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I Convert my Aciera F3A to a CNC milling Machine

My Aciera F3A is the same as the machine on this picture, only my machine is green.

This milling machine is not so big. X300mm Y135mm and Z300mm.
I bought it from a friend of my for 1800 Euro.

Its a very good, strong, heavy Swiss made machine.

The table and millinghead can rotate.

I used this machine for a while and its works fine, but a cnc machine works better.

How do i work?

My first question: Steppers or Servo’s

I decided to use steppers because all my machine works with steppers.
I looks on internet for strong payable drives and steppers.
( I’m a dutch man and i must keep my image high, so it must be cheap) :-)

I found a good site www.stappenmotor.nl .
 

This stepper is 2.9A with a torque couple of 12 Nm

Drive specification:

Bipolare driver. For a steppermotor with 4,6, or 8 wires.

Powersupply 80Vac - 250 Vac.

No need for an aditional powersupply. Just an isolation transformer for safety.

400,500,600,800,1000,1200,1600,2000,2400,3200,4000,5000,6000,6400,8000 or10.000 microstep per revolution ( with a 1.8 degree steppermotor )

 0.45 A - 7.8 A peak amps output Automatic current reduction to 70%

Internal cooling with fan.

Overheat protection Short circuit protection Solid casting Input selectable between Step/Direction or CW/CCW

Step frequentie > 400 Khz.

At work.

A useful tip

Look out. When you have a machine with cast iron guide lines you can not move it faster than 3 meters per minute.
When you have hardened steel guide lines you can not move it faster than 10 meters per minute.
When you have roller guide lines you can move it faster than 60 meters per minute.

First i change the Xax screwthread for a ball screw. Thats very easy on this machine.

I place the stepper direct on the ballscrew.

This is the Z ax. I don’t change anything, because the weight of the table is big enough to push the table always to below. That’s why i don’t have a ball screw on my z ax.

When i made the stepper in line with the ax, i hit it constantly wit my leg when i work on the machine. Thats the reason i made it on the right side of my machine.

The Y ax is a different story. I want to let my machine original.
So i made it like this. I used no ball screw, because in the machine there are toothed wheels and they have always some back-slash.

The software correct this back-slash. ( it’s about 0.15mm )

I have also made a 4E ax on this machine. I don’t have made it by my own, i just bought it.

Here you can see what i have made.

I have engrave this in one time at 3mm depth in brass. First with a big tool and then with a fine tool.