[rwskinner]

I have to ask, the little bimba air cylinder for the orientation arm, what keeps it tight? Mine has no lock nuts on the adjustment and there aren't any pinch bolts so the cylinder is pretty loose in the threads. The parts break down doesn't show anything either. Seems that looseness will wear crap out pretty quick with it working back and forth.

Is there something mines missing between #2 and #7 or should the cylinder just jamb up and tighten against #7 block?

[rwskinner]

Today was a good day for the most part. I got the floater, draw bar, and 42 new washers put in. Cleaned all the top end up. Tightened the orientation cylinder and organized the wiring and hoses. Lots of loose brackets and parts on this machine. Motor tension cable and bracket was all loose and missing bolts so I fixed that and adjusted it. I wonder who their maintenance company / person was?

I got tired of pushing the solenoid button constantly and just wrote a program to cycle the lube pump for ON 2 minutes, OFF 30 seconds and just let it run and do it's thing all morning while I jacked with everything else. Finally purged all the lines and had a good coat of oil everywhere. Oh, I used an Arduino with Relay shield to cycle the solenoid valve.

I was having issues when doing a M19. In low speed, it would orientate perfectly, but in high gear, it would move too fast and just rock back and forth 1/4 turn on each side of the magnet. The Diagnostics was showing the Orientation Switch (hall sensor) was indeed registering, but the motor kept overshooting it. I finally turned the factory orientation rpm factor down from 10 to 5 and now it slowly moves over and locks in perfect each time. I'm not sure why the factory setting wasn't or isn't working.

Still looking for detailed information on the Fadal Baldor VFD parameters. I played with lots of VFD's but I take it this one is custom done for Fadal or I just not familiar with Baldor.

RPM is kind of off. I have to do some sort of tuning to try and get the low speed and high speed RPM's a little closer to what I tell it since it will affect some of my tapping feeds. I don't understand why we have an orientation hall sensor on the spindle pulley but nobody is reading it for actual RPM? That would be perfect for RPM PID control and also fro tapping feeds with a T/C tap holder.

Later. Happy new years to all.

Richard

[rwskinner]

Ah, factory settings in pendant probably won't work since the original vfd was a Mits. VFD and was replaced..... I forgot about that...

[rwskinner]

I forgot to mention that I zeroed the tram in the X direction my adjusting the front feet slightly. Didn't take much at all to remove that 0.005" left to right, but I still have the 5 thou from front to back in the Y. I imagine that's head node from loose gibs or wear or both. Can't much doing anything until I get motion going again.

Oh, guess what, if you power up and don't do a proper CS, you can jog past the stops! I do assume Fadal uses soft limits based on machine travel set in the params based on CS position?


I was seeing how low my Z would go since I properly set the parameters to a 28" z. Previously, it would only come down to maybe a foot off the table. Now you can touch the spindle nose to the table, BUT, when you do that, you bust the 2 bolts off that hold the Z screw cover to the column!

I guess I will be drilling those out in the next few days.

[rwskinner]

Dang, so, while I'm waiting on my ball screws that were suppose to be here this week, I decided I would pull the enclosure apart and reseal it.
Well, okay, so all the bathroom caulk came right off, but after removing the bolts, these enclosure panels are super glued in place! Polyurethane I imagine.
This was a couple hours of heat gun and prying!

[mmurray70]

I was seeing how low my Z would go since I properly set the parameters to a 28" z. Previously, it would only come down to maybe a foot off the table. Now you can touch the spindle nose to the table, BUT, when you do that, you bust the 2 bolts off that hold the Z screw cover to the column!.

Interesting, when I got my machine it was missing the Z screw cover completely. I bought a new one and found the remains of 2 sheared off bolts in the casting. I was thinking WTF could have possibly caused those bolts to break and why did the guy remove that cover, but I guess that explains it.

Use polyurethane sealant yes. We used all sorts of stuff at my last shop with terrible results, last time I did it I used DAP polyurethane sealant and its working awesome, just like new after 2 and half years. The origional stuff is made by sika, but this DAP stuff has worked imcredible for me, i would just get that. Home depot and Rona/lowes sell it. Degrease everything with brake cleaner or solvent first. https://www.rona.ca/en/waterproof-po...white-04915135

[rwskinner]

The existing sealant would have worked great if they used a solid line of it. But they decided to make S shaped weaves across the flanges with good 1" gaps here and there with no sealant, thus the leaks !
I'm going back with Sika 1A, same as I use on the RV. I use lap sealants on the roof and Sika everywhere else, but the crap is hard to remove. Heat gun and a blade will slowly remove it.

