Centroid Community CNC Support Forum

I definitely will. I have quite a bit of information gathered into this so I just need to put the effort into getting it in a manner that can be shared.

The wiring is no where near where I would like it to be at this point. I kind of went deeper into keeping the original CNC4 control box prior to finding all of these problems so everything is crammed into there at the moment. I won't be leaving it in that state, but at this point it is working so it won't be a high priority to change it until either circumstances force the measure or my OCD gets the better of me and I put the time into it.

I am actually glad it took the turns it did in the setup & repair process as I learned a lot more about the machine than I likely would have otherwise. With the machine working and knowing that I want to make changes to it further gives me time to use it and make further refinements to the direction I have already started to think about for controls, enclosures, etc.

I am also currently upgrading a mid 1980's YCM-30 and replacing the original Bandit 1 control with Acorn 6. Checked out your photos, and your machine looks great! It is mostly like mine, except I have the nema 42 steppers with open loop.

One of the reasons I am writing is because you mentioned going to Clearpath servos. I originally looked at them as well, but also also looked around more and was able to find that DMM makes a 1.3 kW NEMA 42 servo and it has a 5/8" shaft size that matched up to my original pulleys. These servos are the A15-DHT. Between the direct mount NEMA 42 flange and not having to mess with the pulley shaft sizes, it makes the job a lot less work. I believe these are powerful enough to be run direct drive if you wanted to go that route. I am driving these with their DYN4 drives running at 240 VAC.

In all of my research, guys seemed real happy with these components. My project was also sidelined for a while, but Im getting back on it now. Hope this info helps.

Thanks for the reply and the lead on different motor options!! More options are always a good thing!

I am still leaning towards upgrading to Clearpath motors given their tunable design, but I am a tinkerer that is also a glutton for punishment! I have everything designed for the motor adapters and the aluminum stock for them on hand. I also have found a shaft adapter that will work in conjunction with my motor adapter design to allow for the use of Clearpath motors.

I'll still take a look at the motors you identified and put together a comparison (cost, design elements, etc.) to see if there are other things that I should be considering that might pull me away from Clearpath.

The upgrade work I want to do to my mill keeps getting pushed back as my regular business (Agricultural Drainage) must take precidence. Given that the machine is working now, I am kind of at the point where I am using it when needed, but not pushing it so much so that I cause issues. Winter & Summer are my downtime for my main business so that is when this machine gets used and/or could be upgraded. Its slow progress, but having a plan is better than winging it.

Here is the mill as it sits today:



I have the acorn controller and (3) DM860T drives in the original CNC4 control box (I'll take pictures the next time I need to get inside the box). The computer is a BeeLink EQ12 mini PC (Intel 12th gen N100, 16GB DDR5 Ram, & 500GB SSD) Vesa mounted to the back of a Viewsonic TD2211 22" touchscreen monitor with keyboard tray. I also now have the Centroid wireless MPG pendant.