Thread: Hardinge CHNC II SP Conversion to Mach 3 Step by Step

**mike^3** · 12-27-2013, 02:02 PM

Ill check them out once I put the machine back together and check backlash and tolerences. If i have to change one out, its not a huge deal.

Ive made lots of progress and I will be uploading a ton of videos and pics tonight, thanks for the post Deano!

Mike

**OT-CNC** · 12-28-2013, 08:32 PM

Mike,

Nice rebuild! I'm working on a similar project but its the AHC. Mine was pre-cnc, actuation was with hydraulics. I'm in the process of sourcing components for the conversion. Can you tell me a few things that may put me in the ball park for what I need? Like the pitch of the screws on yours and rough size? Both for the x and Z. From the pictures I have seen, it looks like the servos were belt reduced? If so, what was the reduction on each axis? Do you have the continuous torque info on the original motors? I'm trying to get a sense of what my minimum requirements are.
I'm guessing 750w brushless, direct drive would do at 2nm with a .2" lead on the screw?

Thanks,
OT

**mike^3** · 12-28-2013, 09:06 PM

Hi OT

The servos were brushed 1.2nm 3000rpm motors. The pitch is .2 so 5tpi. There is a belt reduction but I am unsure at the moment what it is, I think a 6:1. I have seen some ahcs before cam operated pretty cool but old school for sure.

The lengths of the ballscrews are probably 24 inches each about, I may be wrong but I have not measured one lol

I'm runnin Linux and its got a learning curve, but Linuxcnc is the motion controller and it's easy to use.

To convert 1 machine with no ballscrews, thrustbearings or pillowblocks, motors, drives, computer, and controls. Probably set ya back about 3k. More if u want high end ac servos and such.

Hope this helps, ask more questions

if u need more info

Mike

**OT-CNC** · 12-28-2013, 09:32 PM

Mike,

Thanks for the info.
Will you be using the hybrid step motors you mentioned earlier? Will they be direct drive?
Also, can you tell me what the advantages are with linux, what specifically made you switch? I'm still trying to decide on linux or mach.
I'm leaning towards using a CSMIO ethernet controller with mach but I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks,

OT

**mike^3** · 12-28-2013, 10:14 PM

OT

Well I will be using the hybrid steppers, best of both worlds. Not direct drive because of accuracy, I want .0001 jog increments, and having it reduced I can do it, direct drive would not be possible or even easy to do with my setup, maybe yours would be easier

Mach is great for mills but not so good for lathes.

Linuxcnc is a true controller. Mach is not.

For example u wire an encoder directly to the input to Linuxcnc and u can manipulate what Linuxcnc does with it, whether it's a feedback for a spindle or encoder for a motor. Mach 3 can not, it can take simple on and off inputs but that's it currently.

Mach 3 has issues and bugs with the lathe, bad threading results and issues with long term runs it's a very hobby cotroller as of now. Linuxcnc is an industrial controller with tons of support and help, very little bugs, and very powerful and stable.

That's my take on it.

Ever use mach or Linux?

**OT-CNC** · 12-30-2013, 12:22 AM

Mike,

I'm using Mach on a mill.
How's progress

**mike^3** · 12-30-2013, 12:58 AM

Good, just up loading all the videos still, it's takes forever for u tube to upload them. Got lots of pics too.

I have been looking for tutorials for emc2/Linuxcnc and found that most of the video ones are fragmented and extremely lacking. So when I start the electrical portion of the project I will be making step by step instructions on how to wire and program my lathes. It will be a very long video lol

Gonna blue the parts this week and start putting it all back together, but u will see the next post and it will show a lot

Got some pics of ur ahc?

**mike^3** · 12-31-2013, 01:39 AM

Pics!

So I put the head on the base, removed the bearings, moved the garage around, bought a bead/sand blaster, parkerized parts (came out crappy, now gonna redo them, im not gonna post the video about parkerizing because it didnt come out very well. So I will be bead blasting and blueing the parts.

Most of the pics are us cleaning and prepping the crosslide for turcite.

You must remove all the grease and oil from the surface, then sand with 80 grit sandpaper, then clean, then blowtorch, then clean, then mix 50/50 epoxy, then lay down, apply even pressure for 6 hours. USE WAX OR BAKING PAPER on top or between whatever u are using to hold pressure, if u dont u will glue it to the surface!

You will have to hand scrap the surface afterwords because of highs and lows from the epoxy.

Next videos will be me BLUING SOME PARTS! WHOOT!

I had to cut the out race out of the spindle, I used a dremel and took about 4 hours to slowly and carefully split the ring without damaging the spindle head/race surface.

If anyone has questions let me know

Ya its gonna be a few more months till we are done....take your time and do your best!

VIDS! (these are unedited!

)

MVI 0182 - YouTube

MVI 0185 - YouTube

MVI 0190 - YouTube

**zmajmr** · 12-31-2013, 03:05 PM

Hi Mike, it was interesting to watch videos. It is really tricky job with turcite, I hope when epoxy hardens all will be OK. I mean I do not know will you have wooden board trace on turcite (footprint or what is called).

Keep posting vids, your mom is great too.

:cheers:

**mike^3** · 01-08-2014, 12:45 AM

Hey Hey! so....Ill upload some pics and videos in a bit

I ran into these problems:

1. Turcite is awesome, yet takes a while to scrape, had to buy a triblade scraper to get into the edges. Also had to buy a roller to ROLL the prussian on the way dovetail, using your FINGER gives false HIGHs and Lows....
2. I installed the spindles!! WHOOT, it was a PITA, bearings had to match, had to get pushed in very slowly with a sleeve and a dead blow. I had to buy longer spindle head bolts to feed the spindle in the head stock.

Pros:

Spindles spin like BUTTER! Barely any race noise at all, it spins for a few seconds after I stop spinning it by hand! SMOOTH! Once I get it all together I will check the runout.

I will be scraping the saddle tonight and tommorrow.

I am going to purchase 2 VFD's tonight, they have to be 7.5hp or better, so thats like 600$ a pop....The trick is that I have to find quality and something with a warranty incase something should happen, so no Cheap Chinese crapo......

More updates tomorrow

**zmajmr** · 01-10-2014, 10:16 PM

Hi Mike , where is update, I am waiting for new pics and vids.

**mike^3** · 01-11-2014, 12:55 PM

Hey marco!

, the upload is massive, I have like 5 videos uploading to youtube, and my upload is capped at like 100kb/s

. I have like 3 hours of videos to upload LOL. But here is a few pics to start off

CNC zone only lets me upload 4 pics at a time :|.

Ill be leaving my computer on all day today to upload the videos

**zmajmr** · 01-11-2014, 03:58 PM

Hi Mike, well I will be waiting for vids. Now when I have seen pics, and turcite scraped now I understand what are you doing, to be honest at first glance it was weird to grind bed ways and glue turcite with using wooden board. Interesting material, turcite.

Keep good work.

:cheers:

**mike^3** · 01-12-2014, 04:45 PM

Here are some VIDS! WHOOT! Thanks for your patience guys. Hey marco what VFD are you using? I just got 2 10hps 7.5kws. Gonna try to run them next week!

I will be posting the links as they finish processing, so links will appear throughout the day

Turcite application

Turcite application part 2 - YouTube
Turcite application part 3 - YouTube