Help with South Bend Magnaturn CNC lathe

I have a South Bend Magnaturn CNC lathe that I want to get up and running. I have split off the single phase computer components and am running the 3 phase components from a rotary converter. I can get the fans to run, but nothing comes-up on the screen. I have tried a different monitor and it seems that I am not getting anything to the monitor. I can hold-in the magnetic contactor and get the blower and hydraulic pump to run. Does anyone know anything about these lathes? How about somebody that I can talk to? I don't want to have to pay BIG BUCKS for a service guy, but if I have to then I will. How about a retro-fit?

Thanks,

Scott

Hi, Do you still have your magnaturn lathe?

Yes, I do still have the lathe.

Thanks,

Scott

Hi, I was wondering how the project come out. Did you do a retrofit? I have a
Magnaturn 612. I was hoping for pictures posted of you machine. I have mine posted under MechMan.

What model is it?
We run them here.
Jim

Hi, I have the Magnaturn 612. It was designed to be run from 115 VAC single phase from day one. I would think setting your up to do the same would be fairly easy. The real question is was yours complete? I ended up having to purchase the PC Card and software from Southbend. Not Cheap. There is one other thing I need to purchase for mine that will have to wait until I have the funds. They offer an additional program called Ultrapath that requires a printer dongle to unlock. This program provides the toolpath graphics. Big drawback to my machine is there is little tooling available. You can see mine in my gallery. I was one of the top posters if you go to the gallery page. :violin:

We use 1218's in production turning with barfeeds.
A couple of the machines even have Ultrapath, though nobody here has bothered to learn a new CAM package that is limited to one brand of lathe.
We usually program off-line in either MasterCam or straight G-code and use a
utility that came with the machines to upload the ASCII files into their own language.
South Bend talks about importing a Taiwanese machine to get back into CNC, not realizing that users like us will just buy Taiwan machines directly from the Taiwanese if we wanted them.
Sadly South Bend, like what little else remains from the American machine tool industry, survives by overcharging for spare parts.

Your right, it's sad considering CNC technology was developed in the United States. If you ever decide to sell one of the Ultrapath printer port dongles let me know. I would be interested. I'm proud of my little machine. It so rare that you find American CNC Iron. MechMan

I replaced the computer with an old 286 that I had and the machine runs. I have two other CNC lathes and have not put the time into learning the South Bends Ultrapath. I did hear of writting standard G-code and sending it to the machine, but have not tried it.

Thanks,

Scott

Anyone have manuals, wiring Diag.s, software, for the 1218 magnaturn.

If so email me at [email protected]

Thanks, Chip
Florida

Hi, The 1218 is a different animal than the 612. The 612 is a very small machine. Manuals for your machine may be available from Southbend. I paid I believe $60 a piece for the two manuals that were available to me. SouthBend wouldn't release the board level repair manuals. The software is also exclusive to the machine. Those are closed loop machines and travel paramiters are designed into the software. The software is not cheap. I was close to doing a retrofit myself. If it were not for the closed loop quality I would have done it. The only thing the two machines may have in common is the PC control card. I only have the one. If you decide to retrofit let me know if you decide to sell that card. MechMan

Thanks for the fast reply,

Just fired up the lathe, cpu powers up have F1-F10 keys on bottom of screen, save,load run ect....., start button / other swiches have no effect.

This is an early 1200 series sn00039 I think, Holding Hyd-Contactor in, spindle turns, X appears to home.

Looking for diag pin-outs not board level, just basic diagrams, considering retrofit unless I can find software, Just trying to find a starting point hear.

On your lathe is there a (software) disk that enables front panel switches / controls.

Thanks, Chip

I have two of the 1218's. Used them for years. Typically run
G code programs. I have the operator manuals and assembly diagrams with wiring schematics (not board level). They are pretty easy to figure out. Hydraulic with sony magnetic scales. Dont know if you guys know the trick about converting your programs to metric. Its a function in the software. You can get a bit more precision that way. Just rebuilt the spindle on one. Going through them now, going to sell them both.

Hi, Sprew

Thanks for the Info.

Went to the shop this afternoon booted computer from disk, Dos ver. 3.31 all went well formated 2 disks A and B drives seem fine.

Looking for an old plugin Hardedrive its around hear some where, may have a later ver. of dos around hear also.

Found one card (Axis Control Board) with a Cap and
Xtal 1 broken off, have it hear at home fixing it now.

