Machsupport Forum
General CNC Chat => Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) => Topic started by: Hood on January 22, 2009, 07:36:48 PM
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Better explain the title first, it is a Beaver NC5 mill that was manufactured by Balding Engineering :)
I bought the mill from eBay, it cost me £208 and then a further £500 to get it transported from Wales up to Scotland. Originally it had a Heidenhain 145 control and Contraves DC servo drives and motors. There was a Z axis fault but a clean of the drive contacts sorted that out and I was able to test things out, all axis moved freely and rapids were 8m/min. Originally I had intended keeping the DC motors and drives but they whistled at a frequency that really annoyed me so they had to go. I sold the control and drives on eBay and got around £500 for them. I picked up some 1.5KW and 3KW AC Servos and drives from eBay
The cabinet that was on the Beaver was at the back and huge, it was far too big for the small workshop so I fitted the drives into one of the old cabinets I had from the Bridgeport and mounted it to the side, above that I fitted an electrical box which houses the computer and breakouts etc. I am using the pico motherboard, a SmoothStepper, a PMDX122 and and Acustep Breakout boards, a few relay circuits I bought and a few I made and finally a PLC. At the moment I am only using the analogue Inputs to the PLC, this will let me have load meters in Mach for all of my motors but future plans include a tool changer so I will need some of the inputs on the PLC for that.
My workshop is cramped so the pics are not that great but heres some anyway. I am about a week away from getting it completed but afraid finding that weeks worth of time is a problem, maybe as the weather warms I will spend more time in the evening at the workshop.
Hood
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The pics in the above post are the mill, the gearbox underside, the drawbar cylinder and the hydraulic cabinet which houses the intensifier for the drawbar. Below are a few pics of the 7KW AC servo I have fitted to the spindle and the top cabinet .
Hood
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And finally the lower cabinet that houses the three axis drives and at the bottom the spindle drive.
Hood
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That is one good looking Beaver !
Will you be putting a servo on the knee ?
And for your load gauges and tool changer...is that just handshaking between Mach and the PLC or is there an interface like a ModIO or similar ?
Briefly picked up a little about it at the Expo.
Looking good Hood,
RC
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HOOD,
Good lookin Beaver you got there. Did you get a deal on red wire terminals? :D cheaper in large quanitys ?
So when you starting on the enclosure? you don't have lots of room to be slinging chips around all over your clean floor. ;D
Lookin good Hood. keep up the good work.
Ed
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That is one good looking Beaver !
Will you be putting a servo on the knee ?
And for your load gauges and tool changer...is that just handshaking between Mach and the PLC or is there an interface like a ModIO or similar ?
Briefly picked up a little about it at the Expo.
Looking good Hood,
RC
Thanks RC, always like getting complimented on my Beaver ;)
At the moment there is an induction motor on the knee to raise and lower via a switch, future plans are to put a servo on it and use the knee for tool offsets and the quill for normal operations. The quill is over 30% bigger in Dia than the Bridgeport so I am thinking it should be sturdy enough :)
The PLC has modbus so I will have a brain or macropump look at the inputs and write to the DRO for spindle load (and other axis loads )
Hood
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Ed
yep price was good on the terminals, then again you shouldnt really need to as ask I am Scottish ;D
Not sure when I will do the enclosure, not even sure where the machine will end up, I am really struggling for room so might have to get rid of the CNC Bridgeport and manual Colchester sTUDENT lathe.
