[MUDSUX]

I just received my PM45 from Precision Mathews. Have not hooked it up. We have been with rolling blackouts and some of the coldest weather I have experienced in 20 years. I have some pics though. I will be using it for my gun business. I also looked at the real RF45 but man that extra grand buys a lot of tooling.

Thanks for the pics. Looks like you got the power feed on the spindle. I went without it but opted for 3 axis DROs. Matt said I wouldn't really use it that often. I really wanted to get a variable speed machine and was looking at the G0704 but I think the size of the PM45M will fit me better.

I see a spot welder in the picture and knew you had to be making AKs before seeing your second picture. Looks like we have the same spot welder..I'm on my second AK as we speak.

[rwskinner]

Does the motor have to be removed from the head in order to AutoTune the VFD in Vector mode? It says no load, no belts, no gear boxes. I guess I answered my own question just wondering if I could do it on the mill.

Richard

[rwskinner]

For the VFD, I just shifted the gear box to nuetral and did the auto calibration. She runs sweet and quiet thru all the gears. I ran thru all the gears @ 10 minutes per gear then I took it up to 3600 rpm and it was very smooth and quiet as well.

I'll warm up it real good tomorrow then change the oil. Afterwards I'll run it up to 400% speed and see what happens, well at least to 4 or 5000 RPM if it will do it.

The machine is nice, and everything is silky smooth. The only gripes I have would be the plastic handles and no spanner for the quil. Even grizzly has metal handles and a spanner.

It came with a JT/R8 arbor and a face mill arbor for some reason, but no drill chuck or face mill?? Not sure what that is about.

My precision Tormach collet sits about 1/4" below the spindle so none of my TTS adapters pull up flush. It may be the roll pin issue?

Cranking that head up too much will give you some good muscles. Crank is on the left side and I'm right handed so it's a little akward but no biggie.

I screwed up royally on my 1" plate for the table. I cut the ONLY peice of 1" plate about 2" too narrow. I measure three times and still screwed it up. About 3/4" of the base on each side has nothing under it. Thank goodness I did not seal weld that plate!!! It will still be a SOB to cut out and replace. I have enough half inch plate and with the 2x6x.250 rect. tubing it shoudn't be an issue, especially compared to the stands they sell for it.

It will be a little while before I cnc it, so maybe I'll install my Shumach DRO and buy a power feed....

Richard

[rwskinner]

I was plesantly surprised to find my Y travel is a tad more than 9-1/2" and the X travel is 24-3/4" instead of the 8-1/4" x 20.5 in the specs.

That is a bonus indeed.

Richard

[rwskinner]

When the mill is sitting on the 1" plate I end up with a soft foot. 1 corner is 0.023" off the plate. Not sure if it's the base or the plate, but I'm sure it's the plate since the Y handle gets harder to turn if I tighten the base down.

Normally when I have a machine (engine) I do a soft foot test on each corner. Tighten the base, put a magnetic base dial indicator on the table and indicate off the top of the base, zero indicator, then back that mounting bolt off to see how much it lifts, note and repeat on each corner. Install proper shims and test again untilt he lift is zereo or equal on all corners.

Would that be appropriate way with a base like this? Shim?

Thanks,
Richard

[ninefinger]

You do want to shim the base but for a different reason and measuring it a different way. I have a MTW MD001 (IH clone = oversize RF-45) and the base flexes quite a bit when not bolted down. The problem is that as the saddle travels forward/backward on the base if there is a twist it is transmitted to the table. So in my case I had a left lean at the front and a right lean at the back. Makes tramming really difficult. This is where "leveling" the mill comes into play. Get it level from front to back and left to right and check with the table at the front and the back. Be sure to check when its tightened down - I could change the level of mine a little by cranking down on the hold down bolts (the spirit level I was using was sensitive to 0.0002 inches in 10).

Good luck

Mike

When the mill is sitting on the 1" plate I end up with a soft foot. 1 corner is 0.023" off the plate. Not sure if it's the base or the plate, but I'm sure it's the plate since the Y handle gets harder to turn if I tighten the base down.

Normally when I have a machine (engine) I do a soft foot test on each corner. Tighten the base, put a magnetic base dial indicator on the table and indicate off the top of the base, zero indicator, then back that mounting bolt off to see how much it lifts, note and repeat on each corner. Install proper shims and test again untilt he lift is zereo or equal on all corners.

Would that be appropriate way with a base like this? Shim?

Thanks,
Richard

[rwskinner]

My TTS Collet sticks out of my spindle a pretty good ways and leaves a gap between my spindle nose and tool holder. It's not a 1/4" gap like I previously stated but it's almost 0.100" total.

I checked and it's not the alignment pins in the spindle and my collet is actually on the taper. The large part of the taper on mine measures 1.179" and everything I see shows it should be more like 1.250". My SX3 measured 1.240" and it works fine.

