[N4NV]

I spent the morning at home making a new shaft for the piston in the turret check valve. Since I did not know exactly how long to make it I scaled the drawing in the maintenance manual and made it just a bit longer. Once it was done and installed I worked it back and forth and decided it needed to be a little shorter to work, but since I don't know exactly how it functions, it was just a guess. I also found that it was missing an O-ring. I stopped by the local hardware store and found one that looked like it would work.

I drove to work and installed the check valve and turret. It seemed to work properly, but the turret still would not drop down. After taking it apart several times and listening to the air leaks, I finally realized that there was an O-ring that was missing under the turret. I took one off my spare oil distribution block and installed the turret again.... it still did not work. Once again I took it apart and saw that I had forgot to install an O-ring on the upper piston, on the inside. Again I installed the turret and it finally worked! Since I was missing the screws that attach the tool plate to the turret, I was not able to completely test the indexing, but it looked close. On the way home I found some screws for the tool plate. They are 5/16-24.

With the turret now running, it was time to test the coolant system. I added the 5 gallons of Hangsterfers to the tank. That stuff is a mess. Almost like way oil. Since it was dyed red, it reminded me of 5606 aircraft hydraulic oil. I made of video of test. Kirk was correct, 5 gallons is not quite enough. After about 10 seconds of running the coolant, the pump started to suck some air. I guess I will have to get another 5 gallons.

[ame="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4750879927914238676&hl=en"]CHNC coolant test[/ame]

I posted a picture of the final coolant line from the stand to the manifold.

I have most of the mechanics of the lathe finished, now most of my time will be spent programming and working on the electronics. My PLC programming class was postponed a week so that may slow things down a bit. I received my hall sensors for my custom turret encoder so I will be working on that as well. If I can find a cover for the X-axis, that would save me some time making a custom one.

Vince

[BobWarfield]

A thought:

Unless you're going to run production on these lathes, 5 gallons is probably plenty of coolant. Find something you can introduce into the tanks that will displace some of the oil and raise the level. I don't know what the available openings are, but anything large enough to displace the oil that will not float in the oil works and that is much cheaper than buying more oil works.

Cheers,

BW

[N4NV]

Bob, that's a great suggestion. It never even crossed my mind. The cover to the tank is about 8"x16", plenty big for something. I could probably come up with some scraps of metal.

Vince

[N4NV]

I have been trying to get on to CNCzone for two days. I was able to log on from work, but not from home. My pictures were at home.

The screws I picked up Saturday for the turret tool plate worked. The turret seems to consistently hit the mark and drop in place. I will be able to do some fine tuning once I get the Cubloc to control the turret position. I forgot to bring my camera to work. Maybe tomorrow I can make another short video, which I did. I uploaded it to google video, but after 2 hours it is still not ready, so I put a copy on my website:

http://www.flyingcritters.com/video/turret1.wmv

The turret looks slow to descend after it stops, but that is because I am controlling it manually with two switches. You can hear them on the audio. It should stop and descend faster when I get it under automatic control.

Now I am going to start on my custom turret encoder. I soldered some wires to one of the sensors so I can wire it up to my Cubloc board and test it. I want to make sure it is going to work before I go through all the work of machining a piece of plastic and installing and wiring all 8 sensors. I tested my sensor today but I could not get it to work. I think I got it too hot when I put the shrink tube on it. I will make up another one tonight and try again tomorrow.

I played around with my Cubloc board today and was able to read and write to it from Mach using the ModIO test screen. Now I have to figure out how to communicate through Mach brains.

Vince

[N4NV]

I have been trying to get my hall sensors to work before I put them together in an encoder. Today I think I smoked another one. It was starting to get on my nerves. Then, I looked over the literature (see the picture in the previous post ). The switched two of the lead number in the column labeled UA pin no. The three and two pins are switched. I have been applying ground to the out pin. Now that I have caught my mistake, I will make up another sensor and try again tomorrow.

Vince

[N4NV]

I made some good progress this morning. Now that I have the pins correct on my sensor, I hooked it up to the Cubloc and it worked! The Cubloc board requires a 10K resistor across the Vcc and output pins. Now I can start to design, machine and wire the turret encoder. I will do all of that from home. I still have a lot more to do at work while I finish the encoder.

The first thing I am going to tackle is cleaning up the wiring. I just landed the wires without dressing them properly while doing the testing. I purchased some Panduit duct to contain the wires and make it look a lot neater. I probably should number all the wires at the same time for future trouble shooting.

My PLC programming class was postponed for one week. I now start next Monday. Even if I finish the turret encoder, I still will have to write the program. I know how to write the ladder diagram to control the turret position, what I need to learn is how to receive the tool position from mach via modbus and then input that data into the ladder diagram.

Vince

[Karl_T]

I just seen your thread for the first time.

I rebuilt a CHNC to a Camsoft control. My big issue was also the turret. Your video shows it spinning way too fast. The manuals clearly states you should set it to two seconds per revolution. Too fast, and you can't get the stop pin to engage.

I had A LOT of trouble in production maintaining this rotation speed. So I added a third solenoid - on the exhaust. Then the turret starts going fast, slows one position from stop and lets the stop pin engage properly.

I've shared my logic with several others. You're welcome to it.

Karl

[N4NV]

I just seen your thread for the first time.

