Machsupport Forum
General CNC Chat => Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) => Topic started by: fdos on May 11, 2006, 06:30:57 PM
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Here's a serious one!
This machine I purchased last year with a few faults. In other words Cheap as chips;)
1992 Leadwell GMC350 VMC, with 8 station BT30 toolchanger, 6k spindle. Nice small machine.
After a while the Spindle drive totally failed, so it was time to rip out it's heart and give it a new life.
Spindle drive was very proprietry to the Meldas control and was not simply a case of putting in any old VFD. The meldas control is totally digital ie no 0-10v analogue signals, even for the servo drives.
After struggling to find suitable drives for the Servo's I gave in and fitted Steppers, at least for the time being. minimising downtime was critical as I use my machines for my business.
This has been fairly successful so far. although the rapids are about half what they used to be. I can just get 200"min the original servos did a fair bit more.
At present all the main enclosures are off and being repainted.
When refitted I can run the machine again, although until I've developed my ATC controller it will be manual toolchanges for a short time.
If there's any interest I'll post a few more pics as I go through it all..
Wayne...
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Operator Panel...
A lot of this will be removed. I intend to use a screenset with heavy use of softkeys.
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And this could encourage some of you screen guys to look atr how simple a CNC screen ought to be ;)
This is the Mitsubishi meldas main screen! Not much more than DRO's,feedrate and spindle and tool information!!
Theres really not much point in anything else being there.
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Hi:
Nice machine. But I bet if I add up all those buttons and switches and dials, you got two Mach3 screens there. :) (The panel counts as screen space.. :) )
Nice machine, be nice to have..
Art
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;D
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I knew someone was going to say that, BUT in each screen on the original control only a few of the buttons/knobs etc even worked. But they are all there arranged in a more or less logical layout.
As I said a fair bit will be removed and a new panel made. I'll have no need for things like TAPE mode! Not that I ever got it to work successfully!
I shall attempt to have control function "lockout" under Mach probably with a new screenset.
Wayne...
Art
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Well. Got the 1st bit of painted sheetmetal back on the machine today. Damn the colours look so different, although they are so close on an uncontaminated part of the original enclosure. Thats years in a dirty workshop for you!
It'll all weather down ;)
Go the rest to paint and the telescopic box covers to refit on the ways, after I get the new wipers for them.
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Hi,
Nice machine, how much do you know about the Meldas controler and what do you think is the main problem with the toolchanger?
Regards,
Greg
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Here's an update with some entainment in the form of a short video.
Most of the machine is finished. but sadly real work has got in the way a bit. I have actually had to use the machine for paying work, even though only half the enclosures are back on and the pc is sat on the floor next to the machine instead of being built in.
Video can be found at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/fdosdesign/temp/leadwell3.wmv
This is one off a 100 pieces I did this weekend. 1st op is not shown. Total time to machine is 7mins each complete.
The coolant is not really yellow!! I think this effect may be caused by the flourescent lights directly above the machine.
Have fun
Wayne....
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Hi Wayne
Looks very good.
What about tool changer, any progress?
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Well I've planned how I will do the toolchanger. I have to add an index for station one on the carousel. It's amazing that the Meldas control didn't use one. All it has is a locked position sensor for the geneva wheel mechanism. This occurs on every station.
I will probably use my own picaxe based controller to handle most of the atc cycle. Mach and the printer ports just does not have the required i/o. With a grex this may be possible. The spindle orintate part of the cycle is the most difficult to get right.
I'm just finding it hard to find time to wrap this one up. I have the big Hardinge lather to finish off after this one :o
Wayne...
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Took a break from the Hardinge today, and spent some time sorting out the carousel on the Leadwell.
One thing that always worried me was that there was no index signal on the ATC to detect any of the stations. How the Meldas control handled it I have no idea!
So I decided that all I needed was a signal to detect station 1. This is with a microswitch operated by a cam squeezed onto the carousel which has just enough clearance under the Geneva wheel. Space is very limited...
Also made an Adjustable bracket for the switch which clamps around the hub.
Pics below.
Wayne...
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Not much going on with the retrofits, but it's the day after Christmas and I'm working again:(
Treated myself to couple of cheap 4" vices so this job can be run in less time.
100 done this afternoon, only another 260 to go Arrrgh..... and this is only the 1st side..
Wayne....
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Hi Wayne,
this thread may help in your quest for a simple spindle index mechanism :-
Graham.
http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=1942.0
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Graham...
The index and ATC is all sorted. I went with my original idea of using some of the original gear on the spindle and my own PLC.
The index shown above is for the the carousel only, the original control never used one, but probably used a paremeter in the control and some non volatile memory to store the last carousel position.
Oneday I'll get ome pics up here of the setup. I may even post up my <$10 PLC design ;) at the moment I'm just too overwhelmed with work.
Wayne...
