Boxford TCL 125

[John11668]

Looks like email of manual pdf is not working .
Will try to copy electrical pages to a word doc and see if that is a better size to send. (Be after dinner though)

[inee]

Hi john
i sent the stepper driver datasheet across via email, hopefully it will help.

[John11668]

I suspect that juice is not getting to the drivers cos not a single one of them are working.
I am about to tackle the supplier about his so called "working machine" . They never checked it .
If I can get the price reduced sufficiently to cover the cost of some new kit then i think i will go for building a new board.
I havent yet checked to see where things seem to be breaking down but that is next step.

[Clive S]

Looks like email of manual pdf is not working .
Will try to copy electrical pages to a word doc and see if that is a better size to send. (Be after dinner though)

It worked for me 118 pages. Thanks

[John11668]

Sent a more brief version of the electrical content for what it is worth

[inee]

John
the steppers lock up when lathe is powered, if so then some power is getting to the drives.

The dodgy wires under the top board were probably fitted by Boxford, i had a few on my original boards.
I would pick an axis button and check for continuity right back to the board, then check from the board connector back to the stepper drives.
Also check from the lower board.

[John11668]

Difficult to trace Inee!

It looks like there is a ring of black ground wires around most of the button switches , and each switch then has a signal wire at 10.6 volts dc.
I also presume that the motion is operated when each of those signal wires is grounded by pressing the button. All the wires seem to be supplied by the 34 wire ribbon connector which also connects to both Microprocessor (Bottom) board and to the feed regulator / potentiometer board on the back of the feed rate switch.

Difficult to follow the ribbon connections.

[JAZZCNC]

I wouldn't waste any time on it just gut it.!!
IME These things are like a box of chocolates and no two are ever the same and you don't know what's been messed or what works or doesn't unless you have seen it working.

Fit 2 x new drives run it on Linux CNC with a couple of parallel ports using £5 BOBS and away you go. Linux CNC is far better for lathe's than Mach3 as it allows multi-count encoders for things like spindle speed or MPG's.
Now I'm a long time Mach3 user and some would say fanboy, so for me to say Linux is better is like pulling teeth with pliers but it's a fact. Thou it's got a bit of a learning curve it will be the better option than Mach3 and much cheaper.

[depronman]

Could not agree more with mach3 for lathe
I’ve converted two lathes to cnc. A boxford B using pokeys and mach3 and a ORAC using linuxcnc. Linuxcnc is far better not to mention cost a fraction of the mach3 solution

Paul


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[John11668]

I wouldn't waste any time on it just gut it.!!
IME These things are like a box of chocolates and no two are ever the same and you don't know what's been messed or what works or doesn't unless you have seen it working.

Fit 2 x new drives run it on Linux CNC with a couple of parallel ports using £5 BOBS and away you go. Linux CNC is far better for lathe's than Mach3 as it allows multi-count encoders for things like spindle speed or MPG's.
Now I'm a long time Mach3 user and some would say fanboy, so for me to say Linux is better is like pulling teeth with pliers but it's a fact. Thou it's got a bit of a learning curve it will be the better option than Mach3 and much cheaper.

Hi Jazz and thanks for that. (and to depronman )
I was sort of coming to that conclusion that I might need to start afresh, but from the diagrams it seems the spindle selection is run through the boards so just wanting to be sure that If I pitch the boards, I can arrange alternative signals for spindle forward / reverse , speed up , slow down.

Does Linux CNC run in a windows environment or do I have to install a linux operating system too?
Excuse the ignorance on this . My IT skills are limited .