[pete from TN]

Gary,
Thanks for the kind words. I wish I could claim the rifle but alas it belongs to one of my best customers. I designed and built the rail to fit the contours of the Steyr rifles. I kinda like it myself wish I could afford to buy one of those rifles I would make one for it LOL. I am actually working on a design for my RWS54 action and will be prototyping it soon. I have been an avid airgunner for almost 20 years now and make all sorts of custom parts for the shooting sports. The Cincinatti has been excellent in this capacity. It is amazingly accurate and makes me look good LOL. I am also working on several other items for the hobby. The new CNC lathe should go a long way to allowing me to do some really cool schtuff. I can't wait to get it working and cleaned up. I need to pickup a nice D1-5 three jaw with removable jaws for it and some other tooling. Right now I am kinda tapped out in fact I am kinda worried about Christmas really LOL. Need to find some good paying work here soon.

Hope you are well. I know you make some sick guitars man. I need to build a nice CNC router at some point. Keep in touch. Peace

Pete

[80gus]

Scott,
Hey thanks man I appreciate your thoughts about my retrofit. Honestly I am not entirely sure who would say that about me LOL. I am just doing the best I can to make this machine work and work reliably. The thing that has made all of this possible is my friends. The other thing that I can say is that really at the end of the day doing this retrofit on my Cincinatti makes me realize how much MORE difficult it was to do the same thing to my RF45. At the end of the day the RF45 required TONS more fabrication and customization and had to be made into a CNC machine with Ballscrew installation and custom mounts for the screws as well as the motors etc. This machine was ALREADY a CNC mill and ALREADY has a toolchanger on it, it ALREADY has ballscrews etc.etc. When you start with that all in place and in this case it was all working well the job becomes much more simple. All I had to do is remove all the electronics and replace them with suitable replacements and make it work with the new control. So far that has been doable even for me with limited electronics knowledge and again as I said with the help of some very smart and talented friends.

Pete

Pete Awesome Thread, lots of reading here!! I'm going down almost the same path, I have done a RF45 clone, and just purchased a Cincinnati 500- this comment has made me a lot less anxious about this conversion.

[pete from TN]

Been a little while since I updated this thread. Still running the machine daily making parts. Still tinkering with the toolchanger setup but it has honestly taken a side track to making parts as it is. The need to make money trumps all unfortunately. I have been doing a lot of cool parts lately and making stuff for the tuner car crowd as well as making and selling a lot of the Rifle parts I have been doing. I did order a case of linear guidway grease today for the machine so I can get the grease gun loaded and not have any down time. So far the machine is VERY reliable and runs beautifully. Makes some very nice parts. Been working with a couple local companies making parts and prototypes for them. Some interesting stuff thankfully.

The CNC lathe I bought is still not operational as I am trying to get cash together for it. It is taking a little while longer than I had hoped and I am considering options to get the cash necessary. Keep hoping for work to pay for it but things always pop up on me requiring the money as usual LOL. Can't wait to add the nice CNC lathe to the shops capabilities. Working on some custom Bike parts for a rush job for a local customer tonight and they are two complementary parts that are two sided requiring soft jaws work. Just machined a couple sets of jaws for the Kurt D688 and making the programs for the second side fixturing now. Hope all of you are well. Peace

Pete

[michaelthomas]

Pete...cool to hear you got a cnc lathe. Like you, I recently upgraded my converted RF-45 to an Arrow 500......for making air rifles......lol. I would have really been shocked if you had bought a project Mazak lathe. That would be just too many coincidences. I'm loving my Arrow.....just replaced spindle bearings last weekend, though. It's a good little machine.

Nice scope rail for the Steyr.

Mike

[pete from TN]

Well I guess you know what they say...Immitation is the sincerest form of flattery LOL. Glad to hear you got an Arrow 500. I love mine it is a fine little machine. Good luck man.

Pete

[andypugh]

Still tinkering with the toolchanger setup

I have been working on a simulator config to make developing toolchange routines less stressful to test.
https://youtu.be/5OnV-zyVO8U
I need to add a spindle (to orient), carousel locking pin and tool release to it, but I think it should help.

[pete from TN]

Awesome Andy, Appreciate all you guys do. I need to get off my ass and finish this thing. This surely will help. Peace

Pete

[pete from TN]

Some quick parts off the Cincinatti I just finished for a local customer. Also made sacrificial jaws and fixturing to make a run of these later on. Pretty neat project. Working on some other things for the Off Road guys right now. Just thought I would share...Peace

[bill south]

Pete.
Nice parts bro! I read earlier where you picked up a cnc lathe! Do you know of any other lathes for sell in your area? I found a couple down south in lower Florida but I'd rather get one closer to home!
You've come a long way from the cabinet maker I met a little while ago! Good Job.
Bill

[nathand]

Pete,

Your parts are looking great! Glad to hear the machine's running well for you. I've got an opportunity to purchase a 1994 Arrow 500 that has had the controls removed for a reasonable price. It's definitely more than I need for now, but it would be nice to have the capability in the future. I'd be retrofitting to single phase like you did, but I noticed you said yours has a 7.5 hp spindle motor? I have been told the one I am looking at has a 10 hp spindle, but I haven't been able to get to the nameplate to confirm. It's a model ERE.

Do you have any idea how much current your machine draws on 230V single phase power? Thanks for all of the great information and keep up the good work!

