g0704 controls overhaul

[capocoreyollo]

Hello everyone, new in town and wondering if anyone could help a brother out...

I've been rebuilding my g0704 extensively for the past couple months and I'm about ready to tackle the electronics including upgrading my motor/controller and maybe adding power feeds to each axis. Now I know you guys will probably recommend just going full CNC, but I'm a manual, hobby guy at home so I'd like to keep it that way. As a matter of fact, I bought the machine with every intention of giving it the Hoss job, but my dabbling in CNC machining showed me that It's not for me. I also hand scraped and fitted the whole machine to that of a jig bore so it feels way too nice now to not turn the hand wheels lol. So really im just trying to make a super boss manual bench top mill for home and was hoping you guys could steer me in the right direction.

My main objective right now is upgrading the spindle drive train and getting that control box off the head and into an enclosure out of the way, the big question being, what kind of motor and controller setup should I go with? I finally toasted the intermediate gear (got a couple years out of it) recently and converted it to belt drive. After getting back together with the OG bearings it just doesn't feel right so I want to overhaul the whole setup. Like I said, we're staying a manual machine and I use the machine mostly for machining steel and iron so for me, torque is much more important than speed. That being said, should I be looking more into the brushless DC area rather than the VFD AC side? Not a huge fan of the treadmill motor setup. I like the idea of throwing a 56c frame up there, but then I think a Z axis rapid traverse would be called for.

What kind of power do you think would best suit my application of the machine? I'd like to be able to max out my power for what a machine this size can handle. Looking for basic spindle control, as simple as possible. FWD-REV, ON -OFF, rpm. Ideally, A drum switch and a speed pot would be all I want on the head, Think Bridgeport. A tachometer would be nice, but its not a requirement, I get by OK with sound and feel.

One big thing is as a manual machine for me i MUST maintain the quill.

As far as power feeds go, the main question is what kinda torque would you need for a machine this size and what its more or less capable of? I see you can get pretty decently powered steppers for a nice price, but is that the way to go? Brushless gear motors? Probably not, but servos? I started playing around with an Arduino, but programming is int my strong suit. I have a decent background with ladder logic PLC but that's mostly simple pneumatic and turning motor starters off and on. Definitely more of a hardware/wiring guy than a programmer. I think I saw some import pulse generators that people use for controlling steppers, but I just don't know much about steppers. A rapid up and down for the Z, FWD/REV and speed on the X and Y. Over travel switches would be nice but not necessary.

So to cut it short, id like to upgrade my spindle motor and automate my machine a little without having to run it with a computer. I kinda threw a lot out there, and I understand there's a lot of info on the net, but i just get overwhelmed by it all and end up dropping the idea. So if you kind folks could offer up any advice, it would be much appreciated!

Corey

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[Fastest1]

Why do you think we tell you to ditch the hand wheels and the idea of leaving it with manual control? Because we have all been there. Almost all here are hobbyists.

You can use your cnc machine as a manual machine as in push the hotkey that moves right and it does so. Or you could enter a simple section of Gcode in the MDI.

I would go the VFD/AC motor route for performance and durability. Though I wish there was a smaller size. The 56C is huge on the G0704 but I have seen it work well. I just picked up a 1hp Italian 3ph AC motor. Still trying to figure out what it is. It was reasonable on Ebay (85 dollars to my door). Just waiting on my VFD to arrive.

[capocoreyollo]

Why do you think we tell you to ditch the hand wheels and the idea of leaving it with manual control? Because we have all been there. Almost all here are hobbyists.

You can use your cnc machine as a manual machine as in push the hotkey that moves right and it does so. Or you could enter a simple section of Gcode in the MDI.

I would go the VFD/AC motor route for performance and durability. Though I wish there was a smaller size. The 56C is huge on the G0704 but I have seen it work well. I just picked up a 1hp Italian 3ph AC motor. Still trying to figure out what it is. It was reasonable on Ebay (85 dollars to my door). Just waiting on my VFD to arrive.

The big thing for me is that I don't really want to machine from a computer. That and if I were going to make it a full CNC, to be able to hit the tolerances I can hit manually, ball screws and controls would put me at a lot more then I want to spend, time and money.