I rebuilt a CHNC to a Camsoft control. My big issue was also the turret. Your video shows it spinning way too fast. The manuals clearly states you should set it to two seconds per revolution. Too fast, and you can't get the stop pin to engage.

Karl

My philosophy is: get it to run as fast as possible, and accurately as possible, then turn it down for the real world. The stop pin engages properly every time now at this speed. The air motor has an adjustment so I can slow it down in the future. When testing my Hall Effect switch, I noticed that there is a limit to how fast the magnet can pass over the sensor and still get the sensor to trip. I think that magnet speed will be my limiting factor on turret speed.

I have a mill that I rebuilt. With the Allen Bradley control it had a top speed of 100 IPM. With Mach, it now can go 450 IPM and when I add the smooth stepper board it should hit 600 IPM. When I am actually using it to cut metal, I limit the rapids to 250 IPM. Faster than that, things happen quicker than I can react. If I were to design it to run at a max speed of 250 IPM from the start, then it would be running 100%, this way it is just loping along at 250 IPM. With this philosophy, if I can get the turret to index every time at 60 RPM, 30 RPM is a piece of cake.

BTW, I have sent you a lot of emails in the past asking about your CHNC.

Vince

[N4NV]

I spent about half an hour drawing up my turret encoder. The lines are center of the cutting tool. I will import it to Lazycam and have it generate the g code. The outer circle will be a groove for the sensor output wires, the next groove is for the Vcc wire (common to all) and the next in will be the ground wire (common to all). I will use a 1/8" ball end mill for the groves and a 1/8" end mill for the second to inner ring for the sensors (they are only 1/8"x3/16"). Maybe this weekend I can get it machined and wired.

Vince

[N4NV]

I finished up the Panduit duct for now. The cables that are still hanging out are either for the turret, spares, or extra limit switches. I have some wire loom that I will use to dress up the cables from the computer when I finish the enclosure.

I picked up some Delrin from a friend so I should be able to machine the turret encoder base tomorrow.

Vince

[CNCfun&games]

Vince,

Realize it's a little late for your application.......but purchase my Loc Line
on EBay.
3 nozzles & the manifold for $14.50+$10.00 S&H. I Remove the magnetic base and attach it to a Machine light supplied by the same guy's..

Keep up the good work.....Very interesting, W. Smith

[N4NV]

800Watt does not have any of those Line loc manifolds for sale in their ebay store right now.

I got early and started on my turret encoder. I machined the basic support block, then started adding components. I used super glue to hold the components in place until the finished epoxy. 4 hours later I was done except for the epoxy coating. I think I will go ahead and add the epoxy, then test it on my lathe tomorrow. I could not find any shorts or open with my meter.

Vince

[CNCfun&games]

Vince,
Think 800Watt added some:

See EBay items #350045632541 2 avail
#350045979705 1 Avail
#350047412941 2 avail

Regards.....W. Smith

[N4NV]

It was 89 degrees here in San Jose today, so my 3 hour epoxy cured in an hour. I will test the encoder tomorrow.

Vince

[N4NV]

I installed my custom made encoder and ran a test. It worked! Here is another boring video:

[ame="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7636149275087647309"]Encoder test with Cubloc on a CHNC[/ame]

On the Cubloc board the input lights are on when the switch is open (no magnet present). I programmed it so that each input would turn on an output. In the video you can see the input lights go out as the magnet covers the switch, and an output light turn on when the output closes. I am running the turret as fast as it will go. I did have to make a temporary adjustment to the elevation of the encoder so it would be close enough to the magnet. The wiring is just temporary.

I finally fixed the spindle stop pneumatic actuator and got it installed. I don't know how Hardinge used this and would be interested to know.

Vince

[Karl_T]

I finally fixed the spindle stop pneumatic actuator and got it installed. I don't know how Hardinge used this and would be interested to know.

Vince

The spindle stop is used to stop and located the spindle while the spindle turret is still running. Adjust it so the turret is exactly over the locating pin. Then drop air to both solenoids and the turret settles exactly on the locating pin.

Karl

[BobWarfield]

The spindle stop is used to stop and located the spindle while the spindle turret is still running. Adjust it so the turret is exactly over the locating pin. Then drop air to both solenoids and the turret settles exactly on the locating pin.

Karl

Interesting. Is that so you can run live tooling, for example to put a bolt circle on a flange?

Best,

BW

[N4NV]

The spindle stop is used to stop and located the spindle while the spindle turret is still running. Adjust it so the turret is exactly over the locating pin. Then drop air to both solenoids and the turret settles exactly on the locating pin.

Karl

Are you confusing the turret stop with the spindle stop? The spindle stop is in the third picture in the previous post. It is located on the side of the spindle head stock. I don't see how it has anything to do with the turret.

Vince

[N4NV]

After making some adjustments to the height of my turret encoder I did the final installation of it. I found a splice block in a box of odds and end and used that to terminate the wires for the encoder. It will make removing it in the future easier. I’m off to my PLC class.

Vince

[Karl_T]

Are you confusing the turret stop with the spindle stop? The spindle stop is in the third picture in the previous post. It is located on the side of the spindle head stock. I don't see how it has anything to do with the turret.

Vince

My bad...

The spindle stop is needed when changing collets. It locks the spindle in place so you can easily loosen the bolts on the changer. Then spin the old collet out and spin in the new. There is also a prox. switch to detect if the lock pin is in. Wiring this interlock into your spindle start will prevent you from starting the spindle with a locking pin in place.

Karl