Centroid Community CNC Support Forum

Hi Guys,

Byron here from NSW Australia. I am about to start a build on a 1985 Mazak Slant Turn 15, Currently fitted with a Mazatrol T1 Controller that has quit. Have just received the All in 1 DC, Looking forward to this build. I have previously upgraded a chinese CNC mill to an Acorn so have some experience with the Centroid system.

One question I do have, the Original machine had the encoders running direct off the Ball screws As well as tacho gens off the back of the DC servo motors I am reusing the servo motors, I have ordered the new encoders from centroid. Am I better off fitting these to the ball screws or the back of the servo motors.
At this stage I am retaining the original Servo Motors Original DC Spindle Motor and Drive Controller and pretty much everything other than the Main NC Control, Servo Drives and Power supply, and the CRT Screen and keypad.

Cheers for any hints and tricks and I look forward to sharing my build with you guys. I am hoping to have this running by the end of January 2023 with any Luck.

It is preferable to put the encoders directly on the motors.

If that is impractical, then putting them on the ballscrews will work, provided there is never any slop in the belts. If the encoders are on the ballscrews and there is any slop in the belts, then it will be unstable and impossible to tune.

You will probably want to eliminate the old relay panel, and just replicate the timers and interlocks in the Centroid PLC program instead.

Thanks for the Reply CNCSNW,

That makes sense in regards to the Encoder position, Should not matter either way so I will mount them to the back of the servo motors. I plan on removing the relay board, plan so far is to remove pretty much all of them, think there maybe 2 that I will need. Everything else will be driven from the All In 1 and the ADD1616's. My Guess is I will be digging pretty deep into the PLC program on this one.

Cheers

Byron

Wow im doin a 1980 micro slant 15 as we speak. Lol.

A little update on the build, not much progress. I have stripped the NC, Servo Drives and Front console and started to measure up for the new gear. Computer will be mounted on a new board located in the console with a new face to mount switches, monitor etc.

Allin1 with power supplies and 2 x PLCAdd 1616 expansions will be mounted in the cabinet where the old NC and servos mounted. I have removed the encoder off the back of the Z axis and have disassembled it. will be drawing up this up and making some new internals and a shaft to mount the Quantum Devices encoders to over the next week. will post details of that when i get it figured out.

Cheers

Byron

Looking good.

I did a 1986 Hitachi Seiki slant bed lathe 9 years ago (with cncsnw batting clean-up with me) and it's been an unequivocal success as a daily driver in a production environment.

Very similar in design to your Mazak - and color.... love that green.