[robhrzic]

I received my NEMA 12, 16" x 20" x 6", steel enclosure box from www.automationdirect.com yesterday. I will be making my own sub-panel for it, to suit.

I also got the shielded encoder cables from www.usdigital.com. I finally got around to installing the encoders on the servo motors.

My main focus in the last few days has been gathering all of the little pieces and parts like wire, fuses, fuse holders, terminal strips, switches, etc.

I also got around to installing a 2 HP 3-phase motor, and a Hitachi L200 VFD on my 17" vertical wood cutting band saw. Now I have the ability to
cut either wood or metal, adjusting the speed as needed.

The conversion / install was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I should have done it a long time ago, as I have needed a metal cutting band saw many a time in the past. The hardest part was boring out the hole in the "V" pulley from .625 to .875, to accomodate the larger shaft on the new Baldor motor. I also had to transfer, drill and tap four M8 threads into the front of the motor housing to suit the pivoting motor mount plate from the stock motor.

I purchas both the VFD and motor from www.driveswarehouse.com. They seemed to have just about the best prices that I could find.

[bemfarmer]

Very informative conversion. Is that a grizzly bandsaw?
Just ordered p4 fans and a PMDX module. Based upon the PMDX manual is a 56 volt toroid going to be too much DC voltage for the Gecko's?
1.10X1.08X56vX1.414-1.5v = 92.57 VDC?

[robhrzic]

Thanks bemfarmer. Yes that is a Grizzly Model G0513 17" 2 HP Bandsaw.

Now about the power supply, I have read a lot of different posts on power supplies and Gecko drives. There seems to be a lot of different opinions on how much (maximum) voltage you can actually feed into a G320. Some users are supposedly feeding them a lot more than 80 VDC.

I also read the user's manual for the PMDX-135-8020 power prep module, which states a maximum input of 56 VAC, and the formula that you stated. My understanding is this, right or wrong:

The G320's are rated at 18 to 80 VDC input. The 80 VDC rating does not include the "worst case scenario factors" that the PMDX formula states.
The formula that I used is simply 56 VAC x 1.414 = 79.184 VDC.

Besides, since 56 VAC is the maximum input rating for the "80 VDC @ 20 amp" power prep module, I felt that this was a safe way to go.

I asked the question myself, and was told that that this toroidal transformer would be a good match for the motors that I was using.

I wanted to provide as much voltage and current to my servo motors as possible, to attain the most torque and rpm that I could. I did not want to limit the motors' potential by not providing them with enough power.

I guess that this is what I am going to try to do, based on my research, questions and conclusions. This has been one of the more difficult things for me to get a grasp of, because the whole power / electronics portion of this project is definately not my strong point.

I suggest that you look through some of the Power Supply and Geckodrive forums' postings, and see for yourself. Maybe that'll help to clear some things up for you.

Personally I found that the more that I read into it, the more confused I was getting. I think it's called "information overload".

[bemfarmer]

Sounds good, robhrzic. I recently bought 72 volt servos and 48VAC toroid from homeshopcnc, for router or G0519 (R45 type milldrill), (someday).
What blades do you use on bandsaw? Speeds?
What type and source of bearings for your ballscrews?

[robhrzic]

bemfarmer,

I have used a 6 TPI "Hook" style blade on aluminum up to 4" thick with great success so far. It is a Grizzly # H4804 (1/4" wide) or # H4807 (1/2" wide) in a 131-1/2" length for the G0513 band saw.

I have my "V" drive belt on the 1700 FPM pulley groove. I have my VFD set at about 10 Hz. So, if 60 Hz equals 1700 FPM then I am assuming that 10 Hz is equivalent to about 283 FPM.

I can turn it down to about 3-4 Hz before it actually stops turning. It seems to cut 4" thick aluminum at 10 Hz very well, and tninner 1/2" thick aluminum at 20 Hz (about 566 FPM), using the same blade. By the way, I have been cutting 6061-T6 aluminum at these speeds.