Richard

[rwskinner]

I have to look, but I don't think they put enough clearance in the back Z axis screw cover that has the slots cut in it. I think another inch or so would probably fix it, OR, just be aware of it. Problem is, if someone else runs it, there it goes again.
I'm surprised it doesn't hit the hard stops on the screw before it tears crap up. Hummmmm Maybe a spacer on the lower screw. Don't know yet.

>>Interesting, when I got my machine it was missing the Z screw cover completely. I bought a new one and found the remains of 2 sheared off bolts in the casting. I was thinking WTF could have possibly caused those bolts to break and why did the guy remove that cover, but I guess that explains it.
<<

[rwskinner]

The left and right side bottom pans are about to get oblong holes in them so I can raise the front up higher before I secure it to the base. Anyone with a brain would do this so the fluid runs back to the drains, DUH. Maybe mine is the only one that does this, but I don't want that crap all over my floor. My shop is 20 years old and the mills, lathes, plasma, and other machines are all clean around them although the Sharp TMV-K loves to drip some oil off the front ways onto my slab. I have a tampon laying there to soak up the oil.

on the Fadal, I will also put some small jack screws and feet on the lower trim to help support the enclosure as the front with the control panel and doors will cause the front to sag down some. I don't want several gallons of coolant pooling up at the front, it should drain back to the tank where it belongs!

[rwskinner]

This took way longer than I imagined. I kinda like the open feel LOL!

[NismoGT]

This took way longer than I imagined. I kinda like the open feel LOL!

Nice. I was thinking about doing this to my VMC40. I have some SikaFlex in the garage right now. My cabinet also leaks from random locations. I was also thinking about repainting all of the panels because the paint has started to come off. Maybe one day I’ll do it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[rwskinner]

I seriously thought about it, cleaning, blasting, then coating, but then I realized she's going to be working and the paint/powder coat will end up looking how it is now, so, F' it, it be what it be. Just reseal to keep the crap off my floor! Yes, I'm picky. I should have had epoxy floors but I don't, but they still stay clean. Just weird like that. But hey, I like to make money so that's not so weird

Nice. I was thinking about doing this to my VMC40. I have some SikaFlex in the garage right now. My cabinet also leaks from random locations. I was also thinking about repainting all of the panels because the paint has started to come off. Maybe one day I’ll do it.


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[rwskinner]

See, I have all this crap backwards. I should have done this BEFORE i put all new lines under the table. Dang the luck. What's wrong with my crazy Ars!

This took way longer than I imagined. I kinda like the open feel LOL!

[rwskinner]

What's this "G Code" stuff the Fadal manuals keeps talking about? I can't say " Siri (I mean Fadal), cut me a 5/8" wide slot 24" long and 1/2" Deep"?
Silly humor. Seriously though, I do have to brush up some since it's a slightly different dialect then I'm used to. Small changes it looks like, doesn't seem major.
Being a hobby machinist, I used to Mach where I set my origins then click a button to zero my coordinates so there will be a few differences on offset to get used to as well.

[ianagos]

I had to get the covers back on a machine I purchased and it’s a pain still couldn’t get it to go back on and get lined up perfectly.

[rwskinner]

I got 2/3's of it done and back together.
Having sex with a porcupine would be more fun!

The hardest part really was getting the sheet metal separated without bending it then all the cleanup. BTW, I did get the tilt back to the drains fixed as well.

[Deano7/11]

Getting there.
Mine won't get the sheet metal treatment like you but a basic cleanup yes.

[rwskinner]

All the ball screws are in and aligned. I started on all the gib adjustments. Wow, for the head, that getting a 1 thou shim stock behind the lower straps can be a PIA !

So, after adjusting the gibs, over 18", the X tram is 2 tenths of a thou and the Y is still right at 4 thou. Running the Z up and down is good on a calibration square. The only thing I guess it can be is worn turcite at the lower part of the spindle head.

I guess, that leaves me only two options, turcite and scrape, OR to shim the spindle some?

Opinions or recommendations...?

Richard

[rwskinner]

Backlash adjusted, new Lexan windows installed. I noticed the turcite trying to come loose on the Z straps. I cleaned it up and put them back in but I guess that will be something I will need to replace soon.

Even 1 thou shim stock made a huge difference on the spindle tram so I ended up loosening all the spindle bolts and then tightened in several different sequences until I finally ended up within 1 thou TIR in a 19.5" diameter circle.
I quit there and think that will be close enough.

Just when I thought I was close to being done, the Z started making some loud squeaking noise. Its coming from the resolver so I guess I get to order one of those tonight.

She's turning into a money pit !

[warrenb]

Sending out my Z carriage for new turcite with shipping was about $2000. It was not a fun project.