[jderou]

I picked this up from a friend. He bought it off ebay a couple years ago and never hooked it up. He had bought the RS232 kit for hooking it up to a pc, but just never got around to it. With any luck, I hope to have it going by the weekend. Right now I just have to worry about getting it off the front lawn, though. 1 question so far, their are counters on the x and y axis, one says ~700 the other says ~300. Is this in hours?

Thanks

[Kool Parts]

jderou,
Nice, I would just run a extention cord and leave it there. You could just move the trailer up and mow under it, then move it back.
Gary

[jderou]

Haha! I already have people at work saying "nice yard ornament, what the heck is that thing?" I bet the neighbors are calling me trash right now.

[HillBilly]

The readouts are in inches they are to keep track of any lost steps (Since these are open loop steppers that possibilty does exist.).

Darek

[Kool Parts]

If you think they are talking now, just wait till you wash the chips off the table with the lawn hose
Gary

[DLMACHINE]

Getting it of the front lawn will be easy. Wait till you try to go through that overhead door. If it's the one in the photo it appears to be a 7' door and the mill is over 7'.

[miljnor]

just grabb one end with one hand and pick it up tilt it back and drag it in caveman style... thats what a REAL MAN would do!

I like the garden hose method...hmmm wounder if i could implement that in my shop?

#3 Today, 07:54 AM
jderou
Chip Sweeper Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: USA
Posts: 26

Haha! I already have people at work saying "nice yard ornament, what the heck is that thing?" I bet the neighbors are calling me trash right now.

don't see many houses in that picture so you probably are ok! (wish I had that much open space at my place!) not to mention the mill!

[mxtras]

Just like Christmas, isn't it? Getting new toys is SO much fun!

That's a good start on your shop, by the way - I like the open-air atmoshere and the elevated platform the machine is on - are you going to paint the floor of the platform green too?

You are hereby obligated to start a journal on repairs/refurbish - with lots of pics and info. Don't let us down........ (chair)

Scott

[machintek]

Congradulations!
The mechanical counters are table and saddle position. When you set part program zero, you look at these and write down the values. If you shut the machine off in a place other than part program zero, this allows you to jog there and reset zero.

George

[2muchstuff]

From the picture it doesn't look like that you are in one of those fancy subdivisions with all there rules in Chesterfield. Congradulations on your new mill. A fellow St. Louisan.

[jderou]

Ahh yes, you have discovered my second challenge. The door is 7', I am going to have to take the top of the mill apart to get it under (easier said than done). No fancy subdivision here, I can be as much of a hoosier as I want . Restoration/Retrofit will come with time, first I have to make some money! Hopefully its plug and play.

[DLMACHINE]

It's not a bad job actually. I had to get my 2 in through a 7' door.The top comes apart nicely and is pretty straight forward.

[jderou]

Good to hear, am I going to need anything other than manpower to take that top cap off (in other words is it extremely heavy)? Am I going to have to remove the pulleys? motor? Thanks

[2muchstuff]

I'm not familiar with that particular machine but if it is anything like a Bridgeport you may be able to detach the motor and it's associated casting from the base/stand as one piece. YES, IT IS HEAVY. A forklift would be ideal but a modified engine hoist may work with a come-along.

[machintek]

Just curious because I cannot tell from the picture. There were two versions of the BOSS 5 made. One was a rigid ram but the other allowed the head to be tilted. if you have the second type, no disassembly would be necessary. Just tilt the head.

George

[jderou]

huh, that would be nice, unfortunately I have the rigid ram.

[DLMACHINE]

I removed

1 top cover
2 motor pulley
3 spindle pulley
4 back gear
5 intermediate cover
6 spindle top shaft and bottom cover
7 unbolted motor and rested it onto the casting.

This sounds like alot but it's actually very simple.Requires the removal of approx 15 bolts and a couple of snap rings.

[jderou]

Ok, I have it halfway in the garage (enough to where I cant close the garage door!) Turns out I am going to have to remove the motor (shaft sticks up too high), so I have to disassemble a little farther. Unfortunately you cant just remove the motor, you have to remove the plate it bolts too also. Hopefully shouldn't be too big of a deal, I'll continue with it tommorow.

BTW, if something were to break on me, like say the pneumatic brake lever, where would I find replacement parts?

[jderou]

Next question, the guy I bought this from gave me a static phase converter. Am I going to have problems with this? What kind of problems should I expect? I was just reading that static is bad.

[DLMACHINE]

What size convertor is it? Was he actually running the machine on it?

I ran my BOSS 5 on a rotomaster cnc balanced 5hp rotary convertor and it worked good for me.