I have an older Saber 3000 machine and need to put a newer controller on it. What would work not planning on using the main power supply right now just a Hypertherm set up.
Mark
Retrofitting
-
- 1/2 Star Member
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2015 8:10 pm
Re: Retrofitting
Any help I need some info
Mark
Mark
-
- 3 Star Member
- Posts: 345
- Joined: Mon Feb 23, 2015 5:23 pm
- Location: Austin, TX
Re: Retrofitting
Have you looked at CandCNC.com?
-
- 1/2 Star Member
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2015 8:10 pm
Re: Retrofitting
No but I will now. Thanks
Mark
Mark
-
- 3.5 Star Elite Contributing Member
- Posts: 593
- Joined: Thu May 12, 2011 4:28 pm
Re: Retrofitting
A Saber 3000 might have a 1000lb gantry. Unfortunately you will be spending quite a bit of money on a retrofit kit due to the mass of the gantry. The design was never all that efficient or it would not have that kind of weight. It was designed however to take in a tremendous amount of heat with the design trying to compensate for the growth of the gantry. A very high powered NEMA 34 motor might do the trick but the issue with NEMA 34 size is that there are no very well built gear boxes for them. A NEMA 34 size motor gear boxes have classically been limited to gear boxes constrained to the outside of the actual motor case. This means the gears inside are going to be smallish....work for a while and develop slop very fast with a gantry that is even a couple hundred pounds. A Nema 40 series motor has a much more robust gear drive box selection available. The money hits the floor when you are building for CNC plasma with expensive NEMA motors and expensive NEMA gear boxes, you need a drive big enough to handle them, a power supply and you have not even gotten into proper isolation and motion. That is why you see a lot of those older Saber machines going to the scrap bin. They are heavy to handle heavy plate but for thinner cutting which they were never designed to do the smaller lighter gantry machines outcut them. CandCNC has great electronics which have been in the field cutting for almost 2 decades but on much lighter gantrys. But the weight of the gantry will be where you will pay out for a retrofit or suffer a very low acceleration.