[Brenck]

Hi all,

I have a C05230A lathe and its annoyng me all the time because it shuts off for no reason while I'm using it...

The circuit breaker that all the electric wiring is wired shuts off and I have to keep opening the box to turn it on again.

I notice that it just happens when I have the coolant pump turned on, I taught it might be because the coolant tray was too filled up and the pump might have been getting wet and shorting somewhere but I let it with half of the full capacity and it kept doing that.

Also I realized that the pump maybe was overheating or something but when the breaker goes off I touched the pump and it is barely warm, its probably not even 40º C


Can chips that accidentally go to the coolant reservoir cause some kind of short that make the breaker shuts off?

Does anyone had this kind of problem with a lathe? Have any Ideas on how to fix it?

Thanks

[fizzissist]

They probably used the smallest wire they could get away with, and the cheeziest and cheapest circuit breaker.

If the motor isn't hot, that's what I'd replace first, as well as checking all the electrical connections. ... Or, check all your electrical connections first.

If it isn't the coolant motor itself and the problem continues, another approach could be to interrupt the circuit after the breaker and wire in a low current solenoid which makes the connection between the pump and an external power supply.

What does the factory rep say? Oh, never mind. There isn't one.

[Brenck]

The factory rep barely speaks english or know how to use a computer...

Well there is actually 3 breakers in the box and some black boxes with a square push button that I dunno what it is I think its what they call contactor, but still I have no idea what it is used for, they are siemens branded.

Still when it shutsdown its the pump one that shuts down, but my lathe stops wherever it is and the light goes off as well. I don't know why that happens because the motor breaker doesn't go off, its wired in a way that if any breaker goes off it shuts down everything and I checked with just one of the other breakers off and it doesnt turn on as well.

I don't think it might be the breakers quality fault considering the other ones are fine, it could be under dimensioned of course

I checked the breaker and its written 4000A on it!!!! I dunno if I checked right but its the only number with a A in front of it, probably its not 4000A

I will force to get it to shutdown and check if the wires are hot

Can the pump short if it pumps a sneaky chip of metal? Or they can handle chips on the coolant with no problem? I believe some real tiny ones can get it to the reservoir

[Al_The_Man]

The coolant pump should not shut off the main breaker in the panel, there should be some other type of protection between the pump and main breaker that should trip or in the case of a fuse, blow first.
If it came as a package, is there any machine wiring details in the manual?
I know from experience the Chinese method of wiring schematic and notation leaves alot to be desired, but usually they include something and if you have anything at all, it should show how it can be checked or corrected.
Al.

[underthetire]

Seen it. Excells were famous for that kind of crap panels as well. One circuit breaker that seems to run half the machine, transformers with no fused outputs, etc..

Every motor should be on it's own properly rated breaker, as well as transformers.

[Delw]

before you do anything buy or borrow an amp meter, check the amps on the pump and then on the motors.
then check the main line coming into the machine. it should add up to the motor and the pump.

then after you dont that tighten every single wire screw and connection in that machine.( a loose wire is more than likely your problem)

what happens if you run motor out of gear?
what happens if the motor is at low speed vs high speed?
does the pmp still shut off?
does the pump shut off when you start the motor or when when its running?
also is it 3 phase? do you have a 3 phase converter.
are you sure the connections to the pump are correct? should be a single phase pump but from china you never know.

Delw

[rocketflier]

Pictures and motor/pump information would help tremendously.

Depending on the rating on the pump, I'd disconnect it's wiring from the machine and rig it to run on it's own. If the machine stays running that way {maybe 2x the time you'd have to reset the breaker now}, I'd start looking to identify components on that circuit. If any can be swapped with another, I'd do that to see if any cause similar issues.

But, I'd only do that during down time once I had the machine running with the isolated pump.

And that's all after wiggling the wiring and tightening connections as suggested above.

[Brenck]

Here are pictures from the circuit box and the pump.

I opened that white cover from the pump to check if there was any exposed wire that might be shorting to something but nothing looked wrong.

There is no main breaker, there are 3 breakers like you can see and the pump one is the ''QM2'' but when this or any of the other breaker is turned off the entire machine doesn't turn on for some reason.

Withou using the pump I can run the lathe for hours without any problem, I never had the breaker to shut down using it this way.

But when I use it with the coolant pump it shuts down after a while, its either something related to the pump or with the coolant making things wet. If I turn on the pump I might be able to work for like 20 min and then it starts to shut off, and when it starts to do that It will shut off from like 5 to 5 minutes.

When the breaker shuts down I can turn it on right away and it will work imedeatly after it and in 5 to 10 min it will shut down again. Its not always like that sometimes it will hold it more sometimes it will hold it less, and it doesn't matter how deep I take the cut or how I force the spindle, it turns with finishing cuts and deep cuts it doesn't matter and even when the spindle was turned off and the pump on

I think that transformer if for the halogen lamp, since its 32volts output or something like that...

There is a little black square box in the pump that is a capacitor...

[Jfrahm]

If the pump is three phase check that the voltage is the same on all three legs. If not it will do wierd things with the breakers.If you loose one leg the other act like there shorted to each other.

[rocketflier]

Not much time to look at this, but doubt the coolant landing on something would allow you to reset a breaker and restart the machine.

You can isolate that issue by running the coolant into a hose near the drain and not allowing it to get on anything else.

If the pump is three phase check that the voltage is the same on all three legs. If not it will do wierd things with the breakers.If you loose one leg the other act like there shorted to each other.

Unless my Chinese is rusty, "SINGLE PHASE PUMP" doesn't mean 3 phase,..

But to be fair, I can't make out everything on the tag... I do see a '3' stamped on the second row.

[Brenck]

Oh by the way the lathe and the pump are single phase 127volts

[Delw]

Oh by the way the lathe and the pump are single phase 127volts

OH that might make a difference.
are you running 60hz or 50hz?
your pump motor maybe at a different hz. and drawing too many amps?

[fizzissist]

You might also want to physically check what other circuits run off the same breaker.... That breaker could already be running at near capacity, and the coolant pump just pushes it over the top.

You might also want to check that some reject from Orange County Choppers didn't wire it. Like the bike they built for Jay Leno...the headlight and ignition were wired in series, so when the headlight burnt out on the freeway one day, it left Jay stranded. (On the plus side,,,, Jay did comment privately one thing he did like about the bike.... the wheels.)

I had a similar problem with a Hardinge ASM-5C chucker decades ago. It would send a spurious signal to open the collet as it was indexing the turret.... Causing the bar stock to come flying out into the turret as it was indexing, breaking lots of stuff.

After tearing down and repairing the turret for the 6th time, I finally just wired a bypass solenoid into the circuit so it couldn't.
(Hardinge's official recommendation? Sell it and buy a new one.)

On the plus side,, at least they spoke english at Hardinge, and were available.

[Al_The_Man]

You might also want to physically check what other circuits run off the same breaker.... That breaker could already be running at near capacity, and the coolant pump just pushes it over the top.

.

+1 on that.

If the centre 1ph breaker turns the pump & machine off it pretty much confirms the pump does not have its own breaker.
What is the current (FLA) of the motor and the breaker size?
Al.

[Al_The_Man]

It is possible you have an intermittent ground on the pump?
Also, it is unusual to switch the neutral on 1phase breakers.
Al.