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Re: Looking at buying a Fadal
Quick update. Ball screws should be back right after new years.
I walked in and found my shop floor flooded. Coolant tank looks good, no rust, thick metal, but after I pressure washed it real good it has miniature pin holes in it and several places. I could weld them up but I really don't want more to show up and flood my shop again. So, I cut and bent a new one out and am testing before powder coating it.
https://www.cnczone.com/forums/attac...d=408320&stc=1
Here is the new one....
Testing fit... Perfect
https://www.cnczone.com/forums/attac...d=408322&stc=1
Welded ends up and testing for leaks.
https://www.cnczone.com/forums/attac...d=408324&stc=1
Air lines, lube lines, manifolds, way wipers all done.
Gear change cylinders and hosing done.
Still have to clean up the way covers and put new wipers in those and I need to flush and clean out the spindle coolant tank and replace the antifreeze with some new dowfrost i have.
Waiting on ball screws, draw bar floater, Bellville washers, and a new valve for the lube pump.
Getting a little closer. Should have it going in a couple weeks.
Re: Looking at buying a Fadal
Nice job on the tank, I had to make one for mine too, never came with machine for some reason.
Your doing a great job going right through the machine, better to do it all now then later on while your using the machine.
Re: Looking at buying a Fadal
1) Way covers repaired, straightened, and new rubbers. I take these aren't stainless since they rusted all to heck after I washed them down with simple green.
2) Lube system is pumping oil and seems to be doing good. I will know more when I get it moving around but it seems to look good. The PDI Air Solenoid valve leaks. I took it apart, cleaned and reassembled but when pushing the button in, it continues to blow air out the vent. I take it it should release air from the piston then stop.
3) Drawbar is out. All the bellville washers look new, drawbar looks new, and I did not remove the floater but it appears to be in good shape. I guess I might as well and pull it while I'm here and I have a new one. It's all going back new and the other stuff that came out can go in a zip lock for later.
4) Waiting on ball screws!
Have a happy New Years Day!
Richard
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Re: Looking at buying a Fadal
I have to ask, the little bimba air cylinder for the orientation arm, what keeps it tight? Mine has no lock nuts on the adjustment and there aren't any pinch bolts so the cylinder is pretty loose in the threads. The parts break down doesn't show anything either. Seems that looseness will wear crap out pretty quick with it working back and forth.
Is there something mines missing between #2 and #7 or should the cylinder just jamb up and tighten against #7 block?
https://www.cnczone.com/forums/attac...d=408556&stc=1
Re: Looking at buying a Fadal
Today was a good day for the most part. I got the floater, draw bar, and 42 new washers put in. Cleaned all the top end up. Tightened the orientation cylinder and organized the wiring and hoses. Lots of loose brackets and parts on this machine. Motor tension cable and bracket was all loose and missing bolts so I fixed that and adjusted it. I wonder who their maintenance company / person was?
I got tired of pushing the solenoid button constantly and just wrote a program to cycle the lube pump for ON 2 minutes, OFF 30 seconds and just let it run and do it's thing all morning while I jacked with everything else. Finally purged all the lines and had a good coat of oil everywhere. Oh, I used an Arduino with Relay shield to cycle the solenoid valve.
I was having issues when doing a M19. In low speed, it would orientate perfectly, but in high gear, it would move too fast and just rock back and forth 1/4 turn on each side of the magnet. The Diagnostics was showing the Orientation Switch (hall sensor) was indeed registering, but the motor kept overshooting it. I finally turned the factory orientation rpm factor down from 10 to 5 and now it slowly moves over and locks in perfect each time. I'm not sure why the factory setting wasn't or isn't working.
Still looking for detailed information on the Fadal Baldor VFD parameters. I played with lots of VFD's but I take it this one is custom done for Fadal or I just not familiar with Baldor.
RPM is kind of off. I have to do some sort of tuning to try and get the low speed and high speed RPM's a little closer to what I tell it since it will affect some of my tapping feeds. I don't understand why we have an orientation hall sensor on the spindle pulley but nobody is reading it for actual RPM? That would be perfect for RPM PID control and also fro tapping feeds with a T/C tap holder.
Later. Happy new years to all.
Richard
Re: Looking at buying a Fadal
Ah, factory settings in pendant probably won't work since the original vfd was a Mits. VFD and was replaced..... I forgot about that...
Re: Looking at buying a Fadal
I forgot to mention that I zeroed the tram in the X direction my adjusting the front feet slightly. Didn't take much at all to remove that 0.005" left to right, but I still have the 5 thou from front to back in the Y. I imagine that's head node from loose gibs or wear or both. Can't much doing anything until I get motion going again.
Oh, guess what, if you power up and don't do a proper CS, you can jog past the stops! I do assume Fadal uses soft limits based on machine travel set in the params based on CS position?
I was seeing how low my Z would go since I properly set the parameters to a 28" z. Previously, it would only come down to maybe a foot off the table. Now you can touch the spindle nose to the table, BUT, when you do that, you bust the 2 bolts off that hold the Z screw cover to the column!
I guess I will be drilling those out in the next few days.
Re: Looking at buying a Fadal
Quote:
Originally Posted by
rwskinner
I was seeing how low my Z would go since I properly set the parameters to a 28" z. Previously, it would only come down to maybe a foot off the table. Now you can touch the spindle nose to the table, BUT, when you do that, you bust the 2 bolts off that hold the Z screw cover to the column!.
Interesting, when I got my machine it was missing the Z screw cover completely. I bought a new one and found the remains of 2 sheared off bolts in the casting. I was thinking WTF could have possibly caused those bolts to break and why did the guy remove that cover, but I guess that explains it.
Use polyurethane sealant yes. We used all sorts of stuff at my last shop with terrible results, last time I did it I used DAP polyurethane sealant and its working awesome, just like new after 2 and half years. The origional stuff is made by sika, but this DAP stuff has worked imcredible for me, i would just get that. Home depot and Rona/lowes sell it. Degrease everything with brake cleaner or solvent first. https://www.rona.ca/en/waterproof-po...white-04915135
Re: Looking at buying a Fadal
The existing sealant would have worked great if they used a solid line of it. But they decided to make S shaped weaves across the flanges with good 1" gaps here and there with no sealant, thus the leaks !
I'm going back with Sika 1A, same as I use on the RV. I use lap sealants on the roof and Sika everywhere else, but the crap is hard to remove. Heat gun and a blade will slowly remove it.
Richard
Re: Looking at buying a Fadal
I have to look, but I don't think they put enough clearance in the back Z axis screw cover that has the slots cut in it. I think another inch or so would probably fix it, OR, just be aware of it. Problem is, if someone else runs it, there it goes again.
I'm surprised it doesn't hit the hard stops on the screw before it tears crap up. Hummmmm Maybe a spacer on the lower screw. Don't know yet.
>>Interesting, when I got my machine it was missing the Z screw cover completely. I bought a new one and found the remains of 2 sheared off bolts in the casting. I was thinking WTF could have possibly caused those bolts to break and why did the guy remove that cover, but I guess that explains it.
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