[thefu]

[pete from TN]

That is what mine looks like the one on the right altho not sure what the V stands for. My handle is thicker looking tho. What makes you say the number 9 is better other than it is just smaller? Gotta go pick up my kids from school here....peace

Pete

[pete from TN]

Just looked on the classifieds ads locally and saw SEVERAL posts like this one.... Makes me mad as hell man.

Machinist

Even a button pusher should get paid more than that....peace

Pete

[pete from TN]

I just went out there and installed the refurbished power supply into the machine. I plugged the power supply into the machine's 110v input instead of the wall and tidied up the wires from when I was tinkering back there troubleshooting the unit. Then I said a little prayer and walked inside and turned on the rotary phase converter. Then after hearing it hum up to speed quickly I walked back to the back panel of the machine where the big contactor switch is located to turn the beast on and took a deep breath.. Then I threw the switch. Immediately I noticed that the machine was somehow quieter than before. The fans came up to speed and the little whirring noises and whatnot emanating from the innerds of the beast were whirring away quietly. I swallowed deeply and slowly walked up to the front of the machine to see if the control was going to boot up. I think I might have mentioned that the last few times I tried to run it I got all sorts of errors. Well the control booted up nicely and I noticed IMMEDIATELY that the screen was different, the way it was before it kinda flickered a lot and was not real solid in appearance. Well it was solid now... I took that as a good sign. Then an error popped up... the air supply was not connected. I realized I goofed and ran back there and plugged up the compressor leads and plugged in the compressors power. I walked back to the control and reset the error and it was solid again. Then I tried to align the machine... It aligned perfectly and seemed to work well....until I got ANOTHER error. It said NV parameters were not set. I remembered that was a typical thing upon setup and knew how to set them so I did and then cleared out that error. The machine seemed to work VERY well after that. I do not have any programs in it yet as I cleared out the old program I had tried when the guy backed out on the job after I told him of my issues with the machine. So I just did some MDI commands and jogged the machine around, played with the spindle some. Did not have the balls to try a toolchange until I affirm that the parameters for that have not changed, actually I might just REDO that set of parameters with my new toolholders just to be sure. Also check the other machine specific parameters just to be sure. I dunno really if the machine is totally fixed but it sure did not turn off like it was and the display seemed to be real solid unlike before. I am going to proceed with caution here and see how it goes. At this point at least the ISSUES I was having appear to be gone. Sometimes it would have to be on for quite awhile before it would suddenly shut off on me so going to have to turn it on and leave it on for quite awhile to check that out. Right now tho I am VERY optimistic that the machine is going to run enough to make some damn parts. I gotta take my wife grocery shopping tonight and pick up some other stuff but I hope to play with it tonight some more. Thank God it seems to be working tho....

I got a lot of Tig welding done on my Tubing bender today. Still lots more to do but I am taking my time trying to get it right here so it will hold up to some abuse.

I may try to load up some tools into the VMC tonight and clamp some aluminum down to the table and do some milling/MDI stuff to see how it goes. Of course as I said I do not have any damn coolant just yet so cannot go too crazy. The two fellas that are left who wanted me to machine some stuff for them and have not gotten turned off waiting are apparently ready to give me a deposit for some machine work and I MAY be able to use that to buy the coolant to get started here. One step at a time tho, gotta make sure the machine is actually ready to run. Verdict is still out on that one.... Peace

Pete

[Bubba]

Pete,,
Fan F***ing tastic!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hang in there buddy

[FannBlade]

WHOOO HOOOO!
Sounds like all is heading the right direction.
Actually got my little CNC going today. Went all out and milled a 1" Hole!!...yes a round one.
Ain't no VMC.........but gota start somewhere.

Can't wait to see some pics.
@thefu
The video on page 43 is pretty amazing.
That must be like a 30 hp spindle, the DOC is outrageous.

[thefu]

i feel confident that programs i have on my machine will work for yours...if you want i can program something you need done and send over the gcode and a setup page with a drawing and tool list.

[Fastest1]

WHOOO HOOOO!
Sounds like all is heading the right direction.
Actually got my little CNC going today. Went all out and milled a 1" Hole!!...yes a round one.
Ain't no VMC.........but gota start somewhere.

Can't wait to see some pics.
@thefu
The video on page 43 is pretty amazing.
That must be like a 30 hp spindle, the DOC is outrageous.

Congrats on the 1" hole, though not an accomplishment for those experienced machinists. I can remember when that was my first task. Actually I can remember passing all of the electrical tests, loaded Mach, steppers locked and I had no idea of what to enter in the MDI or anywhere else. Seeing automated motion was a joy in itself.

