Easily more than 5000 RPM, I have run 8x50mm belts faster than that with 10 to 30 KW drives.
Looks like it would work. As far as I know, the rails are rated the same in any orientation.
That's the way most mill spindles work, so I don't see why it wouldn't work in this application.
Fantastic, it sounds like I'm on the right path, then. The one concern I have with the headstock rails is that the spindle centerline will have to cantilever about 3" past the fixed carriage mounts; otherwise the mounts get in the way of the long tools toward the bottom of the toolplate (same reason fixed rails can't be used). Now, I expect a 3/4-1" thick mounting trunnion at the front/rear of the spindle casing tied to those carriages should be rigid enough for end-work when dropped down low, but it still gives me pause.
Maybe stagger the one guideway furthest from the toolplate so it hangs down lower? The tools could stick out up to 6.5" without any worries that way (versus the 'infinite' clearance they have now), and I suspect anything longer would require drilling past the collet nose simply to control run out; at that point there's no side-turning to do, and the other long tools would have to be omitted so the toolplate could drill to full depth anyway. I don't have plans to try and fit such a large boring job in this rig, but it never hurts to think ahead.
I accomplished today's mission of tracking down & ordering the connector for my 24V power supply*, but man it was hard fought. I was *this* close to saying "screw it" and ripping out the goofy pin headers & replacing them with something normal. Two hours of scouring the net for traces of the defunct Cherokee International company's specs, and two more scouring Digikey for the correct connectors & contacts, and in an available version without a 10,000 piece minimum. But in a week or so, I'll be able to power the motion controller on for real, and get it talking to the PC.
Jim, do the Galil communicate over a typical network cable, or do they need one of those crossover versions? The manuals don't seem to specify, so I'm guessing it's the normal type, but I wanted to ask on the off-chance I can avoid some frustration.
*The connectors that came with the unit have a very goofy V-notch style connection to the wires, and once I'd replaced them with the wire for my power cable, the connection was very unreliable. Solid enough to check voltages and pin-outs, but nowhere safe enough for delicate electronics
We'll have encoder loss detection and excess position error shutdown. For initial testing, we'll limit the command signal to a very low value, using the TL command, until we know that everything is correct.
