Spindle Motor Help

[Ringleboy26]

I am currently working on a retrofit of a Clausing 1440 cnc lathe. I got the lathe with no control so I do not know how the spindle motor was run. The previous owner took the variable speed pulleys and the ac spindle motor out of the lathe, and replaced it with a huge dc servo motor. This motor is hooked to the lathes gearbox via large cogged belt. This specs on the servo motor are:

Porter/Peerless
Model 181-18-0530-0 Frame DPM56ZNF2
Torque 300
Max Rpm 4000 Ja-lbs s^2 .492
Tach 31.5 volts/1000 Rpm Max Arm Pulse Amps 319.9
Max Volts 217

This motor is approx 7 inches in diameter and about 2 feet long. I am guessing it makes about 2 hp? Do dc motors have a more constant torque curve over their rpm range? I am not very educated on the characteristics of dc motors. I do not know what the specs on the nameplate mean. My question is how would I go about running this motor using mach3 and a g100? I was thinking I could maybe use a Rutex drive to power the motor.

What would be the benefits of keeping this motor in the machine. I could treat it as a true servo with an encoder, so I could accurately index parts in the lathe.

The lathe has a 3 speed manual gearbox so I foresee the motor running between 1500-3000 rpm. What I am leaning towards, is to just remove this motor and replace it with a standard ac motor. Then use a vfd to control the speed which I have done a few times now.

What is your opinion on the best method to power this lathe. I am looking to get the best performance I can while not being to complicated to hook up to mach3.

Thank you for all your help

[smarbaga]

what you have on there is an excellent spindle motor.
because the lathe doesn't need to change direction rapidly a
relay or h-bridge could be used for direction changes.
as for the tack a resistor voltage dividing network could scale
your rpm's to a digital meter for easy readout or an analog to digital
converter for computer calculations.

[Ringleboy26]

Smarbaga thanks for the input, im going to try to keep the dc motor.

What kind of drive would you recommend for this motor? Would this drive work for this motor? http://www.driveswarehouse.com/Drive...c7f8dd3c5d1afd

The motor plate says the max voltage is 217. The drive that I have a link to has the spec of Arm: 180VDC, Fld: 200VDC. I know what the armature of the motor is but what is the field?

Sorry for these questions but I am new to using this large of a DC motor. Once again thanks for the help.

[Al_The_Man]

You may just get away with it, I would guess its pushing it a bit for max current, the field output is if your motor is a wound field, if it is Permanent magnet, you won't need the field connection.
One thing to watch out for if you are considering controling it by CNC command, is it states it is not isolated from the incoming supply and any terminals can be well above ground potential.
Al.