Tormach says just to buy a collet and grind the face down until its almost flush with the spindle, or replace the spindle. I don't mind doing a little grinding but everything I grind off an already flat face collet just removes more contact/Gripping area.

I'm not sure which route I should go. Enco can't just send another spindle, only the complete machine which they are willing to do. Enco said that they probably never did the last OP (Grinding) after heat treating.

Suggestions?
Richard

[pete from TN]

If they are willing to send you another machine.... hell let em' do it!! Maybe you could talk them into letting you keep that mill for a song and you can fix it yourself and have two CNC rf45's haha..peace

Pete

[rwskinner]

If they are willing to send you another machine.... hell let em' do it!! Maybe you could talk them into letting you keep that mill for a song and you can fix it yourself and have two CNC rf45's haha..peace

Pete

I guess I could always pick the best one before I shipped the other back. It would have to be dirt cheap in order for me to keep both.

My luck hasn't been real good lately on purchases. Not much I can do about it though.

Oh, I have a picture of the mill on the stand before I pulled it off and added more plate. Still lots of grinding to do (I grind more than I weld) then clean it up and paint it when the weather gets better.

Not very pretty pictures but they'll have to make due for now.

Richard

[rwskinner]

I got the stand all ground down and sandblasted Sunday. I managed to get a coat of primer on it as well.

It's been sitting in the sun for a couple of days so I figured I would take a few minutes and get the first coat of top coat on it. Nice, warn, sunny day with barely a whisper of wind. No sooner than I get to the last few inches, a nice gust of wind decided to blow dead grass and leaves all over one side. At least it's the back side and it's the first coat. Tomorrow I get to dig it all off and do a light sanding.

I really don't care for green all that much but I had a couple gallons of Hunter Green Industrial Rig paint here, and since all my other stands are hunter green that's what color this one will be.

This thing is way too heavy. I'm going to get a hernia trying to move it around!

[pete from TN]

Holy Mother of all heavy duty stands Batman!! That thing is a monster... I really like the wheels and leveling feet. Nicely done... I like the idea of overbuilding the crap out of things too.... sometimes anyways.., peace

Pete

[rwskinner]

Oh, Enco called today, every one of their RongFu RF45's have the same spindle size, but their Enco Clones are fine and the Bridgeport clones are fine. So basically they don't have one to send me. I told them I'd keep this one but they need to get me a decent spindle coming. Maybe they'll let me keep the old one for mods later.

I can't seem to get anyone with an Original RongFu to chime in about their spindle diameter. Sad, I guess there aren't too many of us, everyone else saved the $1000 bucks and went with clones.

[pete from TN]

Sorry to hear about your spindle woes... Is it just not ground right? I remember reading about it earlier on but if you are needing a new one then it must be bad. Maybe for the time being you can have it reground locally. They are not terribly precise from the factory so any decent machine shop worth their salt should be able to get you good.. The specs for the r8 are easily acquired online. Perhaps if you get a new one you can have that one reground into iso30 or something depending on the size. Another thing you might look into is that I heard on another thread that MTW can get the iso30 spindles for the Rf45 machines. PErhaps you can get one and adapt it to your spindle body with custom bearing selection and parhaps a cool belt drive. Basically turn lemons into lemonade as it were... good luck man and peace

Pete

[rwskinner]

Yep, the spindles are about 0.075" smaller than the R8 spec. That doesn't sound like much until you stick a collet in there. According to the factory, they leave it .075" under size prior to heat treatment then grind it afterwards. Looks like they missed a step or decided not to take the entire grind.

Actually it runs true to 0.0002" so that isn't bad, it just has a lot of stick out.

I'm going to chuck up some 3/4" stock in an R8 collet then stick some carbide in my vise and take a few passes on it so at least I can use it for awhile. Even Enco said that wasn't a good long term solution but it will work for the time being until they could make it right. They're trying that is for sure.

Dang, I just tore all the VFD and custom wiring off, took the machine apart and had on a pallet because they told me they were shipping last Thursday and I was expecting the replacement this week.

Now, I guess I'll put it all back together. No biggie, I'm used to doing stuff multiple times for practice

[SCzEngrgGroup]

Sorry to hear about your spindle woes... Is it just not ground right? I remember reading about it earlier on but if you are needing a new one then it must be bad. Maybe for the time being you can have it reground locally. They are not terribly precise from the factory so any decent machine shop worth their salt should be able to get you good.. The specs for the r8 are easily acquired online. Perhaps if you get a new one you can have that one reground into iso30 or something depending on the size. Another thing you might look into is that I heard on another thread that MTW can get the iso30 spindles for the Rf45 machines. PErhaps you can get one and adapt it to your spindle body with custom bearing selection and parhaps a cool belt drive. Basically turn lemons into lemonade as it were... good luck man and peace

Pete

There's a shop that advertises on E-Bay that will re-grind machine spindles for, IIRC, about $150.