I am currently looking for 7204 series angular contact bearings from a few different suppliers. I'll post my findings when I have found out more info. This company seems to have anything that you'd ever need:

http://www.bearing-service.com/

[bemfarmer]

Nice online bearing site with ballscrew bearing info., Alpinebearing.com, precision angular contact bearings. (Found some inch sizes too.)
Maybe M20BS47, or NSK 20TAC47A?
The rockfordballscrew manual sure looks good.
Found locknuts at Whittet-Higgins.com.
What kind of mounting plate for the six jaw chuck, vs camlock mounts? I am totally ignorant about lathes, just got the smaller G0509G. Is it worth it to get the six-jaw chuck?

[robhrzic]

bemfarmer, I ordered (4) FAG 7204B. TVP. UA angular contact bearings from Bearing Service Company today. They were $27.06 each, plus shipping. I got that bearing part number from the Rockford ball screw online service manual. Hopefully they'll fit my Hiwin ballscrews.

I asked the sales rep to send me some technical data on shaft / bore tolerances, sizes and any instructions that might give me a clue about how to install them and preload them properly.

Unfortunately, all I got was a fax of a very bad copy of some pages from an old FAG catalog he had laying around. I can barely read most of the verbage and numbers, let alone decipher any of it. Looks like I'll have to look elsewhere to try to find out how to install them correctly.

I got the 6-jaw set-tru chuck for several reasons. Mainly because it has hardened reversable jaws, and it is a "set-tru" style.

The lathe came with a plain, non-adjustable, 3-jaw scroll chuck. This is a perfectly adequate chuck for day to day turning. It did not have a few features that I needed, and had some drawbacks that I did not care for.

The first being that if you needed to change your "grip" from the I.D. to the O.D., you had to "unscrew" the 3 jaws completely out of the chuck, and replace them with the other 3 jaws that came with the chuck. You have to be careful to be sure that the correct jaw goes into the proper receiver, and "screw" them all the way back in. If you do not have the correct jaw in the correct receiver, or are one "tooth" off, you need to take it all apart, and start all over.

Hint:You must identify the jaws and their corresponding receiver, with a pencil grinder or something else that will be permanent, to ensure that you are placing the jaw in the correct receiver every time. The jaws do not come identified from the factory. When I had to do this the first time, it took me about 10 minutes to figure out which jaw goes in which receiver, so that they all come to the center accordingly! (chair)

This can be a major PITA if you need to do this frequently.

The 6-jaw chuck that I chose has hardened "reversable" jaws. In order to change the "grip", you simply take out the two cap screws from each jaw, rotate the jaw 180 degrees, place it back into the locating key slot, and replace the screws. With a small 3/8" drive impact wrench, it takes me less than a minute to reverse all 6 jaws.

You also have the advantage of purchasing or making spare replacement jaws or "soft jaws" if needed for different materials.

The other main reason is the "set-tru" feature. I feel that his is really only necessary or needed if you need to do high precision turning, or grinding using a tool post grinder, on a finished piece that needs to be altered or modified. This type of chuck has four set screws in the body of the chuck that are used to "fine tune" the concentricity of your work piece. Using a .0001" dial indicator, you can indicate a workpiece to within .0005" by alternately loosening and /or tightening opposing set screws to move the centerline of your chuck / work piece.

With a standard, plain chuck your work piece concentricity with only be as good as the wear on your scroll / jaws, and lathe will allow. I have worked with lathes where you'll be lucky to be within .005"+.010" with a plain chuck.

Again, in my opinion, this feature is only needed if you have a finished part that needs to be indicated "dead nuts" so that you can perform a machining operation that will be true to the work piece.

As for why 6-jaws? Well, I knew that I was going to buy a new chuck, so for the minimal (higher) price difference between a 3-jaw and 6-jaw reversable set-tru chuck, I opted for the 6-jaw. 6 jaws will distribute the holding force more evenly around the perimeter of your work piece. It will have less of a tendancy to mar the surface on softer materials like wood, plastic, aluminum, etc...

The only disadvantage that I can see so far, is that the smallest diameter workpiece that can be held is .450" (checked with a gage pin). So if you needed to hold anything smaller in diameter than 1/2", you would need to use a collet of some sort. I have used R-8 collets in the past for "standard" sizes, but if you had an oddball size, you would have to come up with something.