Now your mention of a floor has just brought back memories, I am thinking there may well be one of them, or at least I have distant memories of such a thing when I moved in here a few years ago :)
Hood
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struggling for room so might have to get rid of the CNC Bridgeport
Just send it over here when you get a moment. ;D
Great looking Beaver pics, Hood, looks like a wiring nightmare to someone like me - :D
Be sure to let us know if you get some video of her showing off her Beaver skills -
Dave
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struggling for room so might have to get rid of the CNC Bridgeport
Just send it over here when you get a moment. ;D
Send the packing case and I will get it on its way :)
Great looking Beaver pics, Hood, looks like a wiring nightmare to someone like me - :D
Thats the good thing about doing the complete wiring from scratch, its much easier to do that as you can make it up as you go :)
Be sure to let us know if you get some video of her showing off her Beaver skills -
Dave
Sure will but dont be holding your breath or you may expire before its done ;D
Hood
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struggling for room so might have to get rid of the CNC Bridgeport
Just send it over here when you get a moment. ;D
Send the packing case and I will get it on its way :)
I hear that Tyvek material is pretty strong, do you think Fed Ex would have a problem with a "mill-in-a-bag? :D
Dave
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(http://forums.pcper.com/images/smilies/extras/jaw.gif)
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like chicken in a basket, but harder on the teeth. Good looking mill! big and heavy, should turn out some good work.
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Good looking mill! big and heavy, should turn out some good work.
Not likely as it will be that is operating it ;D
Hood
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Hood,
BALDING BEAVER, LOL , kinda like this *********ree, No more Bush , cause we got an Obama. ;D
I' ll bet this thread get some lookers, LOL
Ed
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;D
Hood
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Ahhh,
I see on of the FABULOUS "Accustep" boards from Ed Gilbert!!! I only have 1 left my self.... :(
Sad, Sad, day to me when he quite making his Cadillac Boards/Products.......
scott
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Looking good Hood. Nice title. LOL
Brett
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Ahhh,
I see on of the FABULOUS "Accustep" boards from Ed Gilbert!!! I only have 1 left my self.... :(
Sad, Sad, day to me when he quite making his Cadillac Boards/Products.......
scott
I first got Eds board for the Index homing feature but I now do that internal to my servo drives, I still like the differential Step/Dir outputs from the Acustep though. The only thing that I find a little frustrating about the boards are the connectors, they can be a bit fiddly to replace wires, especially if its way inside a panel and not easy to see what you are doing. They are excellent boards and its a shame Ed had to give up making them as I would not hesitate to recommend them to anyone. Having said that the PMDX 122 is of the same quality if not slightly better (better connectors), only it doesnt have the differential outputs or index homing features.
Looking good Hood. Nice title. LOL
Brett
Did try to think a way of including silicon enhanced in the title for you but just couldnt :(
Hood
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HOOD,
Looks like your not skimping on the electronics end and leaving plenty of capability to be had.
I assume you have a handle on the plc, but if you have any questions, i think Brett just ordered
one, got a certificate at the seminar, and is available for consultation. ;)
LOL with it.........Humbly learning,
RICH
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Yep Brett taught me all he knew about PLCs, think that may be the reason I dont have a clue about them ;D
Hood
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Don't feel bad Hood, I also got a certificate, framed it, went over to the instrument guys at work, showed it to
them, asked a few questions, and they reminded me of the saying that "you never know how stupid your are until you enter into someones elses expertise". That said, i quess the other saying of " you have your license to practice
so go practice on someone else" also applies. ;D
RICH
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LOL, well I am certainly not an expert with the PLC but its not that hard to do the basic stuff. I did the ladder for the lathes gearbox, turret and toolpost and after a while it all sunk in and was fairly easy, the mill will be a walk in the park compared to the lathe. :) It was for me a lot harder to write the macros to control the clutches and the turret and toolpost.
Below is a screenshot of the first few lines of the Lathes ladder, its the clutch control for the gearbox speeds.
Hood
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Hood and Others.....
I tell you this, if your using ADC products and you have a complex thing to do, STAGE LOGIC will be the best thing you have ever done!!
I break all my stuff up into stages (think of them as pockets of latter logic that perform specific functions), in your stage program, you can call these
"sub-routine like" pockets of ladder. That way you dont have layers, and layers, layers of interlocks to try and keep track of. The only Code that will
run on a scan is the one whos stage or stages are active.
scott
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Will have to look into that if I am doing anything complex, thanks for the tip.