Regards,
Ray L.

[rwskinner]

I guess I'm about to order my servos. This is what I planned on running...
Reccomendations or suggestions?

G320 Drives (Already have)
Keling KL34-180-90 1125oz
AMT 102 Encoders and cables
CNC4PC C11T BOB
CNCPC C3 index card for RPM feedback
Antek 1100 Watt 70 volt "OR" the KL7220 1440 Watt 72 volt 20 amp?

I planned on running 1605 ballscrews but I'm not close to getting those yet.

Keling is out of the 1125oz servos but has the 850's. The 850's look like they should work fine even with a little more RPM however I notice most seem to like the 1125's. $10 difference I guess might as well go for the gusto?

I thought about getting the combined Antek with 70v + 5v + 24v because I could use the 5 volts for the encoders, bob, and 320's and the 24 volts for all my pilot lights and relays. I'm thinking I'll probably buy them separate since that 5 volts is only good to 1 amp max and I don't think that is going to cover it.

[pete from TN]

My recomendation is if they are out of the 1125's the 850's are gonna be more than adequate for an RF45 mill. They are a little faster so you could gear appropriately and wind up with probably the same torque and they are really more closely matched to the power of the Geckos. I have the 1125's on my mill and they are great and run really nice and smooth and powerful even lifting my millhead is no problem but electrically speaking the 850's are probably about perfect. If you get the C11T board from Arturo make sure it has twin solid state relays so you can control the VFD of your choice and have reversing on board too. Mine had the high voltage relay and the solid state relay on it and I had to wire up a reversing relay with an external relay off pin 17 and it has not been simple to do, in fact I am still working on it to get it to work right and reverse quickly. The high voltage relay( not sure that is the correct term) is good for the coolant control or whatever else you need. I do not use the spindle encoder feedback but I am looking into it currently. I would love to do some rigid tapping with EMC2 but it is looking like you need a couple extra inputs for encoder positioning and an index pulse to really get it to control it right. Not sure I want to go that way or just buy a Tormach Tension Compression tap holder and do it the tormach way with no encoder feedback just basically guessing at the speed and feed based on a specific RPM to a certain depth and then reversing from there allowing the float in the head to take up the difference...


Other than that I highly recommend the AMT encoders and I really like my Antek PPS it made wiring this whole thing a bunch easier. I got mine with the 5vdc, 12vdc, and full power taps for running the whole system. Good luck man.... peace


Pete

[rwskinner]

Thanks Pete. I ordered the 850's. I found an Article Mauris from Gecko wrote and it shows the 850 is a pretty good match for the G320.

Finally got the mill back on the stand. I leveled the stand the best I could then sat the mill on a 0.075" shim on each corner. I shimmed the soft foot until my ways on the Y were perfectly level (no twist) checking it front and rear. I verified the table from front to back and left to right and it was perfect.

I get to start checking column alignment and tram again tonight or tomorrow then get to put all my VFD wiring back the way it was.

When I get it CNC'd I will let Mach control Start/Stop Fwd/Rev and Speed via modbus so I can save all those outputs for other things. I think I will probably control non critical items such as coolant pumps and such with modbus as well and leave my MPG on the Parallel port.

I don't think I would like the MPG going thru modbus as it seems it would be jerky.

[pete from TN]

I am actually looking at getting some more boards from arturo now, I am planning on using a PCI paralell port card and get a relay board and possibly another breakout board to wire up some interesting things I am working on for the machine. It should allow me to redo the wiring I did for the C11g to get reversing working and set it up with it's own relays on the board, I will probably use the solid state relay for the coolant control and the rest of the IO's for sensors and such.... should be pretty cool... peace

Pete

[SCzEngrgGroup]

Thanks Pete. I ordered the 850's. I found an Article Mauris from Gecko wrote and it shows the 850 is a pretty good match for the G320.

Finally got the mill back on the stand. I leveled the stand the best I could then sat the mill on a 0.075" shim on each corner. I shimmed the soft foot until my ways on the Y were perfectly level (no twist) checking it front and rear. I verified the table from front to back and left to right and it was perfect.

I get to start checking column alignment and tram again tonight or tomorrow then get to put all my VFD wiring back the way it was.

When I get it CNC'd I will let Mach control Start/Stop Fwd/Rev and Speed via modbus so I can save all those outputs for other things. I think I will probably control non critical items such as coolant pumps and such with modbus as well and leave my MPG on the Parallel port.

I don't think I would like the MPG going thru modbus as it seems it would be jerky.

MPGs work just fine through Modbus....

Regards,
Ray L.