Messages

1551

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport Knee Mill Conversion?

« on: July 05, 2016, 06:00:13 AM »

Just refreshing my mind with a study of my wiring diagrams etc and the e-stop system looked like it needs verifying

I currently have the e-stop buttons and limit switches in a loop that controls a relay that controls mains power to each of the drives and vcd's, it also supplies a signal to Mach3 via the CSMIO

Is that a good idea?

My main concern is removing power to a drive that is running may or may not be a good idea.

Or is it sufficient to simply remove the Enable signals - this does not protect from a faulty or runaway drive (busted encoder?)

Sanity check really.

1552

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport Knee Mill Conversion?

« on: July 04, 2016, 03:01:28 PM »

Thats what i was looking at last night in the parts book, the vari-speed shaft does not move with back-gear, it's fixed so I am unsure of whats going on there, will need to mess about with it some more. I can't see any way it can be put back together wrong so that it works in high but not low - very odd indeed.

The metal came today for the X axis motor mount - once i get that cut and fitted up i can do a lash-up on the bench and get the motors powered up for a preliminary motion test

1553

General Mach Discussion / Re: Novice to Mach3, may be asking too much??

« on: July 04, 2016, 10:13:56 AM »

Hi

can't answer your MPG q but when ordering you might want to add a breakout block for the MPG module as you don't get one with it and maybe one of the matching 24v distribution blocks as well

1554

General Mach Discussion / Re: Where are tool length offsets referenced from?

« on: July 04, 2016, 12:31:52 AM »

Here you go....

https://youtu.be/_8apTgMTvjI

1555

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport Knee Mill Conversion?

« on: July 03, 2016, 12:55:10 PM »

I hooked the rebuilt head up to my VFD today, sounds a hell of a lot better (thanks for the bits Hood) for some unknown reason it runs a bit warm around the top bearing plate though.

Its not quite right though as the vari-speed system seems to do nothing in the higher end when in back-gear, but is ok in normal gear??

1556

General Mach Discussion / Re: Novice to Mach3, may be asking too much??

« on: July 03, 2016, 03:12:26 AM »

I did a retro-fit on the machine at work, its just a foil printing press which has three foil feeds - I just treated it as XYZ and used a three channel pc card motion controller and wrote the front-end in visual basic, has a touch-screen and works perfectly, however the drive amps were extremely costly at about £500 each due to the motors - this was about 8 years ago. If i had known then what i know now, i would have fitted AC servos i think and a CSMIO as the PC card was about £1000 alone.

1557

General Mach Discussion / Re: CSMIO-IP/A and max velocity setting?

« on: July 03, 2016, 03:07:24 AM »

Interesting, thanks. As you said, the translation is pretty poor, I would need an illustrated  "How to.." guide before going anywhere near those settings i think

1558

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport Knee Mill Conversion?

« on: July 02, 2016, 01:51:00 PM »

Yes, it just seemed better on the Y axis to run 3 switches, on the X axis i do only have the two.

1559

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport Knee Mill Conversion?

« on: July 02, 2016, 10:32:58 AM »

Got X-axis motor plate fully fitted...

Limit switches next, Y-Axis Limits and home switches...
From the left we have Y--, Y-Home, Y++.
The home switch remains tripped once it trips so that i can home even if the switch is triggered, a home-offset value will take care of the switch position.

Then the X-axis, a bit harder this one, first idea...
From the right we have X-home then a dual-direction X-- & X++ switch. The picture is not quite right - imagine the right-hand switch is another roller type like the left one, I have one somewhere, just got to find it

The only down-side I can see is that it blocks the chances of using flood coolant again as the switches are in the way of the left drain hole.

Still thinking on this one.

Lost motion - is zero lost motion possible? never used a ball-screw machine. If i mount an indicator on the table, i can turn the Y-axis motor pulley about 1-1/2mm before the table starts to move. In terms of a Bridgeport thats really tight, the old screws had about half a turn of slop but should it be tighter?

1560

General Mach Discussion / Re: Novice to Mach3, may be asking too much??

« on: July 02, 2016, 05:53:02 AM »

Ah, gear cutting, those were the days

I'm at the stage where i am fitting the motors to the machine - lots of fiddly machining and fitting up.

I already have a servo and drive connected up to the CSMIO on the bench and also got Mach3 running it nicely with my hand pendant MPG etc, I have also sketched up a wiring diagram for the safety circuits etc.

I am also working to fit my 24k spindle on to the mill as an aux spindle so i can do engraving etc, I currently have a mini-mill i built with it on but space is tight and if one machine can do both tasks then its a no-brainer.

I get my PC's from eBay, usually around £15 each for a Dell Optiplex etc, always have at least one on the shelf as a spare.