Hood
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C MON HOOD,
lets have a Beaver update. before it grows fuzz. :D
Ed
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Update is I have done nothing :( Have done a few things to the lathe such as fitting the servo to the spindle and fitted a load meter for the spindle but afraid work justs keeps getting in the way of progress on the mill :(
Hood
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No worries......"Balding" wont grow fuzz.
"Clean Shaven" however, will grow back.
RC
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Hood,
I understand very well. The money making jobs just take up too much time. ;D
I've got some projects of my own , that I've had for over 20 years , and no time for them.
I'll probably take them with me to the grave. :D
Ed
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No worries......"Balding" wont grow fuzz. :)
"Clean Shaven" however, will grow back. :D
RC
You're beginning to step over that "line" again, remember New Years eve? :D
Dave
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Hi Hood,
I almost purchased this one. It's an NC-25. 8200 lbs. (just to be sure there was no typo in your 1st post as it looks similar to yours)
Is this the model you have ?
Thanks,
RC
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RC ,
looks like a bed mill to me. I think hoods is a knee.
Ed
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Yep as Ed says thats a Bed mill, if you want to buy it and ship it accross to me I would gladly send mine back in the crate :)
Hood
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Russ,
I'd grab it , if the price is right.
Table does look a little short.
Ed
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Ed the table travel I am guessing will be more than 30 inch, its like the series2 Bridgeports where the table slides on the saddle totally supported.
Hood
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MY Yamazen has 31 on x. but has the nice wide , stable saddle.
But I'll take a bed mill anyday.
Ed
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same here, just about bought a Chiron but the height in my workshop is limited so most bedmills will be out of the question for me :(
Hood
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Thanks Guys,
It was advertised as an 18x36 but I assumed that was the table size, not the capacity/travels.
I need something at least 15Y by 20 X. But not SUPER HP/Mass.
I'm begining to think that I may need to build a gantry rig.
Also looked at 2 Chiron VMC's but like Hood said.......TOO BIG!
Thanks for helping,
RC
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Hi guys, this Beaver is the same as my VC 35. This looks to have the Contraves 25HP DC spindle motor like mine and also the 18 tool changer.
These Beavers have Siemens DC servos and drives and use air over hydraulic for the drawbar.
Some like mine came with Fanuc 6ML conversational front end and the later ones came with Fanuc 11m but still used the Siemens servos. The servos are 8NM 200volt 2000rpm with a belt drive 2:1 ratio on a 38mm ball screw with 10mm pitch.
Some also had Heidenhain controls too.
The bigger version was the VC15 and they also did a twin spindle version!!
http://www.servotek.co.uk/ for the full Beaver range. ;)
John.
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By the way Overloaded that NC35 looks in very good condition...you would not regret buying it ;D they are a real work horse and built to last. The Fanuc 6 control is very reliable.
I'm going to build a full enclosure for mine and will put some pics up soon :)
John.
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Thanks for your input John.
And btw..it's a 25.
Regards,
RC
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Ah yes my mistake mines a VC35 !! It seems to have the same size bed though...
John.
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Hi Overloaded just noticed that NC25 is on US Ebay. Looks better than I first thought.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270319314231&fromMakeTrack=true&ssPageName=VIP:Watchlink:middle:us
Here is some information for any body who might be interested.
Machine size 1.8m wide x 1.9m long.
It will either have a KTK or contraves DC spindle drive.
The Beaver uses a Specher+Schull Sestep 400 micro processor (large black box) in the side cabinet for all the I/O commands. The ladders are burnt onto eproms in the control and sort out all the I/O for the tool changer, coolant etc .
The Specher+Schull sestep 400 replaces the Fanuc PC model B which is normally plugged into the Fanuc motherboard.
The fanuc 6m system software is on the Fanuc rom board which is plugged into the motherboard.
