How Would You Upgrade An Old Ox CNC Build Into A Serious Machine?

[AndyUK]

Got one better than that look at this.? . . . Din rail for rail.!! . . . . . A lesson in how to waste $900 . . .This should be made a Sticky on how NOT to do it.!

But in a grainy thumbnail from 10ft away it almost looks like the real thing so surely its awesome right? /s

[JAZZCNC]

What you basically must NOT do is put any form of switch between the VFD and the three motor cables going to the spindle or unplug the spindle with the VFD running.

If you do you might hear a big bang.

Double up on that several times over!! NOTHING should come between the VFD and the spindle. Only ever use the spindle ON/OFF control wiring to stop the spindle if you ever want it to start again. I wouldn't even cut the mains input to the VFD with the spindle running, though that might be my clinical anxiety kicking in

Kit

While this excellent and sound advice, It isn't exactly correct.? . . . It's true that you shouldn't control the spindle ON/OFF with a Contactor between VFD and Spindle or use anything that will interrupt the connection while running, however, you can safely have a contactor between them provide it is not switched while the VFD is running.
I've done this before to control multiple spindles with single VFD but there must be safety involved and interlocks checking the spindle as stopped spinning and the RUN command isn't active before allowing it to happen.

This said the advice above is good.

[NeoMorph]

What you basically must NOT do is put any form of switch between the VFD and the three motor cables going to the spindle or unplug the spindle with the VFD running.

If you do you might hear a big bang.

Wouldn’t that turn the spindle into a generator with nowhere to send the juice? Plus does the power run a cooling fan?

One thing I didn’t specify in my order was a breaking resisistor. Do I need one?

[JAZZCNC]

Plus does the power run a cooling fan?

One thing I didn’t specify in my order was a breaking resisistor. Do I need one?

The only fan is inside the VFD to cool the electronics, the spindle doesn't have any fans. Some Vfd's the fan only comes on when VFD is running whatever is connected, some come on at power-up and stay on. The huanyang VFD is on all the time. (That said some Huanyang models do have load driven fans but can't remember the model #)

Only need a braking resistor if you want to use DC braking to stop heavier loads. For the most part, provided you don't have the Spindle de-acceleration time too short and not using heavy or wide tooling then won't need a resistor.

[NeoMorph]

The only fan is inside the VFD to cool the electronics, the spindle doesn't have any fans. Some Vfd's the fan only comes on when VFD is running whatever is connected, some come on at power-up and stay on. The huanyang VFD is on all the time. (That said some Huanyang models do have load driven fans but can't remember the model #)

Only need a braking resistor if you want to use DC braking to stop heavier loads. For the most part, provided you don't have the Spindle de-acceleration time too short and not using heavy or wide tooling then won't need a resistor.

Thx for the info.

[Boyan Silyavski]

Got one better than that look at this.? . . . Din rail for rail.!! . . . . . A lesson in how to waste $900 . . .This should be made a Sticky on how NOT to do it.!

Keep Calm And Add MORE Clamps! , check the funny guy t shirt . There is the answer

[NeoMorph]

Keep Calm And Add MORE Clamps! , check the funny guy t shirt . There is the answer

I’ve got a feeling that he may play Kerbal Space Program. LOL

Back to my “upgrade” I’m abandoning the attemp as upgrading it would need me to replace too much. A friend has said he will help me with the heavy stuff if he can have a go at making stuff with it (which I think is a fair trade).

So it’s actually time to start planning a machine from scratch. Spent today looking through water pump requirements as the advice is all over the shop... “use a pond pump it’s the cheapest”... “Don’t use a pond pump ffs”... use a 12v water cooling pump and use a pc dual radiator”... “don’t use small pumps as they don’t pump enough to get it all through the narrow pipe”...”don’t use PVC pipe, use expensive anti microbial silicon pipe”... and on, and on, and on. Made my head spin.

So once I get my spindle I think I’ll set up a system to test actual flow rate and temp. ... and oh sh1t... we just left the EU. *cry*

[JAZZCNC]

So it’s actually time to start planning a machine from scratch. Spent today looking through water pump requirements as the advice is all over the shop... “use a pond pump it’s the cheapest”... “Don’t use a pond pump ffs”... use a 12v water cooling pump and use a pc dual radiator”... “don’t use small pumps as they don’t pump enough to get it all through the narrow pipe”...”don’t use PVC pipe, use expensive anti microbial silicon pipe”... and on, and on, and on. Made my head spin.

So once I get my spindle I think I’ll set up a system to test actual flow rate and temp. ... and oh sh1t... we just left the EU. *cry*

I've probably fitted in excess of 100 of these spindles and everyone used a 24Vdc fish pond or solar panel type pump in sealed 20ltr container that as a head height of around 8mtr with high duty cycle for continuous running. The flow rate doesn't need to be high because the cooling requirements are low.
To be honest these spindles will happily run for 20-30mins without water and not do any damage. My own machine is a basket case of wires n pipes hanging off it from testing and I'm actually just running water straight from the tap through it and out again into the drain because I destroyed the pump while testing a radiator setup.
Most of the jobs I do on this machine are only short jobs 30-40 mins so I hardly ever turn the water on. Only if the job is over an hour-long do I turn it on. It's been this way for the last 3-4yrs without any issues and I nearly exclusively cut aluminum on it. I've also cut a few jobs where I've forgot to turn the water on and only noticed after 2hrs and while the spindle was relatively hot, the spindle didn't complain. They are tuff little things and will stand a lot of abuse regards cooling. My spindle must be 6yrs old now and nobody could abuse it more than I have and do on a weekly basis.

[DigitalBeach]

I don't mean to be out of context, but can you help with an Ethernet Mach3 6090? I am close to having the spindle turn.
Thanks,

Paul

[Kitwn]

I’ve got a feeling that he may play Kerbal Space Program. LOL

Back to my “upgrade” I’m abandoning the attemp as upgrading it would need me to replace too much. A friend has said he will help me with the heavy stuff if he can have a go at making stuff with it (which I think is a fair trade).

So it’s actually time to start planning a machine from scratch. Spent today looking through water pump requirements as the advice is all over the shop... “use a pond pump it’s the cheapest”... “Don’t use a pond pump ffs”... use a 12v water cooling pump and use a pc dual radiator”... “don’t use small pumps as they don’t pump enough to get it all through the narrow pipe”...”don’t use PVC pipe, use expensive anti microbial silicon pipe”... and on, and on, and on. Made my head spin.

So once I get my spindle I think I’ll set up a system to test actual flow rate and temp. ... and oh sh1t... we just left the EU. *cry*

I went round this loop a few months back, there's a thread on here about it http://www.mycncuk.com/threads/12791...cooled-spindle

The key things I learned are:

Distilled water doesn't go green even after several months in a shed which regularly reaches temperatures approaching 50C.

The diameter of the long runs of PVC pipe makes a huge difference to the flow rate and is more impotant than the size of the pump itself. I used thicker (8mm I think) pipes with short stubs of thinner stuff to connect into the spindle and got double the flow rate.

The head of water also has a big effect on flow rate for these small pumps so you cannot put the water tub on the floor under the machine.

I have no radiator, just a plastic tub full of about 15 litres of distilled water. I don't do and partcularly heavy cutting and there is no signifficant rise in water temperature.

I don't waste time with a pump stop/start control. I use a mains powered submersible aquarium pump which is fed from the same switched mains supply as the VFD. If the VFD is on the pump is runnng which might just improve cooling between jobs.

And one last one to watch out for: If the return pipe falls out of the tub onto the floor all the water can be siphoned out of the tub through the pump even if it's not running!

KISS!

Kit