[Kevin Taylor]

Thank's for the suportive input on the knee feed steve will post pictures tomarrow I hope if my IT guy is avalible "youngest son". Gus the serisI BTC is MT35 the BTC serisII is MT40. Hoping to make headway on encloser this weekend first panel bent welded and program's for mount's on disk tonight will cut am cautiously going to drill four holes for 10-32's in the front of the cpu encloser can't see anything to drill through . Have to make the back panel's easy to remove to fill way lub and deal with cable conection's. Anybody found TG100's or they a BPT tooling legend ? Could use a couple have other stuff to trade. How about puting a column riser in a BTC has any one done it with a Boss 3-6 S1? Would make 4th axis work easer Back to making chips Kevin

[Kevin Taylor]

P.S. colin1544 and kumaichi need bob vila to come by and do a episode of this old home shop!!!! Kevin

[Kevin Taylor]

Encloser Bracket's finished for one of the back panels and put to bed in the vib finisher for the night need more angle to make bracket's for the left panel, back to the aluminum store on monday will post pictures of progress sat. or sun.
Good night all Kevin

[Kevin Taylor]

A few pic's of progress on encloser bracket's and two of the panel's should have most done by week's end Kevin Taylor

[Kevin Taylor]

All right I know some of you have looked at it any comment's good or bad havent got much done this week just got away to pick up last piece of angle I needed today hope to get more done this weekend It's been monday all week Got a air indexer off of ebay hope to make it jump and jive to the BTC control It's a nicholis and if anybody has a book on one it would be helpfull look's like it was a add on for an older machining center will post pic's of it and progress later this weekend . Got welder drug over to the mill aeria to weld frame of encloser up this weekend All for know P.S. any body got tooling to trade or want please post a note Thank's Kevin

[vebers]

Hey guys its been awhile. I am retrofitting my btc it has been a slow go. I had all three axis up and running right off the bat, but was having some real problems with realiablitly. It took a couple of months but I have been able to chase down noise inducing rats, and put them to bed. So now all three axis are up and running correctly. While I was scratching my head on that one I went ahead and set up a new VFD. It is currently working from the dial on the front, but I haven't started interfacing it with the PC control.

As a side note I have stripped off everything from this machine. The only things I am keeping are the Three phase ac transformer and the 24VDC and 100 VDC power supplies everything else "In" the boxes I have no use for. If anyone is interested in my spare parts please email me or post. The board from the operator panel has a burn mark on it so I am sure it is no good. Past that the parts are untested. I would be willing to take a picture for anyone interested, or a visit for personal inspection could also be arranged.


Vince

[gus]

While the power supplies are getting old, much of theat wiring is pretty usefu, mostly the power part down, lower right of the rear cabinet, the big kickout relay and such, did you have a manual, I could scan you the wiring diagrams if you haven't torn it all up yet. l

[vebers]

Here are some pictures of the components I am willing to part with.

Vince

[vebers]

I couldn't get the pictures to download they are a little to big for CNC Zone. email me at [email protected] and I will send them to you directly. I am sure there are some real solid components in this lot of stuff.

Thanks

Vince

[Cartesian-xyz]

Been seriously considering a reto from centroid for my BTC. But I must maintain the tool changer! Talked with Ajax, My opinion is the one-man band is strecheched thinnnn. Had an oportunity to meet with a Centroid Rep and was very impressed with his professionalizm and knowlege. He did not need to spend 50% of his time on a phone to a REAL tech. (0 time on phone he was tunning a Atrump machine and was verrrrrry knowlegable.) I feel he is very capable of makeing the BTC change tools with Centroids control. He is Marc Leonard of CNC Services Northwest (http://www.cncsnw.com/) I hope to make the conversion from bridgeport to Centroid soon and I am certain Marc will be a big part of the transition.
Stephen Bergman, Cartesian Machine Works

[gus]

That toolchanger will take a TON of plc inputs, I mean half a dozen for hte spindle ground plane widgety alone, bafore you actually get into the toolchanger itself

[Kevin Taylor]