All the Fanuc boards are in the back cabinet on the Beaver including the power supply for the screen and pendant.
The tool changer arm has a bank of air solenoids on board to control the claw and retractable arm. The arm rotation and up and down movement is all air operated.
Tools can be loaded at the carosel (left hand side) or at the spindle and are Cat 40 taper .
Standard is 18 tools with an option of 36 tools.
The Beaver VC15 uses Cat 45 taper.
Check this link to see a tool change cycle on this Beaver VC15!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfR4C3ySLMw
John.
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Thanks for the info John.
This does look to be a fine machine, but a little too massive for me right now.
I wish I had more room, this would definetly fill my bill.
RC
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Your welcome RC thought it would add some interest to the thread :) I'm hoping to do a Galil /Mach3 conversion on my Beaver VC35.. just need to do some more reading on the forums yet before I get started!!
John.
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Not any progress I am afraid, hopefully there will be soon as I will have some storage space for the steel and bits and pieces I dont use every day so will hopefully have a bit more room to do things to the mill.
I have however got a toolchanger for the Beaver, well not actually got it yet but have agreed a price :) I dont think it will fit directly on but I should manage to make the needed modifications and it will save me a lot of work as I was previously intending to make one from scratch.
Hood
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Bit of progress on the mill, welded up a new control cabinet that was big enough for drives and controls instead of the original two cabinets I had. Obviously that meant totally rewiring everything, which was a PITA but worth it.
Decided to get things running and tested before I went to the hassle of making an enclosure for it and have done some air cuts so far and hopefully some real cuts this weekend.
This vid shows the air cuts of a circular pocket at 8M/min, accel of 1000mm/s/s and spindle speed of 1000rpm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zyjwK2jCXI
Below is a bad pic of the new cabinet, space is too tight to get a proper picture. Wiring has since been tidied up :)
Hood
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Looks great so far Hood !
Glad to see someone is making progress..... ::)
How are you comong along with the changer ?
Bravo,
Russ
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Have decided not to go with that toolchanger. The pullstuds that the Beaver uses are very long so the arm wouldnt have enough travel so all that I would have been able to use was basically the chain. I have been messing around with a few design ideas for a changer but so far have not decided which way to go.
Priority is to test the mill on a cut then if thats good I will decide how to make the enclosure and where I will have the control panel situated. Once that is all done then I have a second turret to fit onto the lathe. If I live long enough then I will move onto the toolchanger for this :)
Hood
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Did a test cut today to see how the mill performed. Nothing exciting but was nice to see it doing this cut, my Bridgeport Rigid Ram would have been squealing at this. The material is just mild steel and the cut is 8mm x 8mm at a spindle speed of 1700rpm and feed of 300mm/min. The surface finish was good with no sign of vibration at all.
Vid here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sEiPBpOFxQ
and below is a pic of the cut.
Hood
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Looks good Hood! Very impressive cut.
What is the top spindle speed you can achieve with your AC servo?
Daniel
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The motor is 3800 rpm but because it is 2.5 times the KW of the original motor I have geared it up with 72 and 44 pulleys so 6000+ rpm is available. I also still have the 10:1 gearbox in the head so if real heavy work is needed there is plenty of torque available.
I will probably never go so high as 6000rpm though as the majority of the work I do is steel or stainless so I might put it back in the gearing so its just better than 4000rpm like the original.
Hood
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Can't see a work that could possibly be considered "heavy" for that motor ;)
Is it noisy at its top speed of 6000rpm? What tooth profile pulleys did you use?
Daniel
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Not really noisy, have some gear noise but the belt is silent and its a lot quieter than the Bridgeport at all speeds. Its a gates GT3 belt.