[ihavenofish]

Just looked on the classifieds ads locally and saw SEVERAL posts like this one.... Makes me mad as hell man.

Machinist

Even a button pusher should get paid more than that....peace

Pete

minimum wage is more than that here.

i suppose the bright side it, if you get your machine going to the point you need help... it wont cost you much.

[zane]

I just got back from a 2 day motorcycle trip and now I have to get all caught up on what is happening on the interweb. Glad you got your PS back and so far it looks like everything is working. I know exactly how you feel investing all this time and money into your VMC and not being able to make chips right away. In the middle of my first run of parts on my new (used) VMC my spindle encoder ate itself. A new one costs 1/6th of what I paid for the whole mill! Luckily I found the exact one I needed on ebay. When you move up from a converted benchtop to a real VMC you play in a totally different price range for parts, don't you pete?!!

Speaking of playing in a whole different price range, I like everyone else has also have always lusted after a Ferrari. Not being a banker or broker I was only able to by one with 2 wheels and 1/4 of the cyclinders. Instead of the badge saying Ferrari they spelled it "D U C A T I" Must be some cost saving reason for that. I'll be honest, it was probably to much of a stretch to buy it originally but I have been making and selling just one part for it and so far have been able to cover the payments. Not sure that would be possible with a full Ferrari!

Ya, I got confused when you called your bender a mandrel bender. What kind of dies did you design your bender around? I have a pro tools 2" on 6" radius the I have never used. You pay for shipping and you can use it for as long as you need it. When you use it enough to make alittle money you can pay me half of retail or something. Or maybe machine something for me next time i break my mill. PM me if you are interested. I think you mentioned it as a size you were thinking about getting and I would like to see you being able to pick up more work.

Here is a picture of what I was going to use it for but 2" tube was overkill. I only needed 1.5" to meet SCCA regs. I have used both the hole saw notchers and a lathe setup to notch tubes. Both have there advantages. I like the hole saw for larger tube sizes. 3/4" and smaller I use my lathe and do alot on it for the parts I make for my Ducati. The parts are only a couple of inches long and need a very tight fit. I have it set up to hold the stock it the positions I need with out measuring every length and angle. Took a while to set it up but has been a huge time saver. If you want to kick some ideas around on your set up I would be happy to help.

[Fastest1]

Zane, you wanted one of these?

[thefu]

ive been itching to build a tubular car sorta like that for a very long time...might have to get on that now that i have a cnc mill to make the parts i need.

[pete from TN]

Well as you know from my last post I have received the power supply in and installed it back into the machine. INITIALLY I found that it seemed to fix all of the problems.... However the other night I decided I wanted to try to setup some of my newly acquired toolholders and maybe try to do some cutting with the machine. Well MUCH TO MY DISMAY.... I fired it up and aligned the machine and found that for some reason any time I moved the Z axis at anything more than 80IPM it would fault out on me.... I kept playing with it thinking it might have been a problem I caused from when I tweaked some of the pots on the drive over the phone with tech support. I tried to contact Rob Varney but apparently he is on a MUCH DESERVED vacation or something so I really felt screwed. I tried a couple things and then started having some Y axis fault issues.... This was really strange since I had not had any issues with either of the drives even before I had the power supply repaired. I was beginning to REALLY start feeling down. In fact I was so down about it I did not even look at it again until today when my loving wife(who I had not told about the problems I was having with the machine) asked why I was not out playing with my "TOY". I felt so bad about it that I could hardly bring the words to tell her that the machine we had been waiting for and had all sorts of money and time invested in STILL had some problems and we cannot afford any more repairs. I really felt at the end of my rope here fellas.

Anyways she started crying and I felt like it and I decided to try again to see just what the hell is wrong with the damn machine. I went out and told myself to look at the basics and work up from there. I checked out the power leads to the machine and they all looked solid and then I started to reseat all of the connectors on the drives and boards in back of the machine. It STILL did not fix the problem. Then I remembered that when I recently sold my Hardinge lathe I had to unplug all the leads going to the machine from my Rotary PHase converter and plug up that little lathe to show the guy that it indeed actually worked. Perhaps I did not RECONNECT the leads properly or something... I checked in there and everything looked right on the power leads to the machine. The rotary just sits on the floor and is currently not fastened down so I tried to slide it back to the wall thinking it was wired up nice when I noticed that the main power leads to the rotary were LOOSE!! I checked it out and indeed one of the main inputs had somehow come loose from the lug. Suddenly I had some hope.... I removed that huge cable and redid all the leads and carefully reseated them into the lugs and tightened the living bejeezus out of them. Then I pushed the thing back into position and fired everything back up and for a few minutes of testing it APPEARED it was working. However after maybe ten minutes of jogging it around using the MPG at full speed it faulted again. I was crushed.... I came in and sat down and started feeling sorry again for myself and again started thinking about power on the machine. I had remembered that Rob Varney told me that he THOUGHT the generated leg should go on the center tap on the input block. I had it there all this time but I thought maybe he was wrong somehow so I changed the generated leg to the third input thinking what could it hurt. Well I fired everything up again and it has now been on for about an hour or more and I have run the piss out of every axis back and forth many many times at full rapid speed( which is hauling ass pretty good actually) and so far no faulting. I powered it off and back on again and tried it again with the same results. Then let it sit powered on for several hours and tried again. Right now I am tentatively optimistic that the machine is ready to run. I should think that if there were any power issues running the Z axis up and down continually at rapid speed with the spindle on should be all the test I should need. I am not calling it fixed just yet but it sure is looking that way.

