[N4NV]

I spent about half an hour drawing up my turret encoder. The lines are center of the cutting tool. I will import it to Lazycam and have it generate the g code. The outer circle will be a groove for the sensor output wires, the next groove is for the Vcc wire (common to all) and the next in will be the ground wire (common to all). I will use a 1/8" ball end mill for the groves and a 1/8" end mill for the second to inner ring for the sensors (they are only 1/8"x3/16"). Maybe this weekend I can get it machined and wired.

Vince

[N4NV]

I finished up the Panduit duct for now. The cables that are still hanging out are either for the turret, spares, or extra limit switches. I have some wire loom that I will use to dress up the cables from the computer when I finish the enclosure.

I picked up some Delrin from a friend so I should be able to machine the turret encoder base tomorrow.

Vince

[CNCfun&games]

Vince,

Realize it's a little late for your application.......but purchase my Loc Line
on EBay.
3 nozzles & the manifold for $14.50+$10.00 S&H. I Remove the magnetic base and attach it to a Machine light supplied by the same guy's..

Keep up the good work.....Very interesting, W. Smith

[NEATman]

Vince-
How does your chuck mount? If it is threaded on, you may want to increase your deceleration time to help avoid catching a spinning chuck! Also the added intertia of the chuck will definetly change the stopping time.

I have a wood lathe with a threaded on chuck & a replacement DC spindle drive. The switch that WAS on the drive allowed you to switch from forward to reverse with off being the center position. After accidentally switching it to reverse, and then dodging a spinning chuck that flew across the shop, I changed out the switches to on/off and a seperate locking style reverse switch.

I'm converting an older all manual Hardinge with an 8 position rotary tool rest. I need to start my own thread about it - perhaps it would get me to work on it more!

Outstandig thread BTW.

NEATman

[N4NV]

Vince-
How does your chuck mount? If it is threaded on, you may want to increase your deceleration time to help avoid catching a spinning chuck!
NEATman

Thank you for your concern. Yes, I am aware of the chuck coming unthreaded, it was talked about earlier in this thread. Also previously I talked about designing for the max and setting for the real world. I was just trying to find the minimum breaking time (turns out it’s .89 seconds without a chuck). This morning I set it at 2 seconds for a more feudalistic time. BTW, I believe I can have two types of deceleration programmed in. I might put one on the EPO and have that set to something like 1 second and have the normal decel at 2 seconds. If the turret is about to crash into the chuck, there will not be enough room for the chuck to unthread.

Vince

[N4NV]

I still have not been able to have a brain control an output on the Cubloc, but I am getting great help and I should have it fixed in short order.

In the meantime, I installed a new VFD to replace the one I had for the coolant pump. The old one worked fine, but so many of the display segments were out I could not program it. I found a 1/6 HP, single phase in and three phase out for $38 including shipping on eBay. This one was new in the box. I tightened up some of the fittings on the coolant system to stop some annoying drips. I retested the system with the new VFD. I found that the cavitation was not due to a low coolant level as I first thought, but by the long hose from the tank to the new position of the pump. On the previous location the inlet hose was about 12" long. Now it is 48" long. When running at full speed there is too much resistance in the inlet hose and the pump cavitates. Now, with the wonder of a VFD, I just slowed it down from 60 HZ to 45HZ and no more cavitation and I still have plenty of flow.

I received my new encoders today along with a pleasant surprise. They were mounted to NEMA 17 high torque stepper motors and the seller did not want to take them off so he included the motors, all 4 for the original $40 price of the encoders. I have been looking for some motors like these for my watch lathe. I want to make that lathe run on CNC as well. I guess that will be my fall project, keep tuned. In the picture you can see how well they will fit my custom Taig cross slide (it was machined thinner to work with the lower spindle center on the watch lathe). The new encoders are 500 line and my old were 200 line. I will have to ream out the center of the encoder wheel as the new ones are 5mm and my shafts are 1/4".

Tomorrow I am driving 3 1/2 hours north to a friend’s house to do our annual inspection on our hang gliders. I won't be back until late Sunday so probably no post until Monday.

Vince

[Roodesign]

Hi guys, I thought I should post my work on my HNC....
I'm not much for neat, but it all works!

anyway...the details...

hardinge hnc
original brush servos
original 2hp 3ph spindle motor (cone pulley drive locked in one place)
all the original accessories (can't imagine I will ever use the vert. cutoff...but it's hooked up to the control...
part chute
vert cutoff
collet closer
turret
coolant

spindle still has the high/low clutch transmission and brake controlled

the stuff I added...

galil 2130 motion controller (ethernet)
Advanced motion controls analog servo amps (b25a20ac)
advanced motion controls 2500 ppr encoders mounted on the ends of the screws gives .00002 resolution (like the old control) the only thing I did not buy on ebay!
2x opt022 g1 racks for the i/o (lot of modules)
old dell pc/ with mach3 and galil plugin (xp)
mitsubishi e520 3.7k vfd for the spindle
ge vfd for the coolant
some bigger ssr's for the brake/clutch controls/lubepump (vfd controls pump)
now the turret...
the four inputs from the turret encoder go right into the galil...there are outputs for the two controls:

turn/lift
stop

I have all the turret controls hooked up and working with the galil software but I have not yet been able to get a macro going for MACH3 to control the turret...with the galil software I can put the turret up, watch till I get to the correct position, then drop it down by clicking at the right time! soon I hope!

I have a encoder on the spindle, but the mach3 plugin does not yet support threading etc...when it does, it should be able to do threading...rigid tapping etc...so brian says...

well that's it for now...
Roo Trimble

[N4NV]

I have a encoder on the spindle, but the mach3 plugin does not yet support threading etc...when it does, it should be able to do threading...rigid tapping etc...so brian says...

well that's it for now...
Roo Trimble

Mach turn does support threading. The spindle input has to be one pulse per revolution. There are lots of people threading with Mach. At this time Mach does not support rigid tapping on the mill.