Thanks again for the Help, Chip

Hi, All

Looking for a copy of SBLLATHE.EXE file for my 1218 lathe, have an early S-number with old stile tool changer encoder, haven't figurd out how to configure the CNC303A.EXE software for it.

Unable to get it from SB, the 600 series file may work also.

If someone can help, Zit it up and email to [email protected]

Thanks, Chip

Hello afn09556
I have a 1218 but no Exective disk and the SBLLATHE.EXE disk is bad. When I power it up, no screen comes up. South Bend Lathe has no disk replacement. Can you help. Thanks clif

Hi Clif,
I have a 612 and it is a whole different animal. It's a stepper controlled machine and the travel parameters are different. The software I have wouldn't do you any good. Last I heard Southbend technical supoort is retired. Southbend probably doesn't hold the right to sell the software for those machines any more. I had a contact from the software developer. It may be in the post. They could probably help you. You might want to consider a retrofit. If it were not for the closed loop quality I would have retrofitted my own machine. A retrofit will get you some real speed. I recommend Flashcut. MechMan

I have a magnaturn 612, I need software and comunication card, I buy a copy of the software and a card or another solution.

Can you sell a copy of the magnaturn 612 software call me at 915-694-5898 or put the phone number an I call you

We only have 1218's. I understand the 612 to be completely different.

I still have the 1218 and would like to sell it for $5000. I have gotten it running and have not used it for any jobs as I use my Fanuc controlled machine and need the room. E-mail me if anyone is interested.

Thanks,

Scott Hamilton
[email protected]

do you have a software for a 612, sell me a copy

do you sell a copy of the software for a 612

guys, I don't know anything about the control, but was looking at the Centroid web site and thay had retrofitted one and thay spoke very highly of it, don't know the price of the retrofit. www.centroidcnc.com

Does anyone have software, for the 1218 Magnaturn and is this Lathe supposed to have one or two floppy drives. I just acquired a Model 1218 with one drive, but the Owner's manual refers to two drive.

cncnovice

I saw a pair of 1218's go for some ridiculous amount on eBay recently - hope that wasn't you. Anyways, the first models (like the first PC's) had two floppy drives. Later models had only one floppy with a hard drive.

HELP I recently bought a Southbend 1218 Magnaturn lathe. I found someone that owned one that has been very helpful. His and mine has a lot of differences. I am going to try to post pictures of the tool turret of both. His had mounting holes for the encoder and for the proximity sensor. Mine had none. Mine has 4small screws holes in the same circle as the large with the cap screws. When I bought this one the encoder was missing and the cord that went to it had been cut. There were 2 proximity switches that were unhooked and just hanging. I need to know where all this went? I would like any help offered. Thanks (I will see if I can post pictures.[email protected]

Hi everybody.

I've recently bought one south bend lathe listed on ebay and I feel again in the middle of an old trouble I used to have when I was trying to retrofit a bridgeport mill with hydraulic tru trace controls. I abandoned that proyect because in that time I didn't figured out how to solve the servo hydraulics in a cheap way.

Now nine years later I'm gonna try a solution like this (see Method and apparatus for controlling hydraulic systems) for the south bend lathe. Maybe using some arduinos for operation of the servo valve, trying to keep the same linear encoders, in case they doesn't work, I will use a syncro pulley-rotary encoder array, because they are cheaper.

If every works fine shure I will resume the hyd mill conversion.

Alfonso.

Hello,
See its an old thread, but thought i would see... I just got a Magnaturn 1218 with 2 floppy drives. Machine wasn't working, all it was is one of the copied floppy disks was corrupted. I installed the factory disks and now its up and running. That said iam currently looking at retrofitting with a AC servo system in the near future. And eliminating almost all of the hydraulic system, minus the hydraulic draw tube for chuck or collets.
Is anyone interested in any parts of this machine?
Thanks,
Troy

Hi Troy,

Any chance you are getting rid of the Hydraulic tailstock? Assuming you still have any of this since the post was over 4 years ago!

Thanks!

Mike

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Originally Posted by Need TECH Help!

Hello,
See its an old thread, but thought i would see... I just got a Magnaturn 1218 with 2 floppy drives. Machine wasn't working, all it was is one of the copied floppy disks was corrupted. I installed the factory disks and now its up and running. That said iam currently looking at retrofitting with a AC servo system in the near future. And eliminating almost all of the hydraulic system, minus the hydraulic draw tube for chuck or collets.
Is anyone interested in any parts of this machine?
Thanks,
Troy

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