As for mounting, this "set tru" style of chuck needs a special mounting / adapter plate to be used. You need to purchase a mounting plate separately, as one does not come with the chuck, to suit your lathe's chuck mounting type. The G0509/G lathe has a D1-6 camlock spindle nose.

I purchased my chuck and mounting plate from:

https://www.travers.com/Default.asp

The Grizzly catalog also lathe chucks available. I called about their 6-jaw chuck. The description in their catalog says "requires a mounting plate":

http://www.grizzly.com/catalog/2007/Main/593

When I called and talked to a sales rep there, she had no idea what a mounting plate was, what type I needed, or where I can find one.

Needless to say, I was kind of put off, so I looked elsewhere. I did some looking around, and Travers Tool seemed to have the best selection and prices. I got their TTC brand, catalog # 63-323-358 chuck, and matching D1-6 mounting plate, catalog # 63-323-049. I have attached the catalog page.

The TTC chuck was more expensive than Grizzly's, but at least I new that I had a mounting plate that I would be able to use.

When it comes to installing, you need to mount the plate into the lathe's spindle, then fasten the chuck onto the mounting plate. The mounting plate comes with a set of cam posts and hold down screws. You can see the (dull finish) mounting plate sandwiched in between the "shiny" lathe spindle and chuck in the attached pic.

The chuck gets fastened to the mounting plate using six 3/8-16 UNC (I think they were either 3" or 3-1/4" long) socket head cap screws (not provided of course!). The cap screws must not be too tight, or else the four adjusting set screws will not be able to "move" the chuck around on the plate. I just snugged them firmly by hand, and then indicated a work piece to assure that I can make adjustments with the set screws.

Note: all four adjusting set screws must be tight, to insure that the chuck / workpiece does not move while you are turning.

As I stated earlier, I only got a 6-jaw chuck because I felt that the 3-jaw chuck that came with the lathe was not suitable for the tasks that I had in mind.

I hope this answers some of your questions.

[bemfarmer]

Thank You

[txcowdog]

I went ahead and bought the touchscreen you discussed and WOW... it looks great. Concerning the resolution, I looked at the MACH forum and found a thread from May 2006 discussing the autosize problems but Art fixed it and the screen should autosize up from 1024 x 768 to 1280 x 1024 automatically. The guy who had the problem said the new update looked very crisp at the higher resolution.

[robhrzic]

txcowdog, I saw the same post (Mach Blue screen set) and I already have downloaded it. I tried loading the screen set in Mach 3 Version 2.3, but it is only a 1024 X 768 screen set. It does not "scale" to 1280 x 1024.

I also went ahead and purchased a license for Mach 3 and the wizards from newfangledsolutions, with the same results. I can not get any screen sets to scale to 1280 x 1024. I had previously thought that the trial version of Mach 3 might have had a 1024 x 768 resolution limit.

Are you using Mach 3? Have you had any success with any screens or settings at 1280 x 1024? If so, how?

[bemfarmer]

Re: Screensize. Loaded Mach3 Version R2.41, licensed copy.
Select Config, General, CheckBox Hi-Res Screen, CheckBox Autoscreen enlarge, (lower middle of config screen). Reload screen, (a 1024 version).
Close Mach3. Re-open Mach3. Now the fullscreen box of windows, upper right corner, makes Mach3 fullscreen, On Windows Vista, 1600 X 1200 screen resolution. I guess the resolution is still 1024?, but it is fullscreen.

[txcowdog]

Hey bemfarmer,
That sounds like a fix I will definitely try when I get home. Thanks for the input.

-cowdog

[robhrzic]

Thanks a bunch bemfarmer! That did it. I wasn't even aware that this setting was available in the Config section.

I came across this rotation software from Portrait Displays that is supposed to allow you to rotate any display as the user sees fit:

http://www.portrait.com/us/products/pp_overview.html

Only problem is that it doesn't seem to work with my touchscreen display. I am using an older 1.6 Ghz P4 with an Nvidia TNT2 32 MB video card for the controller. I'm going to try to get a hold of someone for some technical support to see if I can resolve this issue.