I gotta tell you guys this machine has been an EXTREMELY stressful thing to try to make happen for me. I really have very little money to put into it and I simply cannot afford any major repairs anymore unless it starts paying for itself some. Right now I am going to TRY to make a simple program again using Art and Joe's kindly created Post Processor and run it in air and see if it will not only make it thru a complete program but also if the post processor is working right. I will then try to load some tools into the holders I have here and see if I can make some chips without breaking or crashing anything.

Zane, Again I apologize for the misinformation about my bender. It is a simple air/hydraulic bender that uses the Pro-tools 105 dies. It is not a mandrel bender at all. Please forgive the misinformation. I have started the welding up of the frame and it is so far going good. That little fiasco of the welding gas money I had to put out coupled with my youngest daughter's birthday party gifts,cake, decorations,skating rink party, etc while wonderful has put me back into a deep hole of no money for anything short of paying the bills. I do have this shaft to machine and I will be working on it some more this evening( I try to never work on sunday but Oh well) to get some more cash in here. If your die is a pro-tools 105 I would definitely be interested in having it for my shop here but to be quite frank I have not a damn dollar to my name right now and I am trying to figure out how I am going to get gas into my wife's trooper so she can get to work all this week. If you are not in a hurry to get rid of it I can try to get you some cash for it here in a little bit. Thanks so much for that VERY kind and generous offer my friend. You guys on here are so FREAKIN' AWESOME with information, kindness, and generosity I cannot even believe it sometimes. I doubt I am worthy of such generosity but it is most appreciated anyway. The bender is something that I really think I can use to further my shops work capability.

Anyways, right now I am trying to figure out what the next step is with this machine. I am going to try to run a short program and see what happens and then I will try to enact a toolchange automatically again to see if the toolchanger is working properly. It goes in and out and turns both directions and the power drawbar works fine so I have no reason to doubt it right now but there are no guarantees here I am finding out very quickly. In some ways I think I really may have bitten off more than I could ever hope to chew with this endeavor but there is only one way I will ever get to where I want to be and that is to take some risks. If it all goes to hell on me then I will at least be able to tell myself that I tried my best. Peace

Pete

[pete from TN]

Just got back in from the shop. I have been playing with the machine all evening and still test running the axis movement under rapid conditions. So far it has not faulted out at all and I really gave it a workout. The control seems solid as can be and I finally managed to try a toolchange. It worked flawlessly and I basically ran the toolchanger many times to see that the power drawbar and the toolchanger work the way they should. SO that is just the most wonderful freakin' news let me tell ya. I was about to give up here with this thing. Tomorrow I intend to get up early and get on this customer's lathe turned shaft and finish it for him and I will crank up the mill when I step out into the shop and leave it on to see if it gives me any problems. At this point it sure seems like it is working properly so I have high hopes here.

I am trying to figure out what tools to setup and how so I can run a simple but long program I have run before on my RF45 with lots of toolchanges, drilling, milling, etc. I will run that program in air and see how it goes. If that works well then I will probably write a simple short program and try to cut some metal tomorrow afternoon. Still need to get some coolant so I will have to keep the door open and mill slow in some aluminum and use compressed air to keep the chips from clogging up. Right now tho things are definitely looking up!!:wee::wee::wee:

I am going to work on the Tubing bender some more trying to get it ready to test. Not much left but welding to do there but I am trying to do a good job of it. Anyways, Hope all of you had a great weekend and I wish you a productive and peaceful week to come. Peace

Pete

[zane]

That's great news on the mill. Simple things always fix the largest headaches. My bender die is a model 200. I think the follow dies are different but the main die might be the same. If it will work for you just let me know. I'm not in any hurry to get rid of it. It has been weighting down a box for 10 years.

Have you asked any machine shops if they have any only coolant they need to get rid of? I wouldn't be surprised if they would be happy to pass some old stuff on.