I may of started a bad thing with this post but I think there is a lot of work left in thies old thing's with out trying to reinvent the wheel I know gus dosent use his tool changer I have found with it working it's easer to load tool offset's and imput a program in mdi than it is to change tool's in my manual mill short of drilling and tapping one hole I almost always do it in the BTC . With a few new micro switches and the proper adjustment's I would chalange a lot of machines to a tool change event plus you figer in the investment of new . I bought mine for two reason's I could afford it and the space it takes up is less than most VMC's of it's X&Y Also I was afrade of finding myself in the position of needing to hire a trade school kid to run it and I figered if it wasen't a Hass of Fadal they wouldent want to learn it or go backward's to G code. The inderistry I work in " Automotive machine" primerly just became CNC savy in the last ten year's but the majorty of the work is so part spefic or short run it's not practical or cost efective . I'm macking replasment tooling and part's for twenty yer old machines that are paid for for shop's who are working on toy's , hot rod's , and daly driver's . Sometimes It's beter to be the best at what you do than be the fastest or do the most of it . Let's all look at what we are doing and each deside what we each need . I think the enginer's at BPT were ahead of the tecnoligy avalible at the time this machine was concived and the IT guy's don't like to admit that The whole tool change operation is something that monstergarage would come up with . Keep it adjusted keep it oiled and keep it tight and it work's well let's look at replacing the switches and some of the other component's with more modern ones and I think there is a lot of time left for thies old hulk's. Several mounth's ago I was talking to a tec at EMI who was about the same age as my BTC and he said I just bought a hobby and I explaned to him that in twenty five year's of buying new and used Equ. I have out of nessiety learned to fix a lot of it on my own because the rep vaperises shortly after he get's the comission check. It's been a long day after a long week it's time to end this tirade and let somebody else talk Thank's for listening

Kevin Taylor P.S. not responsibal for spelling and puncuation error's

[gus]

Don't get me wrong, if the toolchanger works, great. Retrofitting it with a new control might be daunting. Getting parts for a late 70's control is getting difficult, and this one has wire wrap boards!

[Cartesian-xyz]

Thanks gus, your correct there are a lot of inputs necessary for head grounding plane, Hi/Low range shifting, spindle orientation, tool release ect..... however dont overlook the obvious, its being accomplished quite successfully now with 26 year old PLC. Altohough I am still researching, it appears that Centroids PLC with 36 inputs and 39 outputs should be sufficent. Some of the inputs are of coarse dedicated to xyz limits and the like, but some current inputs like the 5 proximity switches on the carousel I believe can be eliminated.
I agree with Kevin, some of these older machines have a lot of life (money making ability) left in them. I believe the machine I have including the tool changer has many more hours left. As Kevin stated keep it lubed,tight and adjusted and I think the Rub-Goldberg of tool changers will live on.
My motive for the retro is not to get the machine running (it works great) but to avoid the certain interruption in work flow when one of the boards,motors or amps dies and I need parts! This is currently my only CNC. Additionally I would like to be able to use cutter comp and not have the machine decell/accell painfully slow at every intersect and tangency. Helical pocket entry and multiple work coordinates that I have grown accustom to would be nice as well. I also have a interest in electronics and computers and this project ties them all together. Hopfully soon I will have those hard to find BTC Boards and the like on Ebay!

Stephen Bergman, Cartesian Machine Works

[gus]

Do find out how many "free" plc inputs, and outputs you will have. 6 limit switches and 3 trip dogs, are nine right there, spindle brake, coolant pump... it all adds up

[Cartesian-xyz]

Hey Kevin, Not sure if anyone answered your diameter question on the turret.
used my framming square and 6"scale and calculated 15" to be real close to the diameter of the turret or andy part therof.
Stephen, Cartesian Machine Works

Hey the enclosure looks great, Beats the dickens out of the hartdboard-tie wire mess
I cobbled together!!

[Kevin Taylor]

BTC control bug Have today had the spindel stop in a part, sometimes looses position but most of the time I can switch to MDI and Retract the Z and go to the start pos. and hit restart and it will go for a while then the same thing the last time I noticed my laptop was displaying some sort of code 000000 002000 @000002@?000004@?@174370@?@174374@ Maybe If george sees this he can shed some light on it This was after I had exit'd edit Hyperterm is still conected but not in edit mode also sometimes during setup changing tool's seting offset's ect. I will hear a psit sound like air dumping and will go into set up from powerenable will not always reset any idea's would be aprecieated Thank's Kevin

[gus]

I have had similar things happen on my retroed BTC, suspect ground loops in the rs232, or a power supply starting to go south[causing stray voltage spikes]

[Kevin Taylor]

Gus I has an arc when I powered up sat morning and found that the gromet on the disconect arm was gone on one leg of the disconect and the blade had worn through the shrink tub on the rod so I inprovised an insolator and went on now the thing is stuck with the display showing 60006 all00's on the left FS&T led's on and run,goto,and hold light and key pad is non responsive even if you reset/clear also when switching to setup on main control it dosent switch to setup on the front switch panel ? Any thought's anybody Thank's Kevin

[Kevin Taylor]

Gus my spelling was bad this morning need my glasses I think proubly not much better tonight it's been a long day I found the LSI card to be practly unpluged so I cleand it and reinstaled it and it booted up so I made chip's for a couple of hour's then it started shuting down the spindle and stoping usily dident loose position so I could rehome and start over but the last time got some more werd #s on the laptop and the Y axis was displaying 320 with no decmil point Will start tomarrow with the voltage's in the right hand cabnent What rs232 ground loup's were you talking about? the jumper's in the cable at the plug Im still using the origonal plug on the front of the cabnent Sound's like your getting wet on the east coast today All for tonight Kevin