Hood
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Bit more progress :)
Been using the mill to make up sections out of Alu for the control panel but its been a nightmare as my screen and keyboard were on top of my control box way round the side, so no way to see for setting up etc. Have the control panel all welded up now and in place, need to get it painted and wired fully, hope to get it wired tomorrow. I need to wire the E-Stop (not in pic ) all of the 12 switches, the two pots, the two rotary switches and the MPG. Once I have that done then I can take it apart again and get it painted.
Hood
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BEAUTIFUL looking control panel you did there Hood.
How do you find the time? Seems your always on this forum helping everyone else.
Keep up the good work. ;)
Ed
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Thanks Ed.
Hood
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Mill is working well, have a bit of backlash which is more than likely due to the fact that I found a stripped gear in the lube pump so it was only getting about a 1/4 the oil it was meant to. I have measured the backlash on X and it is very consistent on the full travel so I am thinking oversized ball bearings will do the trick. Same for the Y axis I suspect, the Z has less than 0.005mm backlash so thats fine.
Have also been making up a new screenset for the mill, I am going to have all controls I use day in day out on the one page. I will also have a diagnostics screen and possibly have a full toolpath screen but I want to keep it as simple as possible. I have the first page done and its working well and I am reasonably happy with it, I may rearrange things a bit as I get using it but as most of the buttons are on my external button panel I probably will leave it be.
Thanks go to Brett for giving me the idea of the LED buttons from seeing his Fanuc screenset.
Hood
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Looking good Hood !
Simple and All on One.....that's what I like.
Might ask you for a copy later.
Anxious to see the other pages when done too.
Thanks,
Russ
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Looking good Hood !
Simple and All on One.....that's what I like.
Might ask you for a copy later.
Thanks and yes no problem getting the screenset but it is heavily customised to my mill and the way I have things set up so likely you would have to do a lot of modifying.
Anxious to see the other pages when done too.
Thanks,
Russ
Dont hold your breath, I have a habit of never completing anything, just ask the wife about the Kitchen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vance_Miller) or the garage or the.............. well you get the picture ;D
Hood
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Lookin real good Hood , and know what you mean about the wife. Britts always after me to clean her cage , and hang some bananas.
Ed
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Lookin real good Hood , and know what you mean about the wife. Britts always after me to clean her cage , and hang some bananas.
Ed
Now that is funny ;D
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LOL Ed, just wait till I tell Britt. And you will clean her cage or she will clean your clock.
Right turn Clide. :D
Brett
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Well , as long as your all here , want to say Merry Christmas to the best guys on the planet , from Britt ,Dracula , and me.
Hope its a great one. ;)
Ed
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Have a good one Ed and all, would imagine Dracula would celebrate Yule rather than Christmas being he must be European ;)
.
Hood
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AH.........., may Swarta Pete bestow all the Black Peter's you would ever want onto your doorstep.
Sorry my Dutch is stuck in the snow!
RICH
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Thanks Ed, Merry Christmas to you and yours too.
Brett
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Well had a few disappointments with the Beaver, first was the X and Y backlash, it was worse than I first thought but I have sourced some new ground ballscrews of similar dimensions (X 1600mm x 32mm dia x 10mm pitch, Y 900mm x 32mm x 10mm pitch) Not got them yet but hopefully they will be here this week and I will get them machined at the weekend.
Next thing I found was that the Y axis had a huge amount of slop, I tried to adjust the gib but it was fully in and there was still loads of slack, I removed it and found it was in the wrong way and had extra peces screwed on either end. It was the extra pieces that was stopping the adjustment as the gib goes right through and there is a screw front and back that holds it in the right position. Ok so I fitted it the correct way and without the extra bits and got it adjusted as per manual but as I wound to either extent the servos tripped after a few seconds so had to slacken off again.
The beaver has the Y ballscrew along the right side of the knee and the procedure for adjusting the gib is put two clocks (DTI) on the knee and plungers against the saddle, one at left and other right side, you then wind three full revs of the clock and zero then wind one back and the difference between the clocks gives you the amount of twist due to slack gib. The manual says adjust until 0.025mm (0.001") and the best I could get so that the drive wouldnt trip was 0.09 and even then it would trip after ten mins sitting at the Y minus extreme.