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Neeto.. FYI. Using the white balance function will compensate for the lighting color and get you white coolant back.
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Hi the coolant is actually Flourescent Green, Fully synthetic.
Wayne...
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgH1WVz90Ek
A quick and dirty vid from the job above.
Hosted on YouTube to save a bit of bandwidth here.
Benny, any way to embed these?
http://www.youtube.com/v/GgH1WVz90Ek
Wayne,,,,
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Wayne did the dirty. ;D With a name like that, your sure to get a lot of hits. Dirty twins. LOL I love it.
Brett
Looks good.
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LOL, thats just my sense of humour slipping out! But it has had 70 odd views in less than 24hrs. Probably very few Mach users :(
I'm running the over side of the job now, won't bother doing a vid though, maybe the next job.
Be much nicer if these vids could be embedded in the messages here. I did produce a SWF version but it cam to over 200Mb which I felt far too large for such a little vid. In AVI form on YouTube it's about 100Mb. But I can get it down to much less but not suitable for direct viewing here.
Wayne....
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More video!
1st op on a vintage car radiator cap. Material is black Acetal. Ran 160 of these yesterday.
Rendered pic is the finished part, although black doest render too well so I chose a brassy colour!
http://www.youtube.com/v/urJISyfu9vs
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Nice Wayne,
What did you draw the model in? What car are they for? Acetol, I have a case of that. I have been working my butt off, there for I have no Acetol left. ;D
Brett
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Acetal is just another name for Delrin. The original part was probably a compression moulding (bakaite) It's for a 1920's Austin 7.
There is another type I'm running which is similar size but more curvy!
The part was modelled in OneCNC XR2 Mill Expert.
Wayne....
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More video.
Some single point threadmilling done today
Yes it is supposed to be a lefthand thread :P
Wayne....
http://www.youtube.com/v/FQ1rYX559Gk
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Sweet!!! U DA Man!!!
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Good job Wayne! Yeap, it is understood, you are the MAN.
Brett
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Noob Question: New to milling ;) What kind of mill bit is that doing the left hand thread?
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I think it is called a thread mill. Look in the links at McMaster Carr or another tooling company.
Brett
Heres a link.
http://www.jlindustrial.com/endeca/searchResults.jsp;jsessionid=1CDZVXWW2VIPRLAUBIWCFEVMCQFC0IV0?_dyncharset=ASCII&ns=1&Ntt=thread+mill&Ntk=Keyword+Search
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You don't need to go to the cost of fancy tools to do that, we do lots of thread milling at work using standard lathe threading tools, they work for int/external left and right hand
Graham.
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The cutter used above is an old burnt out 7/16" 3 flute endmill which has been reground into a threadmill.
Wayne....
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I have done that in the past :)
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Boring Innit! Thought someone might be inspired if I posted it though ;)
Not enough vids of machines working in here! Lets see some more. When the Hardinge is running I'll be sure to show a job or two.
The ability to host on Youtube is useful though ;)
Wayne....
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I was thinking that I was the only one here that could not throw out the old taps :)
Keep up the great videos!
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LOL Old endmills have a multitude of uses. Make excellent boring bars for lathes too ;)
Here's a recent recent 2nd lifes for old old cutters.
1st 2 are threadmills including the one in the video (HSS) the smaller threadmill is an old solid carbide cutter, I use that for 0.75mm pitch internal threads on model aero engines.
The other pic is a form drill which drills for 1/4" whit tap, chamfers the hole and creates a spotface all in one operation.
Wayne....
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Don't know if you all remember the little video of the radcaps. Well I just finished a small batch, and they have turned out pretty well I think.
The threadmilling vid was for this job too. I won't threadmill them next time though as I hope the hardinge will be running by then, that machine will be a lot quicker. That all depends on spindle syncing with the G100 of course ;)
Anyway here's little pic.
Wayne....
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Good job Wayne. I knew it would be, I saw them in the making. Keep up the good work and keep posting.
Brett
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Nice Wayne
couple of questions, how did you do the domed top, in a lathe? how did you fix the insert into the acetal? If its a trade secret dont worry LOL
Hood
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Hood. The top was indeed cnc turned, on the one machine I do have running!
Hmm the bonding! Kinda a trade secret;) Acetal is VERY difficult to bond to ANYTHING. But it involves an adhesive, a sloppy lefthand interupted thread! (Enough clues?)
Wayne.....
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yep, sounds like a similar method that I used, was hoping you had a better way ;)
Hood
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Hello Wayne.
I have been reading this thread with a big smile:-)
I have just bought my self an leadwell GMC 600 with an old CNC Meldas system that is brooken.
I did not understand if you did change the servos to steppers or you did use the mitsubishi AC Servo motors?
How have you done with the spindel motor? Do you use the orginal mitsubishi Servo motor and the Freqrol FR-SF inverter or have you replaced it?
Best Regards
Oscar Larsson