[Willyb]

Z looks a little short. Is the Z axis stepper also 690 oz.

The smaller model looks like a competitor for the Tormach PCNC1100 but at a premium price.

Looks like Tormach stirred the market up a bit. It's going to be interesting to see how it unfolds. I think prices are going to come down, with a fight to maitain a competitive specification. I also think X3 cnc's straight out of the box are going to start squeezing from the bottom.

Compete or die, the free market in action, great! Whose going to be the first to export their stuff back to China.

Regards
Phil

All Stepper Motors are 690 oz. in.

Willy

[philbur]

Willy, I don't know much about VFD's but I would be interested to know how they solved the motor heat issue at such low rpm. do they have a separate cooling fan for instance. Also horse power/torque figures at the low rpm end would be interesting. Have they published any of this information.

Regards
Phil

PS: what a high speed geared belt?

I called Smithy to get a Quote on the CNC932. Tom told me that they no longer were using the Shiftable Gear Box and had switched to a Gilmor Belt Drive system and VFD. He said that the older Gear Box setup was to noisey.


Quote from Smithy Sales Flyer:

High Speed Geared Belt
"Maximum power at low speeds, "whisper quiet" at even the highest RPM. Single range variable speed drive takes you from 50 to 4,500 RPM's without stopping to change belts or gears."

Call Smithy and ask for their Flyer.

Willy

[pstockley]

The only way I could see that they could get the necessary torque for slow speeds is if they use a vector drive. I bought one for my lathe conversion and it gives 100% torque from 0 rpm and has a separate blower motor. However, you need an AC motor with an encoder and the setup isn't cheap.

[dammachines]

For those who aren't lucky enough to be on Smithy's catalog mailing list, here's a scan of the page showing the specs for the two machines...

You can also see their stand with the new Kool Catch System.

Dave

[krymis]

would i still be able to use my bobcad and mach3 packages if i bought one? I would hate to have to learn a whole new setup from smithy after spending this past year getting things situated with mach3.

[dammachines]

I believe if you bought the PC Ready version then yes you could use Mach3 as the control.

I heard elsewhere that Smithy was using Gecko drives for the control - not 100% sure of the source though. In any case, their control most likely takes step/direction inputs over a parallel port so you can use Mach.

You might want to give them a call just to be sure though...

Dave

[Willyb]

Willy, I don't know much about VFD's but I would be interested to know how they solved the motor heat issue at such low rpm. do they have a separate cooling fan for instance. Also horse power/torque figures at the low rpm end would be interesting. Have they published any of this information.

Hi Guys

I have a Hitachi SJ200 VFD and 2 HP, 3 Phase, Inverter rated Motor on my Lathe and the combination is amazing. This New Hitachi SJ200 VFD, has what is called “Intelligent Sensorless Vector Control” (iSLV) that can deliver 100% full torque while turning the motor at only 0.5 Hz (15 RPM’s) It also has the ability of starting at 200% rated torque. This new iSLV allows the drive to continuously monitor it’s output voltage and current and their relationship to each other. From this it mathematically calculates two vector currents. One vector is related to the Motor Flux current and the other to the Motor torque current. The ability to separately control these two vectors is what allows the SJ200 to deliver extraordinary low-speed performance and accurate speed control.

Any Heating problems at low RPM's, can easily be controlled with a secondary Cooling Fan. I have not had any problems with my setup.

PS: what a high speed geared belt?

This is a flat type Belt with teeth on it's inside surface. This belt runs on Pulleys that have grooves to match the pitch of the teeth on the Belt. There is no way it can slip, unless the Belt breaks. It is often called a Gilmer Belt system. The Engine in your Car uses one to drive the Camshaft.

Hope this helps.

Willy

[philbur]

It would be interesting to compare the torque/rpm curves for the Tormach and the Smithy spindle drives. Does anybody have that kind of info.

Thanks Willy, what you call a geared belt I know as a toothed belt. Just checking that I had not missed something.

Regards
Phil

Hi Guys

I have a Hitachi SJ200 VFD and 2 HP, 3 Phase, Inverter rated Motor on my Lathe and the combination is amazing. This New Hitachi SJ200 VFD, has what is called “Intelligent Sensorless Vector Control” (iSLV) that can deliver 100% full torque while turning the motor at only 0.5 Hz (15 RPM’s) It also has the ability of starting at 200% rated torque. This new iSLV allows the drive to continuously monitor it’s output voltage and current and their relationship to each other. From this it mathematically calculates two vector currents. One vector is related to the Motor Flux current and the other to the Motor torque current. The ability to separately control these two vectors is what allows the SJ200 to deliver extraordinary low-speed performance and accurate speed control.

Any Heating problems at low RPM's, can easily be controlled with a secondary Cooling Fan. I have not had any problems with my setup.


This is a flat type Belt with teeth on it's inside surface. This belt runs on Pulleys that have grooves to match the pitch of the teeth on the Belt. There is no way it can slip, unless the Belt breaks. It is often called a Gilmer Belt system. The Engine in your Car uses one to drive the Camshaft.

Hope this helps.

Willy

[Willyb]

Hi Phil

No problem. I was sure you knew what it was.

The pictures in the New Smithy Flyer are of the older Model CNC Machine. This is a little confusing as the write up talks about a RPM range of 50 to 4,500 without changing any gears or Belts, but the picture is still showing the two manual shift levers on the side of the Gear Box. I called Smithy to ask this question and was told, yes that is a picture of last years Model. This doesn’t sound like a good marketing decision to me. Especially when I was told that they had one of the New machines sitting in the Shop? I guess it’s possible that they didn’t have a New Machine when they ordered the Flyer? I think I still would have waited. If and when I do receive pictures I will post them here.

Willy