Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / help required on stepper motor drives, controller, BOB etc. Mill conversion

« on: August 14, 2016, 04:17:48 PM »

Hi all,
Quick question(s)
I'm gonna convert a smallish vertical mill I have (AEW Viceroy Horizon) to Mach 3 control. I am NOT an electrician, so help would be gratefully received  ! first off, I have converted an Orac to Mach 3 which I am very pleased with, now I want to convert the manual mill to Mach3.
I have the ball screws 32mm diameter, these need machining to suit and I have some steppers to control the axis, the steppers are MAE HY200-4266-34 A8, 200 steps/rev, 4 steps, 3.4a/phase. I believe these are still available, there is a catalogue listing these online,  I have drives, but cant find anything on them except Harting 09 04 032/692/1 which I think are just the multi pin connectors for the drives.
So, if I cant understand the drives, what drives shall I use? the motors are hybrid steppers with 8 wires and can be wired uni-polar, bi-polar parallel or bi-polar series.
The Orac has 2 printer ports to the PC, shall I use the same set up, or would anyone recommend an alternative?
thank you for taking the time to read my post, any help of course would be gratefully received!
Best Regards,
Wayne

2

General Mach Discussion / M99

« on: June 11, 2016, 02:12:38 PM »

Hi,
M99 (return from sub routine) does not work on my machine anymore, any ideas?
am I gonna have to do a reinstall? if so, which xml file do I save and where do I put it? !!!!
best regards,
Wayne
P.S. the version is R3.043.066 and its licenced
Neither does M1 or M30  work

3

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 lathe tool offset

« on: May 28, 2016, 08:13:26 PM »

Spot on Hood (as usual!)
its all to do with the demise of my hard drive, got new one installed so having to redo everything, including a new machined from solid saddle and cross slide to replace the woefully inadequate Orac one, along with a bigger x axis ball screw. I shall post some photos, now I have full overlapping support even at X max.
P.S. whats this XML file thingy when its at home and what does it do and where do you put it if you have a hard drive failure?
Kind regards to all

4

General Mach Discussion / Mach 3 lathe tool offset

« on: May 28, 2016, 02:27:55 PM »

Hi all, and a happy bank holiday to us in the UK.
quick question, my installation on my lathe does not display the tool number in the screen, I can call up the offset in MDI and it becomes active as the change in distance as the offset is loaded is visible in the axis DRO but it doesn't show the tool number. also during a program run, the tool offset isn't called up, neither is the tool number, ive no idea whats going on, has anyone else experienced this issue and how can I rectify it? BTW, it used to work.
ah well, back to a FANUC equipped Doosan with a Y axis and 2 spindles.........and way too much complexity ..

5

General Mach Discussion / Mach 3 utter bollox

« on: October 18, 2015, 10:23:47 AM »

a couple of questions.
1, why cant I use MDI after running a program? I have to shut Mach 3 down and restart it.
2, why when I use single block on a program (1st run, checking moves are correct) the poxy system doubles up a value and shoots of in whatever direction of the addition
3, there must be better alternatives out there, anyone got a recommendation? ive had enough of this product!

6

General Mach Discussion / A axis DRO on standard Lathe screen

« on: September 20, 2015, 12:14:01 PM »

Hi,
is it possible to display a DRO for an A axis on the standard Lathe screen set? I want to do this while I try to get a tool turret working on my Denford Orac, using a stepper motor. Any other help etc gratefully received too!

7

General Mach Discussion / Benchman VMC 4000

« on: July 12, 2013, 12:56:45 PM »

Hi to all on this extremely hot summers day here in South Wales. anyroad up, Ive just bought a Benchman VMC 4000 with a 4 position tool changer for £200 and althought it came with shed loads of bits (cutters, toolholders e.t.c.) there is only a programing manual and to get it out of the factory where it was being used to mill and drill plastic components, they stripped out the z axis encoder and tool change air cylinder so what I am looking for is a parts/maintenance manual. does anyone have one they could scan or sell to me? BTW it looks a well made little machine with DC servos and it is windows pc driven. I am not sure if the company that made these is still in existence, does anyone know? I may convert to Mach 3 or by the time I get around to fixing it, Mach 4!
Stay safe every one & have a great weekend.
Wayne

8

General Mach Discussion / Re: Now the Orac is 90% done, mill next!

« on: December 13, 2012, 06:47:50 PM »

Cool, another ORAC'er!   Mine's about 95% I suppose but the last 5% is a pain.  Here's some pics of what I did to mine. http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,22258.0.html

I've added homing switches and some other stuff since that thread; I guess I should update it soon.

Show us some pics of your project...I luv pics!!

Hi Dickeybird, I have been following your thread, you are doing a top job there my friend! I shall post some pics asap, been working on my friend Neils Denford Easiturn lathe, bloody PWM for spindle speed, pulling MY hair out now! we got the spindle to rotate M03 and M04 & M05 but can we get the thing to alter speed? can we damn! I can change speed only by Config, ports & pins and manually changing PWM base Freq. any ideas anyone?
Knackered now, off to bed!
Croz

9

General Mach Discussion / Now the Orac is 90% done, mill next!

« on: December 13, 2012, 12:44:15 PM »

Hi everyone,
Like the title says the Orac is 90% done, just waiting a response from Homann designs on what spindle speed control board to use. Next up is the conversion of an AEW Viceroy vertical mill to Mach 3. The mill can be seen on Tony Griffiths website, www.lathes.co.uk, mine is the plain vertical with no quill feed, Z axis feed is by elevating the knee. I am, starting to "acquire" componentry as in ball screws and next, steppers. I cant afford or find servos and I guess fitting those would be above my meagre budget and skills!! I used Nema 34 motors on the Orac but I am wondering if I should use bigger motors such as Nema 42 motors and while I will fit ball screws to X & Y what about Z? would a ball screw be okay to use as it would be elevating the knee? or should I stick with the current ACME lead screw? also I am gonna try & figure a way to retain manual table elevation as well as CNC so shall have to devise a toothed belt driven coupling to the screw direct instead of the bevel gear drive that the hand wheel uses. Has anyone else done a retro fit such as this, will I be able to use all of Mach 3s functionality while relying on table elevation as my Z axis? I feel a bit more confident in another conversion as I feel that the Orac went quite well, with big thanks to Hood for his help! Any ways, see what you think as I am open to all ideas!
On another note, an ex-colleague of mine bought new in 2007 a CNC masters Supramill, this has been the biggest pain in the backside ever, its just about useless, very unstable and prone to just doing its own thing like taking a bite out of a hardened milling vice or fresh air for no apparent reason, very, very dangerous to man and machine. anyone converted one to run Mach?
That's all for now!
Croz

10

General Mach Discussion / Re: Cycle start switch on Mach turn

« on: December 12, 2012, 05:45:55 PM »

Thanks Hood, truly you are a star!