This weekend I got a loan of a Biax and had a go at scraping the unworn parts and although I have never done scraping before it wasnt too hard. I think the hard part of scraping would be to scrape an axis true to another but as I only had approx 100mm either end to do it wasnt that hard.
So now I have it scraped its seems good, have it adjusted to 0.018mm or so twist at the slackest part and less than half that over the majority of the rest of the travel, motor current when monitoring from the serial connection to my drives shows only a slight increase in current at either extremes and it is approx 8 amps which is around half of the continuous rated current so should be fine.
I also monitored the current whilst doing some milling today and it never went much higher than the 8 amps so I am happy :) just hope the ballscrews turn up soon.
Hood
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That's good news Hood. I knew you could massage the slop out of that Beaver. I'd imagine your happier than a pig in mud now that your beaver is all tightened up. With a couple of new screws it will be good as new. :)
Brett
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Hood,
If anyone can get it repaired correctly, its you.... No worries
JH
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lol @ Brett
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lol @ Brett
:D LMAO@Brett too.......still.
Russ
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Hood,
How much backlash did you actually have in your sloppy ol' beaver screw anyway ?
Just curious,
Russ
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Great news Hood. I know the rewarding feeling when you find that your machine isn't as accurate as you thought and you manage to fix it and even make it better than the manufacturer's quote.
Daniel
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Brett, what can I say, nothing like a tight Beaver.
JH
Figured it would be hard to make it worse, even for me, so gave it a go and all worked out :)
RC
turned out there was a lot more than I originally thought, once I tightened the gibs up I got a fright, have attached a xls of the readings I took. Hopefully the new ballscrews will be as good as they are supposed to be, they should be but the price is well under what rolled C7 would cost me, let alone C5 rolled so there is a niggling doubt until I get them and see.
Daniel,
Yes I remember the trials and tribulations you had with the emco, certainly seems to be working now :)
Hood
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Wow - that much backlash!!! And I thought you were complaining about a few microns as usual... ;) But this is unacceptable even in my terms.
Daniel
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Yes, could live with a bit of backlash but not that much, the Z is great, less than 0.005mm from what I see and even the knee only has 0.03mm or so in the bevel gears. Fitting new balls in the X and Y and then making new shims for the ball nut spacers probably would have reduced the backlash to acceptable amounts but when I found ground C5 ballscrews for £240 delivered, I decided it wasnt worth it. I do plan on reusing the X axis screw for the tailstock on the lathe so may have a go at reducing the backlash in it just to see even though it wouldnt matter for a tailstock as the quill is hydraulic it just need to get within +-90mm LOL.
Hood
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Quote
Quote from: Sam on January 11, 2010, 10:08:28 PM
lol @ Brett
LMAO@Brett too.......still.
Russ
Posted on: January 11, 2010, 10:08:28 PMPosted by: Sam
Insert Quote
lol @ Brett
Whatd I do? ;D
Brett
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Well I got the ball screws today and can say they seem to be everything I was hoping for and more. Class5 precision ground ballscrews with antibacklash nuts and quality looks excellent.
Hope to get time this weekend to machine the ballscrews and may have to make new brackets to mount them as the nuts look to be a bigger dia than the ones that are on.
For anyone in the UK looking for ballscrews I recommend you get in contact with Martin at http://www.motionandbearing.co.uk as I think their prices are hard to beat, I certainly couldnt find class 7 rolled ballscrews at these prices never mind precision ground class5.
Hood
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BRAVO !
Good news for sure.
Better than any prices I found here in the US when I was looking.
Hoping they work out well for you and are as good as they look.
