[macona]

Well, it seems to work pretty well. Two problems. One is the table oscilliates back and forth and the other is I just cant get tuned well so it overshoots.

I took the scope and retuned the drives. No difference. Just too much backlash in the system. About .002". Not good.

The problem lies in the feedback setup of the mill. The original setup used the LS303 Heidenhain Slides connected to EXE602 interpolators to give positional feedback to the console. I just cant get it tuned right to work like this. The only solution is to install rotary encoders on the motors themselves.

i had bought three brand new 2500 lpr encoder about 5 years ago for an DRO project that went nowhere. I had some little zero backlash couplers and bored them out to fit the encoder and the 1/4" stub on the motor shaft. I used the mill to cut out the hole on the end of the coverplate on the motors. i just locktited the coupler to the shafts after I cut the shafts to length. Soldered on new lengths of 4 wire shielded cable and hooked these to the pixies.

Now I could tune the motors. My signal gain was too high and I think that was causing my problems with the slide. Oh well, I will use the slides for DROs in Mach.

Like I mentioned earlier the X and Y have about .002 backlash. Not only that the machine rumbles when it moves. I took a dial indicator and put a ball bearing ball in the centerhole at the end of the ball screw. I have about .001 end play. Looks like my bearings are shot. So I yanked the y axis motor mounts and sure enough, they felt pretty bad. They were made by Fafnir. Applied Industrial called up Fafnir for me and found out they were a brigeport part number. Called Bridgeport and ordered 4 bearings. Two showed up yesterday. Grr. Installed them and mde a heck of a difference. Dropped the backlash down to about .001. And made it so smooth!

Also last night I went ahead and installed the board for the charge pump. Now when mach goes into estop it shuts down the servo system (Includes spindle and coolant pump).

That brings this project up to date. I bought a jog pendant I am going to tie in to the system and am currently designing the new control panel. Need to call up Bridgeport and yell at them monday too.

Couple more pics...