Messages

11

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 and Galill DMC 4133 on lathe

« on: January 12, 2019, 12:34:30 AM »

Pretty nice looking lathe. 
Hopefully you will be able to use the existing motors and drives. 
The first PLC I used, we programmed a Tool Change Routine for a Hurco VMC; so it won't be too bad. 
Luckily, on your lathe, you have a nice control panel that already has the handwheels and buttons on it, we had to make ours.

Chad,
          what Plc's are you using with the integra and how did you figure out / learn how to program them

thank you
archie

12

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 and Galill DMC 4133 on lathe

« on: January 11, 2019, 09:32:00 AM »

Well I had to make one of the "hand wheels" what holds the encoders  it had only one.   I will round  up a couple of photos and post them   Manual lathes and a drill press. 

archie

13

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 and Galill DMC 4133 on lathe

« on: January 11, 2019, 08:45:48 AM »

One lathe has Servos and Drives from Automation Direct, one lathe has GSK Servos and Drives, and another is just running steppers.  All with the HiCON Integra.
We have an SL3 that me and my brother want to get the closed loop feature added on to just to see what kind of difference it makes, but we have really had great success with all 3 lathes without the closed loop feature.

Most of our I/O is being controlled through a PLC.  Much more stable signal and if I have any random ideas for the machine, I can run them through the PLC and not have to worry about Mach taking care of trivial things, like the lube pump or chip conveyor.

chad,
      i am going to pull some covers today and verify the loop was closed at the control  all servo systems have feedback it just depends on where the following error is monitored  at the drive or closer to the computer I would think that the harder you drive a machine the more you might see a difference in behavior. I am going to attempt to use the drives and servos  that are on the machine they are new.  the machine has  or had a PLC in it somewhere. All of this is going to be a steep learning curve for me.   mach 4, servo systems,  PLC  ect. screen writing maybe 

14

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 and Galill DMC 4133 on lathe

« on: January 10, 2019, 11:10:45 PM »

steve   $#(#$)()    No threading that is a deal breaker for me any idea when it might be implemented.      i think the drives have analog inputs 

Well...  I pretty much need a lathe that has a Galil on it to implement and test the threading.  I had started the conversion of my manual lathe years ago just for this purpose.  But it is not finished and probably won't be for a while because I really just don't have the time to get it done! 

Kenny Crouch, the other programmer on the Galil plugin, has moved to St. Thomas Island in the Caribbean and could not bring his lathe with him.  So...  we just really don't have any machine to test with at the moment.

Steve

Steve,    how much of a process is it to get the plug in to work do you just need a guinea pig 

archoe

15

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 and Galill DMC 4133 on lathe

« on: January 10, 2019, 11:07:14 PM »

We have 3 lathes running Mach4; 2 of which are flat bed lathes.  I chose the HiCON Integra from Vital Systems as my motion controller.  I'm using that on several machines in the shop with excellent results.

One of the lathes we have is an old LeBlond that was a manual lathe, we stripped the old drive stuff off of it and added ball screws to the X and Z axis.  I added handwheels on the carriage because it is over 60" long.  All works very well. 

I don't have a tool changer on this lathe, but I have one on another lathe that is working great with Mach4 and the HiCON Integra.

Long story but I have 2 lathes and a mill  the two lathes have the fagor controls on them. they have Fagor servo amplifiers loop is closed at the control not at the servo amplifiers. after looking at the Hicon documentatuon there are extra units and software options that have to be paid for anyway what are you driving with the hicon boards.
archie 

16

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 and Galill DMC 4133 on lathe

« on: January 10, 2019, 08:31:00 PM »

Chad 235 miles away maybe I can arrange a field trip....
archie

17

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 and Galill DMC 4133 on lathe

« on: January 10, 2019, 08:28:29 PM »

steve   $#(#$)()    No threading that is a deal breaker for me any idea when it might be implemented.      i think the drives have analog inputs 


Thank You
archie

18

Mach4 General Discussion / Mach4 and Galill DMC 4133 on lathe

« on: January 10, 2019, 08:00:30 AM »

  I have a cnc lathe with a Fagor control the computer and access boards were damaged somehow  (prior to my purchase) the lathe as far as i can tell has not ran in quite some time. it would boot but not run.   After sending the (box) back to Fagor it was determined that repair or replacement / upgrade would be out of my price range.  On the order of 13,000  USD.   My plan is to integrate it with Mach4 and a Galill DMC 4133  motion controller.   This is a full on flat bed cnc lathe built about 15 years ago. It has 3 servo drives  (X Z and spindle) with loop closed at the computer. it also has  2 hand-wheels .  My goat is to get the machine back up and running with the hand-wheels and  existing buttons integrated with mach4. This is the direction  i am planning to take. The lathe has been taking up space in my shop for 3 years so it is time to get on with it. 

I know there are  many pieces to this puzzle and i am reaching out to the old hands for guidance.    I would guess the first question would be has anyone else done this  like i know Hood did a Hardinge 16C chucker with tool changer some years ago with mach3.

any comments- help would be greatly appreciated.

Happy Hunting
archie

19

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: new control panel

« on: March 21, 2018, 09:49:35 AM »

I feel ashamed that this is not running but here it is

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,6078.0.html

nice looking machine do you have a build thread somewhere

happy hunting
archie

20

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: new control panel

« on: March 20, 2018, 10:46:31 PM »

That is an awsum control panel. what machine is that on

Thank You
archie