Messages

1

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: YAM-550 lathe retrofit

« on: January 22, 2018, 01:58:48 PM »

I have been in love with the Automation Direct PLC's for some time. The newer Productivity series is what I have been using in 90% of my work related projects and I have been super happy with them in every way. DL05 & DL06 still have a place, but these things are fantastic at everything I have used them on. When I get done with my next round of upgrades I will have 23 of my 26 at PLC's at work converted to AD. No thoughts of going back.

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Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: YAM-550 lathe retrofit

« on: January 10, 2018, 01:29:26 PM »

I have liked this lathe from day 1. Not sure if I ever mentioned it in a post in the past, but I found this lathe listed in an online auction. When I saw the pictures I decided to make the drive to see it in person before bidding on it. After inspection I had found it to be in hardly used great condition. Slightly rusty and covered in years of dust, but no wear. It did not run, but I intended to do the conversion so it didn't matter. I bought it in Detroit in 2008 when the auto industries were suffering and all the shops that did work for them were going under. Paid a whopping $301.00 for it plus the $50.00 to get it loaded on my trailer. With what I paid for it and have invested in it over the years it may as well be making silver dollars when it runs. I have had better looking equipment over the years, but seldom has a machine had such a good return on investment. 

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Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: YAM-550 lathe retrofit

« on: January 10, 2018, 10:43:48 AM »

Had a problem with the attachments

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Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: YAM-550 lathe retrofit

« on: January 10, 2018, 10:41:56 AM »

Yet more views.

The top plate is cast iron and has T slots in the bottom of it. It is laid over the bed and shimmed up (one piece front and back). T nuts are placed in the slots with studs, the plate is put in place over the studs. They have placed some kind of shims between the plate and the bottom side and face of the lathe ways that looks to be hardened steel. Then the plates are tightened with nuts and SHCS to hold the plates to the bottom side of the top plate.

The plates have holes drilled and tapped into them and they used set screws in these holes to tighten the hole works to the machine as well as the ones in the spacer plate for tramming the attachment to the lathe center line. 2 holes in the front plate and 2 in the bottom plate have 3/8" dowel pins in them both front and back side of the machine. I would assume that these are drilled into the lathe after everything is in place and verified good to go, then pinned to insure everything stays in place. With the pins I can see in mind I assume that the all of the parts that are bolted together are pinned some place even though I don't see the pins. Looks as if it was pretty well thought out out.

I will say that it has proven to be a very ridged combination between the Analam attachment and the YAM lathe. With the new drives and motors I am as happy as ever with this lathe. I do still need to finish a lot of the clean up details and get a new touch screen for it, but it is already more machine than it was before. The swing arm monitor has proven to be a really user friendly way to go. I did it on the Mill conversion and used the same idea on the YAM with the idea of it being off to my right side along with the MPG for setup and over the machine for running parts. It's also nice and out of the way like that.

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Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: YAM-550 lathe retrofit

« on: January 10, 2018, 10:15:31 AM »

More views of it

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Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: YAM-550 lathe retrofit

« on: January 10, 2018, 10:14:34 AM »

I hope this helps with what the components are and what they do. Power flows in the cabinet like this....

220 VAC in to Manual Disconnect. (Top left hand corner), (latter I will install the through the door handle.)
From disconnect to Main line fuses (Just to the Right of the disconnect)
From Main line fuses to top side of contractor (Just to the right of the main line fuses). One leg (110 VAC) is tapped and sent to a switch. When the switch is turned on the 110 VAC is applied to the contractors coil pulling it in.
When the contractor is pulled in power is applied to the 2 FVD drive inputs as well as the small fuse holders that power the 2 Hybrid Stepper drives, 5 VDC power supply, and power to the relays on the Quad Relay board and the system is ready for work.

I finally remembered to take pictures of the way Anilam attached the thing to the machine. 

7

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: YAM-550 lathe retrofit

« on: January 01, 2018, 09:57:25 AM »

2 more

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Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: YAM-550 lathe retrofit

« on: January 01, 2018, 09:56:45 AM »

Lets try this again

9

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: YAM-550 lathe retrofit

« on: January 01, 2018, 09:53:04 AM »

Some pictures of the current condition of the Yam. It was running on 12/13/17 with the DC setup and back up and running with the hybrid drives and motors an 12/24/17 and made parts. I still need to do some cleanup work in the electrical enclosure. The swing arm that the monitor is mounted an is a mach up to insure I like the geometry before making up the final arm. It will be 3.5" ID tubing and all of the wiring will run through it to the drive enclosure. The PC then mounts to the back side of the arm behind the touch screen monitor monitor. Another part of the delay in getting finished up is waiting on the new touch screen monitor as the old one bit the dust just a few weeks before I started the Rev 2 rebuild.

Another big advantage of the Rev 2 build is that the lathe is now fully 220 VAC single phase. The Hybrid drives are 120 VAC single phase and the spindle and oil cooler unit were taken from contractor control to VFD control. The ABB VFD drives are 220 VAC single phase in and give you 220 VAC 3 phase power output. Along with that you get the ability for constant surface feet per minute speed control instead of being locked into one RPM.

I will take pictures of the mounting arrangement on the back side and get them posted as well.

10

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: YAM-550 lathe retrofit

« on: January 01, 2018, 08:52:40 AM »

Sorry for the delay. I did get it running. I used the SEM DC servos and Dugong DC servo drives as planned the first go around. It ran well and had good power and I was pretty happy with it. However as it sat it was not really finished. The wiring needed to be cleaned up and the electrical enclosure mounting location was not something I liked very well. So I decided to take on the project of redoing it all to get it to be what I knew it should be.

After I got the Yam going I took on a NASA III mill retrofit and I was super happy with all aspects of the build. I used that as my inspiration for what the Yam should be when it was finished this time. That also lead me to changing the DC servos and drives out. On the mill I used the hybrid stepper motor and drive combination from Automation Technologies and have been nothing but happy with them in every way so I decided I wanted to use the same in the Yam. This will give me a drive and motor on hand that I could rob in the event that I ever had a failure and needed to run.

I'll get some pictures of the Rev 2 build up.