[pete from TN]

nathand,
I am sorry I was mistaken the spindle IS 10hp actually and I do indeed run the machine off single phase. It is not optimal and I am sure I can get it to run better with some more tweaking of the VFD settings but it works and makes nice parts for me. I have no earthly idea how many amps it draws on the single phase. All I can tell you is that I run it off a 60 amp breaker and it has never tripped ever since I started running the machine even during some screw ups where the cutter went full depth full width thru a deep cut and bogged down the motor somewhat it did not trip. I do have to slow down the accelleration and decelleration of the motor to help keep the current draw down but it is not terrible. If you are used to a state of the art CNC machining center running three phase with good power input and seeing that almost instantaneous spindle up to speed you might find this annoying but I can deal with it so it does not really bother me anymore. I am quite sure my accell and decell curves in the VFD could be better but I am not all that great with tuning that sort of thing so I have it working okay and kinda left it to move onto other things. I still have to get spindle orient working so I can use the toolchanger but I run the machine daily and it makes beautiful parts as you can see. Keep in mind that buying a gutted machine for a great deal is pretty cost effective but it is DEFINITELY not cheap. Axis motors and drives are about 12-1500 dollars an axis and the spindle drive is another grand or more by the time you get everything you need. It adds up pretty quick. I was lucky enough to be able to sell off all of the working older parts for a good price which greatly offset that cost.

Pete

[nathand]

Pete,

Are you still running the 15hp Hitachi VFD you mentioned in an earlier post? I was looking at the 20 hp WJ200. Are you still happy with its performance? Also, the machine I am considering has what looks like a small refrigeration unit on the lower back left corner. It looks like it could be for the spindle. Did yours have it and are you using it? If so, was it three phase too?

I'll hopefully be looking it over again this evening. It really is more machine than I need currently, since I'll just be doing prototyping to start, but I hope to eventually do small production runs. I know the retrofit will be expensive, but I haven't had much luck finding any smaller machines in my area. This one's close by, and they're willing to deliver! I won't have the old control components to sell, but I would likely sell the old servo motors, and hopefully recoup close to what I've got in the machine itself.

Thanks for your help!

[nathand]

I looked at the machine again yesterday. It'll need a good cleaning of coolant/aluminum chips, but it does seem to be in good shape mechanically. Ballscrews (that I could get to) looked good, linear rails were smooth and bearings seemed to fit tight. Tool changer carousel looked good and spindle spun freely and quietly. The real test will be putting power to the spindle motor and see how it sounds. One of the doors was a little off track, but that should be no big deal.

I forgot to ask yesterday, what model servo/drive did you decide to go with for the Z axis? I was looking at the same Teco packages you used for the X and Y, but couldn't nothing jumped out that looked suitable for the Z. The original Control Techniques servos are still on the machine, but I think I'd rather just get new ones like you did. Thanks again.

[rwskinner]

Pete, just doing a call out to make sure you're still alive and kicking. Miss you buddy!

Richard

[Bubba]

Richard,
I'm not Pete, but he may be hard to find right now as he is in the middle of moving house a couple of states away! His closing on the old house is scheduled this week.

I'm sure he will fill everybody in when he gets a chance.

[pete from TN]

Hey Richard,
Long time no speak with you. Hope you are well my friend. As my pal Art said I am still alive and kicking. Been running the Cincinatti Arrow 500 making some cool parts for local customers and just when we were starting to really get rolling here we got an offer on our home here in Tennessee. We have been wanting to move back to Florida for some time now so we accepted the offer. I just got back late last night from our trip following the truck we hired to ship our Cincinatti Arrow 500 and our Standard Modern CNC lathe down to a storage unit in Port St. Lucie, Florda. It thankfully arrived safe and sound and we were able to enjoy a day or two of sun and fun with our Friends and Family on the beach down there. Last night we got back here to our home in Tennessee and we have a few more days to pack up all of our belongings and furniture into our Uhaul before we close on our home here on Thursday. Then we will be driving back down to Florida to search for our new home. Several possibilities so far we looked at while we were down there. Hoping for a nice 3/2/2 car garage with a BIG garage for the shop LOL. Hard to find where we are going.

Hope you are well and I need to update this thread with current goings on as we have been making some cool stuff lately. Been working with a local race shop making turbo manifold flanges and other neat stuff for tuner cars. I was pleased to know that a fellow I have done a good bit of work for in the past here in Tennessee contacted me recently and he is ALSO happened to be moving to Florida about 2 hours from where we will be living. What are the odds of that ? Peace my friend...


Pete

[TOTALLYRC]

Hi Pete,
Nice to see that things are going your way.
When you get it all set back up, let us know how it is going.
God bless.

Mike

[bill south]

Hey Pete!
Been wondering if you were still kicking. Glad to hear that you are finally moving back to Fla. Nothing like home and Fla would make an excellent home. I've been working on a PDB for my Torus Pro and finally getting it installed after about 2 years of working on it. It is very similar to the Novakon PDB and is an electro-pneumatic design using planetary gears with a powerful motor all controlled by an arduino microprocessor. It was a PITA to figure out but I'm finally making some decent progress. When you get settled after the move, shoot me some pictures and info on your new cnc lathe. A cnc lather is definitely on the list after my next project (tool changer).
A quick question for you! The air gun you designed and built, did you build the stock for it or was it purchased? I'm toying with building target rifles!

Keep the faith and great to hear from you.
Bill

[gwood]

Pete,


The FivesMSI-Cincinnati Tech Support number is 1-859-534-4750 8-5 EST USA (no support cost)
For the UK built Verticals ask for Greg Wood; if Greg is out ask for Mike Trunk. Please have your machine serial Number i.e. "70xx-x0x-xx0123"; Model Type i.e. "ERO" and control Schematics i.e. "9120xxxx" from the back plate on the outside of the electrical cabinet.

[Bob Rudella]

Hi Pete, I live in PSL. Welcome, lots of 3-3-2 houses w/ 2car here. Call Kitty Bucek at B&B realty, she's old but she knows this town like nobody else.