Vince

[Roodesign]

r

[Kevin Taylor]

Great thread Great detail and pic's Any one want a HC with a Lathemate conversion I need room there are pic's on BTC Clubhouse search my post's I got the control to run and I have some new part's for it but don't have the time to work with it a nother project came along with more need PM or email [email protected] also have two DV59's that could go Thank's Kevin Great build!!!! Keep up the great work

[N4NV]

I was able to get Mach to command the Cubloc! I'm moving forward again! My problem was I was using the commands “input” and “output” instead of “usepin”. I thought since I was not using the Ladder program for this, I did not need the usepin command. Reading though the manual some more, I might be able to have the turret program running in less than 2 weeks!

I need to make a pulley for my hang glider so I am trying to get the collet closer running. I may just use the chuck instead. I looked through a box of parts for the lathe and found the bracket that keeps the collet closer from trying to spin with the spindle. I painted it today and will mount it tomorrow. I also got the collet closer valve that I was missing and I installed it. It is the double valve in the lower left of the picture. Looking through the parts list, I may be missing part of the regulator, but I am not sure. I will try it without the regulator and see what happens.

Vince

[N4NV]

I had a productive day. Once I had the output running on my Cubloc, I went ahead and wired up the coolant VFD, then I had to program the VFD for external input instead of the keypad. That went fine. After getting the coolant pump under Mach control, I decided to try for the spindle VFD.

I am using CNC4PC’s new C11T card. It has an output for 0 to 10V. It converts step signal pulses and coverts them to a voltage. With a setting of 1000 in the steps per section of the motor turning page I could get a 0 to 6V signal. Changing the steps per to 1900 gave me about 10.5V. There is voltage pot next to the output that can be used for fine tuning the voltage. I adjusted it for 10.02V, which was as close as I could get.

After getting the voltage adjusted I had to program the VFD to take a 0 to 10V signal and use an external signal for start and stop. The 0 to 10V signal was easy to program, but I was having trouble to get the external start stop to work. I finally turned off the VFD and restarted it. When I came back online everything worked! The drive is a GE AF-300 mini.

Now Mach has control of the spindle and coolant pump.

I will continue to work on my turret program and also the collet closer.

Vince

[kirk_wallace]

I have a screw spindle mount and worry about losing a chuck on my HNC. Has anyone converted an HNC or CHNC to an A2-5 that comes on some CHNC's and other Hardinge models?

Kirk, http://www.wallacecompany.com/machine_shop/

[N4NV]

I'm getting closer. I wrote a little ladder program to do a tool change and it worked. At least I know the timing is OK. Now I have to figure out how to get a tool number from Mach and then have the Cubloc pick one of 8 subprograms to work. I hoping to figure this out in the next two weeks.

Vince

[N4NV]

I thought I was getting close on the programming, but I got stuck. I may have to use Basic to program the turret. I will play around with it this weekend. The hardest part is I have to be at the machine to program since I don't have a Cubloc at home.

Vince

[Karl_T]

I thought I was getting close on the programming, but I got stuck. I may have to use Basic to program the turret. I will play around with it this weekend. The hardest part is I have to be at the machine to program since I don't have a Cubloc at home.

Vince

Ah, BTDT. Just remember the first 90% of a project takes 90% of the time. The last 10% takes the other 90%. There will be real JOY in your heart when that turret bows to your command.

Karl

[N4NV]

I'm getting joy in my heart. My problem that was keeping me from moving forward on the turret programming was turning off the turret stop valve after it engages. What I needed was a timer that would turn on then off when the correct tool position was obtained. Here is a description of what I needed.

"When an input turns on, I need an output to turn on for X seconds, then turn off while the input is still on. When the input turns off, nothing should happen. When it turns on again, the output should turn on for X seconds, then off. With TON and TOFF (Cubloc timer functions), the input needs to turn back off for the timer to complete its functions."

What I finally figured out was I needed to use both timer functions in Ladder, with the output of one tied to the input of the other. It works like a charm. What is nice about ladder is how much can be done with just a few lines. The entire tool change program is only 5 lines as seen in the attachment below.

The last piece of the puzzle is having mach send the tool number and then having the Cubloc get the proper tool position. I think this can be done by sending the tool number to register "D0", then in place of the "Tool6" input shown in the attachment below, it would be "Tool(D0)".

Vince

[Karl_T]

Mine is set at 40. I'm pretty sure that's just on the close side. Full air pressure to open. Follow the air lines in your parts manual to confirm. I have used lower pressure on tubing.

Karl

[Karl_T]

Hmm. I had to do that also. Mine was FULL of swarf and a varnish like crud. I had priced a new solenoid assembly when it didn't work after the first cleaning. You don't want to know. I had done something wrong. After the second attempt, it worked like a charm.

[kirk_wallace]

Vince,

I haven't checked your thread for a while. It looks like you are making headway.

I think you might be able to release your collet by switching the lines on the closer. (Mine has quick connect couplings).

After taking mine apart, I got to thinking that the design is clever but simple enough to reproduce. It would be fun to try to make one for my Feeler.

I have the same ring that locks the collet tube to the spindle. The slots allow me to loosen the Allen screws and remove the ring, but there is so little surface to tighten against that the slots have rounded off. When I tighten the screws the ring slips until the ring disengages. I wonder if a ring with no slots would be better. You only need to loosen the ring to get collets in or out. The ring only needs to be removed (or rather the closer assembly) to get a larger rod through a chuck. Or am I missing something. On the other hand, a new ring with fresh slots should work well too.

Kirk, http://www.wallacecompany.com/machine_shop