Newfangled has just got there second CNC lathe It is a Compact 5 made by Emco and will be used to test software. The cost of the lathe was $900.00 and is in running condition! When I say running I should say that it needs spindle bearings… I turned on the spindle and it sounded like some one had put rocks in place of the bearings! So you will see that I have the spindle out of the lathe and the new 6006-2Z bearings are going to be on there way soon. I can only find ABEC 3 bearings from MSC (
www.mscdirect.com ) so I am going to call a few of the local bearing places to see if I can get ABEC 7 bearings . The ABEC number is the precision of the bearing, so a 7 is better than a 3… We could get into it more but I don’t see the point
. Even with the bad bearings the lathe gave a GREAT finish! I was taking about .050 at 2500 RPM in 6061 AL with the stock about 2 inches out from the chuck. So there is hope for this little lathe
Now that I know everything is in working order I have to figure out what I am going to keep and what is going to go. The spindle motor is a German DC permanent magnet motor (very nice motor). The Emco DC spindle drive has a pot, LED display and a switch to turn it on and off. This will never do! I need to have CSS and don’t want to turn on the spindle motor on and off with a switch. I was going to get a KB electronics DC drive but there were not any dealers up here in Maine . So after looking on the web I found
www.e-motorsonline.com and ordered a regenerative SCR DC drive. I was going to get a nonregenerative drive because they are half the money but this drive would not reverse and decelerate as fast as I would like . I ended up with a Minarik DCD01330 drive that is made to only run permanent magnet motors to the tune of about $183.00 with shipping.
I need to send a 0 – 10V to run the drive… I decided to order a DL06 PLC from automation direct with an analog card. I know this is WAY overkill but I know I will have all the IO that I will ever need . It cost about $300.00 and gives 20 inputs, 16 outputs, 2 analog in and 2 analog out! The extra I/O is going to be used on the tool changer.. The way Emco did there tool changer is VERY odd at best! Emco did the tool change based on time! They never knew where the tool was at any point and a tool change would only tell it to increment X amount of tools! This will never do! I plan to add proximity sensors to the tool changer so Mach 3 will know what tool is tool one and to sense when a tool has gone by (counter). This will be a great improvement over the OEM convention of running the tool changer!
There are steppers on the X and Z axis… I heard that the steppers were junk so I did a few testes to see if I could get the machine to miss steps. The first one was to hold onto the tool changer and have a friend rapid the Z axis. I am not a small guy so I figured I could stop the axis if the steppers were not any good . I am happy to say that the machine started to slide across the plywood bench as I was holding the changer! The drives that are on it now are running heavy amps (about 4) so they are getting hot! I am in hopes that the new G201 drives from Gecko will help keep the motor cool with the auto current reduction. I plan to use the OEM transformer (40 V) , rectifier and capacitor.
For breakout board I went with the PMDX-122 and PMDX-Sensor-S from
www.PMDX.com . I had the PMDX-122 sitting here because I bought it from Steve at the CNC workshop . The PMDX-Sensor-S is a through beam type sensor that I am going to use to read the spindle/position for threading. This is going to make for a nice small package that should all fit in to the original cabinet.
That is all I have done up to this point I will post more when the parts start to come in.
Feel free to ask any questions that you like
Thanks
Brian
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