Boxford 165 HMC

[chris w]

Hello men, I have been busy altering the spindle and the y axis casting!!!!
i know the machine isn't original but it will be fit for purpose for me it's a 18,000 rpm teknomotor with an er 25 collet, running on a vfd, I want to be able to take advantage of speeds and feeds for brass parts and leaving the machine electrics "stuck" in the 1990s without proper diagrams for trouble shooting is a problem for me.
jazz thanks for the pm I am thankful for the offer of help,
i am stripping the system out and starting again, fitting limit/ homing switches touch probe for tool length setting,
uli what is the prox switch for on the a axis?? The switch is present but nothing connected to it on the other side of the terminal block,

i have lost about 25mm in z axis but it's ok to work in centre of table with a chuck and I will make an off centre tombstone for any bigger jobs.
here is a pic from the new motor fitted,

I will put the odd picture on of the alteration, some proper "you've done it now" and "oh shit no going back now" moments, and until it's up and running there will always be an element of "have I done the right thing"
but it's done now and I am suited with the result so far,

I did this part on a vertical at work at night,

[chris w]

I am ready to strip out old bits can anyone tell me if I should wire the new vfd through the choke that the existing spindle is wired through or is that just to smooth out the feed for the DC motor?
chris.

[JAZZCNC]

I think that's a DC choke which works slightly different to AC Line Filter. Does a similair Job but I don't think it's filters out everything like AC filter does.

Personaly I wouldn't use it. If the Inverter gives you any noise troubles then just buy AC line filter. Thou if your grounding in control box is ok you shouldn't have any troubles from the Inverter.

[chris w]

Thanks for reply jazz, there is a line filter fitted which is between isolator and psu so I thought I would leave it original upto and including the filter then fit new psu from there, I am also going to leave the estop circuit and the enable contactor, so really the only changes are the stepper drives and vfd, then the addition of home and limit switches oh and the probe and see if I can do something with the switch on the a axis, I think it's a in position switch just to confirm that a axis has finished before z moves but it's not wired to anything on the other side of the terminal block but there is no mechanical difference on the index ring for the switch to be a home switch, if it's not wired then there must be a presumption taking place or a dwell in the original operating system to allow for the a to move before x or z sets off to machine the part.
I will be interested in what uli does in the future to the a axis as I would like it to be a full 4th for flexibility but I bother that I am thinking too far,
but I read about the new member wanting a bigger 3 d machine and that shows people will always find a way to drive forward even if the odds are against, brilliant I love it!
chris.

[uli12us]

As far as I know the DC-Choke sits between the motor controller and the motor.
In contrary the AC Choke or better filter sits between mains and controller.

Because of the A- better B-Axis because its parallel to the Y. I will remove the ratchet and change it to a simple round block. then I'll add a hydraulik brake, so I can clamp the Position, when i machine a part. Eventually I can add an angle measurement system, so I can see on a Display in which orientation the axe is.

But that will last a while, first the machine must run in the actual configuration, before I want chang anything.

In a further future I want to change the X-B slider to another who moves the part in
X-A. Or If I can get a massive block of iron I plan eventually an further complete
X-B-A block, so I can machine 5Axe parts on the machine.
For this I must make a ATC Spindle and the TC maybe with a roboter, eventually with a double decker tool turret. I think 8 tools is a bit little for machining a part within an hour or so. 16 seems much better.

[chris w]

That seems like a lot of work uli what parts are you wanting to make on the machine or is it you like to develop it to have maximum capability for any job that comes along.
i stripped out the older system tonight and was astounded by the amount of wires that came out of the ferrules with no effort, makes me think some of the problems could have been bad or unreliable connections!! Better not tell the wife eh!!
thanks for the help up to now guys I am sure there is some questions coming your way quite soon,
uli/ jazz when I get to the end of this project would you be interested in the old system parts, drives, spindle motor and drive relays........
Chris.

[uli12us]

First I want to make snails for transporting of plastikbottles on the Machine. All other can wait until this job runs good.

At the moment I must first to get Linuxcnc running with the mesa7i76E ethernet BOB or better motion controller.
And change the integrated working but softwareless controller
to the mesa.

After that, I want to make the mechanical parts for the X-A
Bridge. Thats relatively easy, because I "only" need a part
like the X-slider, 2 blocks for adaptation from my
Guidance to the tailstocks with a toothed belt drive
and a ballscrew on the side.

All the other parts are not so important and I can make it whenever I like it.