Meanwhile, I received my angular contact bearings from Bearing Service:

http://www.bearing-service.com/

I got the VFD for my machine spindle from www.driveswarehouse.com and a larger steel enclosure from www.automationdirect.com. This enclosure measures 20" H x 16" W x 6" Deep. The previous one that I ordered was 16" H x 14" W x 6" Deep, and though I was able to fit all of the components, there wasn't too much room available for anything else. This larger enclosure should be much easier to work with. I am contemplating on putting a lexan window in the door, so the various LED's will be easy to see.

I machined some standoffs for my G320 drive "rack" and the various PCB's for the control box. Now all I am waiting for is the various little pieces and parts from www.alliedelec.com to get here, then I can start assembling the control box.

I received my 3/8" drive butterfly impact wrench and two (2) 10 gallon air tanks from www.harborfreight.com. I found a set of plans for making a power drawbar using this impact wrench from this site:

http://home.insightbb.com/~joevicar3/cheap_drawbar.htm

The two 10 gallon air tanks are going to be used for the surge tanks that I will need to use for the air cylinder counterbalance. I was hoping to find some larger (15 gallon) tanks, but I think that these will work without too much pressure rise.

I got started on a new yoke for my machine. Thanks John & Larry! Hopefully it'll be finished in a couple of weeks. I can't wait to get it, so that I can start putting things back together on the mill, and see how the new ball screws work.

[bemfarmer]

Very nice progress. I see the drawbar on the BobWarfield site www.cnccookbook.com/CCMillDrawbar.html. What about limit switches? Estop? Do you have to re-wire the mill?

[DennisCNC]

I also have one of those vfd's but it is branded as Kimatek, had it for 3 years around a lot of dirt, dust, still running strong!

[txcowdog]

Are you going to power the knee instead of the quill to use for the Z axis?

[bemfarmer]

In Digital Machinist magazine, Volume No.1 spring 2007, and Vol2 No.2 summer 2007, there is a lengthy article on converting a bridgeport clone with rockford ballscrews. Reprints (800) 773-7798. There are copper oil lines.

[robhrzic]

bemfarmer, the limit / home switches will be coming this week (hopefully) in the order I made from www.alliedelec.com. I have a large mushroom style E-stop switch somewhere, I just need to find it. As for the wiring, there is nothing for me to re-wire. This is a manual mill to begin with. I'll have to do all of the wiring myself.

DennisCNC, do you have your VFD "out in the open"? If so where do you have it mounted? I have been contemplating on whether or not to install it in an enclosure. I would prefer not to, if I don't have to, but the instructions state that it is very sensitive to dust, debris and of course moisture.

txcowdog, right now my main goal is to power the knee for the Z axis. In my opinion the knee is much more rigid and obviously has a far greater range of movement than the quill. I will eventually also power the quill for making rapid moves for such things as peck drilling. I think that this combination will give me the best of both worlds.

Thanks bemfarmer, I'll have to look that article up to see what I can gain.

[robhrzic]

Finally received my connectors, wire and various other wiring components from www.alliedelec.com.

Since I am still waiting for the yoke to be finished, I guess that I'll start working on some of the electronic component mounting and wiring.

I mounted the steel enclosure box on the side of the mill using rubber isolators to minimize any vibration, and to allow for some space between the mill and enclosure.

I made my owm sub-panel for the enclosure from a piece of 3/16" thick aluminum that I had laying around. I cut it to size using my variable speed band saw. I wanted to use a thicker panel than the enclosures usually come with, so that I can easily place #6-32 to #10-32 tapped holes where I need them to mount the various pieces.

[txcowdog]

WOW! That panel is beautiful. Man you do some nice work. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then you should be flattered indeed. First I bought that touch screen monitor you got and now I am in the midst of making that power drawbar you pointed out. You have a great build going here and it has spurred me to action in my own shop. Thanks for the great ideas.

Any progress in a mount and articulating arm for supporting the monitor?