[stingray_65]

Greetings!

The title says a lot, I haven't even got this home yet. still arranging a fork truck and clearing a space in my tiny shop.

The story on the machine is it has went through 3 of our plants unused in 5 years.

It was moved in our Canadian plant and stopped working, sat for a year, shipped to our company headquarters R&D and sat 2 yrs, shipped to our shop and now 2 yrs later has been scrapped and given to me.

Long story short, before I moved it into the shipping area, I seated a loose circuit board and it works.

it was made in April of 97 according to the plate on the side.

I had like 10 minutes to play around with some of the canned routines, I air cut a 3 x 3 hole pattern and disconnected the mains.

I had a small CNC router I had made by converting an old CMM machine.

I took out the small servos, put in big steppers and ran Mach 3.

I used Inkscape as my CAD and a freeware for my CAM and had a lot of use out of it doing a bunch of 2D+ work.

I seldom programmed in G code, but understand it.

So My first list of question is:

What kind of CAD programs and Cam programs should I be looking to use on this machine?

how the heck do I load a program into this machine, that floppy disc on the side? where the heck do you get floppy discs any more?

is the centurion1 capable of supporting a 4th axis?

what would I retrofit to be able to run a 4th axis?

There is no VFD that i see in the control panel. I'll need one to run it on the 220 single phase available to me.

Right now I'm going in 100 directions with this, but it all sort of fell in my lap.

HELP!

Ray in Toledo

[single phase]

Looks like you got yourself a fun toy there. If it has a conversational programming language like the later centurions do, you would be able to type right at the control. But I don't know if they did.

If you want to learn to type your own g-code programs, you could do that on a PC running something like NCPlot (see the NCPlot forum here on cnczone). That has a marvelous visual interface that lets you see what's gonna happen as you type the g-code. I have owned it for years and love it. However I only use it for my CNC lathe. But it will work really well for the mill if you want to learn g-code.

take a look at Autodesk 123D - Free 3D Modeling Software, 3D Models, DIY Projects, Personal Fabrication Tools. That is free and is generally oriented towards 3-D printers. There's a lot of cool stuff on that Autodesk website.

Now, if money were no object, ha ha, I recommend Autodesk Inventor to do your 3-D modeling and one of the cam packages available that runs inside of Inventor to generate your G code ($10,000+). Or you could design and export your model from Inventor or Solid Works and load it into a separate CAM solution like MasterCAM. There are of course dozens of fantastic CAD and CAM programs out there but they are all very expensive. One of the cheap ones called BobCAD is used by one of my buddies. You get what you pay for, and Bobcat doesn't cost much.

I use Inventor Pro and Hypermill. That's over $20,000 worth of software. It is amazing to use but of course not practical and less it's paying the bills.

You can get floppies from Staples or you can mail order them from Newegg.

My VM-15 has a fourth axis integrated into it. I did it myself by purchasing the board from Milltronics. Then I dug up a rotary table and a DC servo that was compatible off of eBay. The good thing about Milltronics is they will help you do stuff like this if you're going to buy parts from them. I have no idea if your machine can support a fourth axis. If it does you'll probably see wires hanging and an open location for a fourth servo control board.

You could of course get a self-contained rotary table with its own programmable control and trigger it from one of the available relays in the back of your mill if there is one. But of course this is not going to give you fourth axis that is capable of simultaneous 4 axis movements.

Post some pictures of your machine including inside the control so we can see what it looks like.


Cheers
Dave

[tlowe]

Sounds like you got a DEAL!

I also have a VK4 but with Cent 6

That is a tall machine to put in a garage. Are you sure it will fit?

I started using Bobcad. It works and I am still learning. You should also be able to directly input G/M codes from the control panel in MDI.

[stingray_65]

The pic was taken at work, so i blocked out the background.

I will take a gut shot of the control panel tomorrow.

It is tall! I have 5 inches clearance, I'll nod the head to get it under the door header, might scrape the ceiling when i nod the head back up.

I asked about the CAM software because from my limited searching I was under the impression that the Centurion had some odd protocol about having no extranius data, like letters or notes in the G-Code.

I got the E-mail today from the front office saying it was mine once I sign the release of liability form (Monday) and need to arrange shipping ASAP.

I'll pick up a 150' roll of 12-3 w ground and a 220 circuit breaker and run a dedicated line out to the shop this weekend.

