Hi Guys,
I have an emco pcturn55 cnc lathe that I am in the process of converting over to MACH3. I got the machine with all cards and software. Supposedly it was all working so before starting the conversion process I though I would give it a go. To my surprise it all started up. The software to run the lathe is called 'winnc32 ver13', this runs inside windows 98. The Gcode command/interface is via a funky tablet and is 'FANUC series 0T'. The only problem was no power supply for the 'tablet' - I did a bit of research and found it was 500ma 5v center positive, hooked up a lab supply to test it out and all was good. There are some programs still in the program memory so I used them to start learning Gcode (I am new to that). All ok so far, the system works and is very effective - great machine to get up and going with and worth a change over to MACH3 as that opens up more options. I have already made quite some investigations into the conversion process and will update this post when I have all the parts and am ready to go. Upon testing and playing with the machine I discovered that the main spindle was 'Knocking' - spin it up to speed 3000 (not sure if this is RPM but that does not matter for the moment) and a very annoying 'tap', 'tap' can be heard. Looking carefully I found some play in the rear bearing. I am concluding this must be worn and will change both front and back bearing. I have attached pictures - upon disassembly I have no idea how to remove the two (or one) circlips. I am hoping someone can give me an idea on this. As you can see access to grab the clips is rather small. Any ideas?
I will post up more pictures as I work on this - hopefully they will be useful for someone else.
many thanks,
John
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