Gerry, David, Andrew...
Thanks for all of your comments so far. I hope to be able to "pick your brains" during the setup of this machine so be warned.
OK Everyone:
I am a pretty smart guy but I am also smart enough to know when I am not very smart. I learned a long time ago not to re-invent the wheel and that there is always a very good reason why things are done a particular way and not necessarily the way I would do them. Therefore, I usually do things the same way all the other "smart guys" are doing them and because of that I have been pretty successful in completing pretty much anything I set out to do. I don't want to or need to invent. I want to make stuff and leave the inventing to people who are much smarter than I am. Pretty smart, right.
My dilemma...I need to figure out what motors, motor drivers and power supply to run on this machine. For those of you just reading this, the machine is the Saturn Series 2 x 4 router from
Fineline Automation. It is a pretty solid machine with rack and pinion on the X and Y axis and a ballscrew on the Z axis.
I want to be able to "push the envelope" on this machine to be able to make some pretty aggressive cuts in wood. I need to be able to cut with a 1/2" endmill at a depth of at least 1/2" and I want to be able to do it at cutting speeds of 200 to 300 ipm or more if possible. Please let me know if I am way off base here. I promise I won't be offended. I am not smart enough for that.
I will be running a 3.5 hp Porter Cable router spinning at 20,000 rpm's. The cutting described above will be "roughing" cuts made in slabs of lumber from 3" to 4" thick. The final cuts will be "finishing" cuts in a 3D project. The bottom line is I need to know what is possible with this kind of machine but keep in mind I am not "made of money". I am willing to spend some reasonable amount but I don't want to spend what I might call an excessive amount.
I am thinking of putting Nema 34 1200 oz/in motors on this machine but I am not sure if that will be overkill. I am thinking about the KL34H2120-60-4A from Automation Technologies but I don't know if that is a good motor or not . The specs and the torque curve looks pretty good but I have no experience with this motor so any input you guys might have would be appreciated. I did think about using a 906 oz/in motor but the 1200 oz/in is only $10.00 more so I thought...why not?
My next concern is with the drivers and power supply to drive these motors. I read on the Gecko website somewhere that voltage to the motors should be 32 times the square root of the inductance. If that is true then I will need 78 volts to the motors at 6 amps. The specs say the motor draws 6 Amps Current Per Phase ( Bipolar Parallel). So...I am not sure of the power supply I need to run four of these motors. Do I need an 80 volt power supply able to put out 24 amps or do I need something larger?
Next is the motor drivers. I was hoping to recycle the drivers I am currently using. They are also from Automation technologies...KL-9082. They are able to handle 80 volts at 8.2 amps so I guess they would be OK for this machine but again I am not smart enough to know if they are the best "solution" for me. Are these drivers a good product or should I go in a different direction? Questions...questions...questions. Hopefully, answers...answers...answers.
Thanks for "listening" guys. Hope to have a fruitful discussion about this over the next few days and not only be able to come up with a good "compromise" for my situation but also for other people out there wondering about some of the same things.
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