Retrofit of 2 Messer Cortina DS Plasma cutting machines

billykid wrote:

What gear ratio are you using for the z axis? I put a small reducer but it has a small backlash and deceives the thcad... I'll have to put the toothed pulley and belt

I used the existing DC servo motor and reduction, yanked out the tacho and bolted on an encoder. Also added another Gecko G320 as can be seen in the pictures to drive the Z axis.

You are on point!
your reducer will be zero backlash being expected for plasma with thc I think. I used the reducer from a miller spoolmatic torch... i have a dc motor with 512ppr encoder and mesa 7i30, i will do the reduction with pulley.

How much does the torch move up or down from that backlash?
The weight of the torch should be enough to keep it always pressed against the teeth, so i see not reason for it now working, at any backlash amount.

The finished machine was busy today cutting 10mm thick plate all day long, not a single hiccup.
Meanwhile i was yanking out everything from the control box and the power box on the second/bigger machine, turns out i might be better off just yanking out the servo drive box/holder and mounting it on the back of the control panel.
Otherwise, again, the amount of useless wiring on this machine is astonishing, example, encoder wires go from motors that are on the gantry to the power box with 25 meter long cables, go in through connectors, reroute to other connectors and from those go through other 25 meter long cables to the control panel ... that is on the GANTRY!!!!
This is gona be a hoot !
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We sell wires, we sell lots and lots of wires.....

the backlash is about 0.12mm about 1 volt of voltage. at low gain it works ok but is slow to respond, if you turn it up a little it starts to rock up and down. the next few days, I put the pulleys and via the reducer, I'm sure I'll solve it.
it's true once it was all full of cables, even my friend's lathe once finished left a box of cables.

Took the drives from the smaller machine to my shop, found out the wiring for everything, mounted the Mesa 7i77 on one side of the drive box and 2 power supplies to the other side as the drives need 24V and +-15V to work, Mesa 6i25 is on the PC, installed everything inside the existing console but it is getting tight!
Had to cut the motor, encoder, and sensor wires and reroute them to the console, so today a lot of wiring ahead.
Will take some pictures and post here later.