RC
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H :D :DD,
Nothing better than having a good screw for the weekend. and with a tight beaver . Ya , I faintly remember those days.LOL
;D ;D ;D
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H :D :DD,
Nothing better than having a good screw for the weekend. and with a tight beaver . Ya , I faintly remember those days.LOL
;D ;D ;D
And even better, two screws ;D
Hood
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BRAVO !
Good news for sure.
Better than any prices I found here in the US when I was looking.
Hoping they work out well for you and are as good as they look.
RC
Time will tell I suppose but they certainly look and feel good.
Hood
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Hood,
Curious if you had already have the time to mount and test the new ball screws? Are they really what they claim them to be?
Thanks,
Daniel
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Afraid not, time has been too short and also I am testing Rev4 with the Plugin interface (SS) so need the machine running.
Hood
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Bit of an update.
Spindle bearings started getting noisy after using the mill for a few weeks, I suppose it was mainly due to the lack of oil that the mill had been getting during its use by the previous owners. Got a price for the pair of precision bearings and had to sit down ;D Was going to cost me upwards of £350. Looked around a bit and got Brian in the USA to get me a few prices but taking into account shipping and customs it wasnt going to be much of a saving. Got a link to a place from a friend and when I emailed the guy came back saying he had NSK P3 class bearings rather than the P4 (P3 is better) and the price was £200 the pair all in :) Got the bearings and what a difference, much quieter than even when I first ran it. I measured the runout on the taper and couldnt even see the needle twitch then put a drill in the spindle and put the dial on the nose and pushed and pulled on the drill and again didnt see the needle move so I am happy :)
Not got the ballscrews fitted yet, hopefully I will get a chance in the next few weeks.
Have made a tool presetter for the mill, see pic, it uses a linear scale and goes into Mach on encoder 4 input.
What I do is put a probe in the pocket and bring the setter down onto the probe and zero the Encoder DRO, I then move the preseeter up and replace the probe with a tool and bring the setter down to the tool. I then press a button and a box pops up asking what offset I want, I enter that and it writes the offset into the tool table, I then repeat with tool 2 etc etc.
It seems to be working well from simulation. I am about to make a new probe which will be powered via a battery and have a LED in it, so far all I have got done is the taper part of the body but hopefully I will get a few hours spare to complete it in the week ahead.
Hood
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Fancy Shmancy Hood !
Looks like a good deal on the bearings.
How much larger are they than the std. BPort J head bearings (about $400 US last I looked)
Like the setter too. Will it hold .01 mm tol. ? or better ?
Get them screws in and you will be good to go eh ?
Thanks,
Russ
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The quill is just over 4 inch dia compared to the Bridgeports 3 1/8th (i think), not sure what the actual size of the Bridgeports bearings are but these are 85mm OD 45mm ID and 19mm thick.
The scale is 0.005mm and I can bring the setter down onto a tool and then move fully up and bring down again and again and again... well you get the idea ;D and the DRO always comes back to the same place, so I think its good from these tests. Not actually tested it out on the machine yet as I just got it finished at 5PM today and the paint is still wet ;D
Yes really looking forward to getting the ballscrews in, wish they were a direct replacement instead of having to machine them to suit but at the price I got them for I dont suppose I can complain too much.
Hood
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Great, I think they are substantially larger than the BP. Same in my supermax. Was surprised to see how small they were for what they have to endure.
Are yours permanently lubed or do they have a supply system ?
Think mine are at install then a drop or 2 on the drawbar once in a while.
You need to change the res. on that DRO ! 0.000 mm But prob. not necessary.
Take care Hood,
RC
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Yes they are lubed via the auto lube pump, when I got it they werent getting too much as the gears in the pump were stipped in one spot so it just jumped back and forward without putting much oil out.
Ha ha nope I think 0.01mm is good enough :D
Hood
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Thought you guys might like to see my Beaver mill doing a tool change. Only one tool loaded in the movie but now have all 18 ready to go!
John.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t45eE6aOWrI
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Nice , and a bed mill . I'm jealous.
