Gregg Eshelman wrote: > I'm looking at purchasing a 1980's vintage Acra knee mill (Bridgeport clone) > with an Anilam Crusader M system. > > > Seller wants $300 but I have a guy who knows the seller very well, will see > about getting it for less, along with a short bed 13" LeBlond lathe that > needs a lot of TLC. > YOW! That sounds like a good DEAL! > Don't know if I should pursue restoring the Anilam system and feeding it > commands via the serial port or strip out everything but the necessary power > electronics and building up from there with a new, multi-axis servo > controller board with a USB connection and using the freed up space in the > big box for a PC to run it. > No, even if you saw it work at the seller's location, this could be a mistake. CNC controls of this age are fragile and can be quite expensive to fix, unless you are an electrical engineer. You want to make chips, not be replacing chips! > I found a little 4 axis board with USB port on ebay, supports stepper and > servo motors, for $50. If that can interface with the existing motors and > power supply, hello super dirt cheap CNC mill with 10x50" table. The X axis > motor looks like it may be the most expensive part of the whole setup, unless > I can find three newer brushless motors cheap. The 4 axis board would add the > ability to run a horizontal indexer, or some other useful addition. > LinuxCNC does not support motion control over USB. Your machine has servo motors and encoders. There are a number of servo systems supported by LinuxCNC, such as Mesa and Pico Systems. You won't get 4 axes for $50, however.
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