[KyleH2]

I have a 1981 VMC with a spindle that will not turn on. I believe the Sweo 800 series board (Sweo 0028) to be dead because it has the ready light on and the spindle switch is on. I test the power across various jumpers and there is power where there should be and where there shouldn't be. I can hear M03/M04 relays click when activated. Repairing the board starts at around 450 and keeps going to $700+. This machine isn't really worth much but it would be good to have for its large table and 4th axis.

Is there any way I can replace this setup with something else that will still talk to the Fanuc 6m controller?

[gbowne1]

The best 6M drives I have seen are the FANUC ones and the Yaskawa ones.. the CIMR-MT type.

Try looking at the FANUC A06-604*-H*** type or the 605*-H***, as well.

Maybe someone else with 6M can help.

I've used the FANUC ones myself.

[KyleH2]

How will I know if the board is compatible with my machine/motor/controller/old spindle drive?

[gbowne1]

What servos do you have? Are they FANUC?

What boards do you have in your 6M?

Do you have a M19 Spindle Orient option?

Greg

[KyleH2]

I am not sure who makes the servo amps for the axis, but they are working fine. The spindle is a brushed DC servo. The machine does have m19. I am not sure what you mean by what board are in the fanuc control.

[gbowne1]

I don't know much about Sweo, but Baldor now owns Sweo Controls.

I would suggest you contact:

Practec LLC - Baldor & Sweo Drive Specialists
Practec LLC - Baldor & Sweo Drive Specialists

They should be able to help you.

Greg

[tc429]

we scrapped most of our old DC spindles, and went to ABB ACS 600/800series, but probably still have a few spare Sweo boards(ours were 50~100 hp, but might be the same cards). I'll see, and if so see if the boss would want to part with them cheep.

the sweos we had(and the six series Fanuc) are simple analog control, I would think anything with +/- 10 analog reference would work, long as output fits your motors specs. all our sweos used DC tachs, but AC and quadrature were optional- youll need to know your spindle motor armature and field volts/amps, and your tach type and output.

automationdirect.com should have DC stuff available pretty reasonable, or places like PLCCenter on Ebay might have NOS parts identical to yours. We used a lot of Eurotherm DC, and they did pretty good- our big lathes vibrate like crazy, had issues with drives plastic literally falling apart- wasnt their fault.
last DC stuff I bought was ABB(now 'Saftronics') DCS400 and those were really really great.

Do you have the manual for your Sweo drive? if its the same model we had, might be able to scan you a copy- they were pretty easy to check out.

if you do ANY wiring, be sure to turn your current limit down- way down...a maintenance guy we had swapped a motor and reversed the tach leads- had full current runaway on a twin spindle lathe, blew the jaws off both chucks- We ran double 1/4 inch guards, luckily nothing punched out... a big dislike of mine is the sweos dont give a runaway fault until max tach is exceeded...Saftronics senses divergence and shuts down at like 100 RPM