, software here will not allow
the address to be typed.....

hmm I didn't realize this was the wrong place. I have to say I'm a bit disappointed because this is the place where we should be discussing things like this in the PM forums. My Tree Journeyman 200R is an industrial machine and I've posted here on the forums helping others with similar equipment before so it is a bit confusing to hear you say this is not the place.

My Servo motor that I have is also from older industrial equipment. I just need help getting the wiring figured out for starters. My wires are:
Black
Orange
Green
Red
Blue
White
Black/White
Black/Red
Unshielded (Grounding wire?)

I cannot seem to find any good diagrams for deciphering this wiring as the closest I can get are 8 wire diagrams but the colors do not match up. -So any help is appreciated. I will try ******* if I can't get help here.

hatch789 said:

...

I cannot seem to find any good diagrams for deciphering this wiring as the closest I can get are 8 wire diagrams but the colors do not match up. -So any help is appreciated. I will try ******* if I can't get help here.

Click to expand...

This is not the place unless your motor was standard equipment on your machine.
Pay attention to the nicely given advice above.
If you have picked up a servo motor from god knows where the wire colors mean absolutely nothing. There is no standard.
You'll have to track them down yourself.
Bob

CarbideBob said:

This is not the place unless your motor was standard equipment on your machine.

Click to expand...

So what if someone with a bridgeport retro has questions...as it didn't come from the factory that way?

hatch789 said:

hmm I didn't realize this was the wrong place. I have to say I'm a bit disappointed because this is the place where we should be discussing things like this in the PM forums. My Tree Journeyman 200R is an industrial machine and I've posted here on the forums helping others with similar equipment before so it is a bit confusing to hear you say this is not the place........

Click to expand...

Your iron is reasonable, but the hobby control does not have much coverage here because few here are interested in them. We've gently and kindly tried to point to a different forum where folks play with hardware similar to what you are using. Don't be disappointed about the fact that this is a forum intended for commercial, industrial grade CNC.

To the OP:

I'm not the admin or anything here, just pointing out the rules
that the site owner has created.

If you don't follow the rules, your thread will get locked,
and then we can't help you at all, now can we ?

"Don't shoot the messenger"