I think its time you showed us some pictures of the bender and the mill making its first chips!

[pete from TN]

Hey man thanks again for the kind offer. I honestly have NO idea if that die will fit. If it is a different series of die to begin with I would have my doubts. When I get a spare minute I will try to research if it will fit or not but right now I kinda doubt it. The bender was designed around a specific die type and the hole locations are relatively precise and the pins that go thru it are specific sizes so it would need to be pretty damn close to work at all.

Yeah I know I am kinda slow with the pictures coming here. I need to break out the camera and I don't have any real good excuse about that since I got a real nice high res digital camera awhile back so no problems there. The only reason I have not posted pics of the bender is because it is just a big pile of parts right now. Just started welding it together this weekend and with all the worries about the machine and trying to get my Daughter's birthday going nicely it kinda took a back seat. I will try to get some of the sub assemblies welded up and snap some pictures. Today I am working on getting my lathe turned back into a lathe from a horizontal milling machine setup and get this shaft finished up for my only customer right now. I will then work on setting up the machine for a test cut and continue welding up this bender. It is a damn shame your die is NOT a 105 model because it would be nice to have a die here to set up the pivot point location because while I am following the plans precisely having an actual die to locate things while I tack it up would sure be a plus. I may just build everything else first or at least tack that pivot point together tentatively until I get the die here to ensure it is precisely placed. Again the plans are pretty specific but I can kinda imagine how important that placement will be in the grand scheme of things. We shall see.....


Woke up early today and took my kids to school so I am already out in the shop here working. We are supposed to have some kinda serious rain today so a perfect day to spend out in the shop trying to get things done. I wish all of you a great week and success in all your machining endeavors. Peace

Pete

[FannBlade]

Whew! I think I had a tear or two when you said it was faulting again.
I'm so relieved it is working again (and it's not even mine).
you know walking away is sometimes the best practice....let your head clear.

I can only imagine how hard it must be to buy a used machine and it not work right for soooo long.
Keep up the great work we are all pulling for you.

[pete from TN]

Yeah man I know what you mean. Understand tho that I bought this machine KNOWING that there was something wrong with it. I just had hoped it would have been easier to fix than it has been. Honestly it could have been a lot worse. I just got back from the shop and while that 14" long lathe turned shaft is making passes I can sorta walk away and play with the mill while keeping an eye on the lathes progress from across the room. I booted the VMC up again and it still seems to be working well with no issues. I actually threw a piece of aluminum up there and installed a couple different tools into the spindle and kinda jogged it around making cuts. It is DEFINITELY more machine than I am used to and it sure as hell makes short work of aluminum. I put a 5/8 inch corn cob rougher in there and basically passed right thru some 3/4 inch plate aluminum 6061 without coolant about as fast as I would ever like.... It is a LONG way from my old RF45 that much is clear. I also put a little 3/8 inch cutter in there and made some slower passes to see what finish looks like real quick and even without coolant it seems pretty damn good. That cutter is not even that sharp. SO I am having some fun finally with this monster and hope to be able to run some program later this afternoon with any luck at all. Right now tho the attention is on this lathe shaft so I don't screw it up. It is gotta be pretty tight when it is done so I need to pay some damn attention to it.

I realized today that I NEED another 220v line going out to the shop so I can run the compressor, the mill, my lathe or welder or whatever all at the same time. The compressor has to run for the mill to run and I need to have another plug in for the lathe or something else.... Gonna have to crawl under the house again it seems and make some more space for the breaker. I thought about using the input to the rotary phase converter but dont think that is a wise idea really. Not a big deal to pull another cable out there.

I got an email from Rob Varney this morning and was surprised to see that as he sounds like he is on vacation so that was cool. Nice to see there is somebody out there wanting to help with information. He said he has some information about tuning the drives that I can try out. Looking forward to see what he has there. Right now everything seems to be working quite well thankfully and I am having some fun playing with the beast. Peace

Pete

[skray775]

That is great news Pete!

[pete from TN]

Yeah I am pretty pleased that the machine appears to be working right now. Still lots to do here, gotta setup tooling, gotta experiment with my post processor and run some air cutting. Still working on this lathe turned shaft and got it all roughed out and some of the finish spots and bearing surfaces machined. Now I gotta cut a single point thread in it and then turn the end down and then stick it in the mill and machine a keyway into it. Nice that I can use the VMC to do that now lol....

I am going to be actively looking for work for the machine once I know it will run my code here in a bit. I have some old programs in the computer from the RF45 that I hope to use to test the machine. Once I know it will perform adequately I will turn it loose on my customers hehehe.... Peace

Pete