[gjrepesh]

I was given a Lab-Volt 5400 CNC Mill today. Machine looks to be in good condition. I need to off load it from my truck. I know the company has been bought out and the current company does not know much of these early machines. Mine appears to be 1998. What do I need to do to get this running? I don't have a key for the emergency stop. Any information on software? Hooking it to a computer? I need to start somewhere. Direct contact at [email protected] Thanks, Gary R.

[awerby]

As I recall, the LabVolt 5400 was basically a Sherline 5400 mill with a different control system. See if this looks like your machine: https://www.sherline.com/product/540...l/#description

If so, and it doesn't work as-is, the simplest thing might be to furnish it with a new Sherline controller, and use LinuxCNC to run it: https://www.sherline.com/product/877...e/#description

[gjrepesh]

Yes, it is a Sherline mill.

[awerby]

Does it have stepper motors? If so, you'd probably only need the driver box and power supply.

[gjrepesh]

Appears to be stepper motors. I plugged it in yesterday and turned it on. Nothing! Pulled what looks to be a fuse holder on the switch. Never saw one like this before so not aware if the switch is functional at this time. Need to do more testing. Maybe this afternoon. If you know anything about the switch, I'd appreciate it.

[Shelby5041]

hi
ive got 3 labvolt cncs

mine didnt have estop key ..i originally rewired so that estop was always off but i contacted festo didatic and they sent me a key

i also retrofit mine using a mach3 breakout board.....the 5400 is a nice little machine..its basically a sherline 5400

[Shelby5041]

these labvolts use standard nema23 stepper motors..the biggest issue with these old machines are the old stepper drivers..and the flimsy 1/4-28 drive screws.....i kept mine all orig...but the drivers are very weak and limits the machine to about 20ipm max which is ridiculous slow...i spent almost 2 years with labvolt/festo didactic trying to use their proprietary software along with 3rd party modified post processor but this was so much of a pain i gave up...and converted to mach3..and added a manual potentiometer knob to control spindle speed....its been a couple years since i used my labvolts if u need help i can try my best to recall what i went through...

[Shelby5041]

when you turned power switch on could u hear the internal fan spinning? if the fan no turn on you may just have a blown missing fuse...these labvolts have a few fuses in them...and because these machines are so old you may want to try and see if each axis freely moves if u turn stepper motor/drive screw by hand ..otherwise could blow the stepper driver or stepper motor if siezed up...ive had 4 of these stepper drivers fail but luckily i found out how to repair the stepper drivers.

[hoxsiew]

I just picked up one of these about 2 months ago. I spent way too much time trying to make it work as-is and ended up piece by piece upgrading it until I had a pretty much custom machine. The only original piece was the 5V PS. I've added an Arduino with GRBL and TB6600 drivers. I replaced the spindle motor controller with a 0-100V "Mach3" power supply and with some modifications I am able to control the spindle with the 0-5V PWM of the arduino. I'm using bCNC as my gcode sender and I'm pretty happy with the results.