On the electrical subject, I found this VFD on http://www.wolfautomation.com/assets/15/cfw10.pdf

Does that drive seem suitable for my needs?

Transportation, fork truck rental, delivery, steak dinner for Bro-in-law and Dad -in-law's help is adding up quick and straining the budget. That VFD is well under $300, which makes it affordable.

Or is there a better solution?

Thanks for the help Gents, and the words of encouragement.

Ray in Toledo

[tlowe]

Before moving it. Do a few things.
Power it up and lower the Z slide to it's lower travel. Place a block of wood between the Z slide ( not the spindle) and the table to support the head assy. When taking it thru your garage door. It might be easy to turn the head side ways. Then the Z drive motor will be the tallest part. It will unbolt if needed.
That machine weights just over 4000 lbs. Be careful .
You will need larger wire than 12 gauge. Plan on 8 gauge and at least a 30 amp breaker. Your machine is either 3 hp or 5 hp. The VFD needs to be rated at twice the size if ran on single phase.

Is the maching R8 or Cat40 or something different?

[tlowe]

The VFD you show is small. I bought one of these to use on a different machine. Sumitomo Heavy Industries VFD Adjustable Variable Frequency Drives 1 Ph 3 Ph | eBay

[stingray_65]

It is Cat 40.

Thanks big for the info on the VFD.

I like when people give advice based on actual experience, that is the good stuff.

8 ga it is then, and a 30 amp breaker.

It was on my to do list tonight to plan the actual packing up of the machine.

Your plan sounds solid

The motor looks to be the same size as the Jet mill (j head copy) and that one is a 3 hp.

I did do a quick conversion, I may be wrong but 7.2 Kva on the machine plaque roughly translates to 2 hp

Thank you !

Ray

[allen mullis]

So Bobcad works well with Milltronics. I use it everyday. They have a good post processor that works ok, depending on the memory on your machine, you may or may not need to use sub-prorgams. If you do, I have a post that I modified that does the subs in the format that Milltronics needs. The conversational is great, but you will be ahead of the game to go ahead and get into some kind of CAD/CAM. Then, if 5 years down the road you decide to upgrade the control or get a Milltronics with an 8200 control, it will be a matter of re-posting the program for that control. You will need a programming manual if you don't have one already for the mill.

[sportybob]

Hi StingRAy, Welcome to the wold of Milltronics, You will like it. A couple of things,
First off, Go to confession, you "STOLE" this machine. ;-)

When you move the machine, do as tlow suggested + pull the front panel assy and the Black box control in the electrical panel. The machine has a CRT in the front panel, these do not take bouncing around on a trailer well at all. nothing worse then getting the machine home and finding you need a new display. ( I have good LCD replacement kits available if needed ) The control is held in with 4 screws to rubber mounts, Again nothings worse then getting it home and finding the control hanging by a few cables.

Wiring the machine, a 30A service should be OK+, wire with 10GA is OK. ( per US NEC) CEC is very similar.
The spindle is run direct from the 220, I assume you are asking about a VFD to act as a phase converter for the spindle motor. ( more "horse hocky" then it is worth). You can get a 3 phase 10HP converter for about $400. see here Enco - Guaranteed Lowest Prices on Machinery, Tools and Shop Supplies
(This leave extra HP for that 3 phase drill press / sheer/ ??? they are getting rid of next.)

Position the machine so the head is between the garage joists, that way you can cut a hole and re-block and drywall the area if needed.

I have a reasonably $ USB floppy emulator to replace the floppy drive, one thumb drive = 100 floppies. ( NOT from China)

The Conversational programming will allow you to do ALOT. You can also program in "text mode" ie: M&G code and parametric if you choose to.
For low $, bob-Cad is OK , one problem is they have a LOT of different Milltronics post processors to pick from, No one knows for sure what is what. ( they only need 3 ("Good ones") , one for Cent 4 control ( for you OLD timers) one for the C1, C5, C6 and C7 controls and one for the new 8200control. If Allen Mullis has one he trusts and will share, try it.
The Milltronics control is 99+% Fanuc compatible code. so if all else fails try the Fanuc 6 or 10M post.

The C1 control CAN NOT do a 4th axis. The interface and machine wiring precludes this as an option. The C1 control was designed as a lower cost option and did not include the interface and machine wiring to support " higher functions".


PM Me for more info.

Sportybob

[sportybob]

Hey Stingray, How goes the install??

Sportybob