Ed
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Hood,
Nice idea with the tool setter. Do you have a tapered pocket there, which imitates the spindle taper? I wonder how accurate it can reproduce the tool holder position regarding its true position in the spindle...
Daniel
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John
Interesting to see, my friend has a VC5 knee mill with almost the same changer only its the opposite side and seems a bit faster. Going to be making a changer for mine one of these days, well thats if I live long enough ;D
Hood
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Daniel
Yes I have a tapered pocket I made quite a few up a while back for holding Int 40 shank holders on my lathes tool post so just used two of them.
Wont matter how much of a difference there is between the pockets and the spindle because I am setting Tool 0 (the probe) as the tool setters zero position and measuring all other tools from that. Once I have all tools measured and entered in the tool table I just put the probe in the spindle and touch off the work and set Z Zero and all other tools will be in relation to that.
Hood
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Thanks Edvaness must get a cutting movie up when I get chance!
Hood it was a bit slow as it hadn't run for a bit when I took the movie.
Just lack of use :)
I think the tool changer was based on a cincinnati design used on some of their cnc bed mills.
I also like the hotswap type tool changer ...seems to be the way forward on the modern machines.
http://www.haascnc.com/Promos/Prod_Brochure/ebook/HMC_BROCHURE/index.htm#
John
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Yes, hot swap is one of the ones I have been considering, heres a site that gives some ideas as well http://www.eng.miksch.de/prodsheet.php?nodeid=1850
Will probably just end up making a simple setup, maybe even just a rack that runs along the ram, not sure yet and have lots of things to do before I get to that stage, after the ballscrews it is the second turret on the lathe to replacce the front 4 position toolpost.
Hood
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Good site Hood lots of info on the PDF download. These are the toolchangers used on some of the DMG machines!
John.
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John, yes it gives quite a lot of good info in it :-)
RC, did some testing today, remembered about an edge finder I had so decided just to make a dedicated holder up for it to save time but will probably end up making another myself when time permits as these are not true so need to be rotated for edge finding. Anyway back to the testing, first put the probe in the setter and zeroed the DRO then set up 3 tools with the setter. Next put the probe in the spindle and brought it down onto the vice jaw and zeroed the DRO, put the three tools in one after the other calling the relevant offsets and the difference between all three was under 0.01mm using feeler gauges so I am happy enough with that :)
Hood
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Excellent Hood,
I like the tightening fixture on there as well. Is it common to put the setter and torquer on the same fixture ?
And the sliding socket, is it necessary ? I assume so or it wouldn't be there but won't the gauge slide upward enough to set the holder in directly under it ? Looks like you have to be careful to keep the sliding surfaces of the slot very clean.
I like it,
RC
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Dont know if its common to have the tightening fixture or not, have never seen one ;D
Sliding socket is to accommodate things like face mills or even just indexable cutters in general. I made the part that touches off the tool only a few mm wide and that way I didnt have to worry if it was not dead true. I still have to make sure the column is true but from the tests I did today it cant be far off if at all.
Hood
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have never seen one
Me neither, so as far as I'm concerned, you get credit for the invention. ;) (do some research before you start manufacturing them though ::))
I understand now about the slider now, of course, thanks.
Get your ATC on there and it will be a 1 button op.
See Ya,
Russ :)
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:D
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Excellent results Hood! But it was obvious anyway... couldn't expect anything else from you... ;)
Daniel
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im planning on doing a similar upgrade, the mill im looking is a bridgeport with servos but a bad motherboard or drives they not sure, but the iron is in excellent shape so i think it worth the effort.
ill post up when i start mine.
good luck man
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im planning on doing a similar upgrade, the mill im looking is a bridgeport with servos but a bad motherboard or drives they not sure, but the iron is in excellent shape so i think it worth the effort.
ill post up when i start mine.
good luck man
Look forward to seeing the results :)
Hood