[Runner4404spd]

Wow! great work Vince. i have run one of these machines and still have one at my shop, although not in use currently due to a drive failure. for tool holders, keep your eyes open on ebay they pop up quite often. also you can make your own tool holders. its not that hard, the factory peices are nice because they have built in adjusters, but for an occasional user you can shim tools just like on any other lathe.

the hardest part i found out is to find decent tooling because the holders are all 1/2 inch. i had to take 5/8 and 3/4 tooling and mill it down to get the negative rake tool holders i needed.

for setting a drill, hardinge has a setup bar, you can still buy them new or they pop up on ebay every so often. basically its a bar that has a 1" shank and then a 5/8 step and a 3/4 step. to chuck up the 1" shank into the collet and then bring the tool position up to it. keep the tool holder loose and ride it up onto the 5/8 or 3/4 shank and then tighten down the holder. then back off the x axis and your holder is on zero. since i am running alot of carbide drills now we actually take a dial indicator and sweep the bores of the tool holders to set center. the setup bars were just not accurate enough in finding zero when using small diameter drills.

in terms of breaking chips in the bore there are alot of different techniques, alot depends on the material your cutting, but the best advice i have is use the speeds and feed recommended by the insert manufacturer and get the correct insert for the material being cut.

i wanted to attach a hardinge tooling catalog for you but its 916 kb and it won't take it. pm me with your email and i'll get it to you.

[sc brian]

Nothing like actually making some chips!

If you are having trouble with long chips that don't break, try experimenting with different speeds and feeds for the inserts that you are using. What you want are relatively tightly curled chips. These will break. Another trick is to use mist coolant with high pressure air to break the chips.

Good luck and can't wait to see some pictures.

[davo727]

The stuff you have done with that lathe are very impressive, thanks for sharing all the fun details. Dave

[N4NV]

After looking through the Hardinge tool catalog that was sent me I realized I was using the wrong type of tool holder for a boring bar. I also stopped by my local machine tool company and purchased a boring bar that is made for the Hardinge round tool holder. WOW, what a difference it makes. The boring bar is my last purchase I can make until my wife gets back to work.

I spent today making and installing a way guard to keep the chips out from under the cross slide. When money is not so tight I am thinking of getting a corrugated way cover. With the tools mounted on the turret, there is only 6" or so of Z travel. A corrugated cover should work fine.

Tomorrow I will re-write my program for peck drilling to break up the chips. I think a little re-write of the boring part can also help to get the chips out. I can't afford an insert type boring bar with chip breaking insert so I will have to work with what I have.

Any suggestions for a type of steel I can use to make my own holders? Something that is not too expensive and also easy to machine.

Vince

[Runner4404spd]

Vince,

i would use 1018 steel for the tool holders. easy to get, fairly easy to machine. will be good enough to practice with and its cheap.

vince send me your address i may have an insert boring bar that i can part with.

Jerry

[N4NV]

Ok, I promised a video once I got things running. I am still working on programming this part and some other refinements, but the lathe is now working completely automated. Both the coolant and spindle are controlled by Mach 3.

Here is the YouTube video:
[ame="http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=sRPLWzOpFSM"]YouTube - Making a pulley on a Harding CHNC conversion[/ame]

Here is a full 20 meg version:
http://www.flyingcritters.com/video/pulley.wmv

Sorry if the video is a little rough, I did not have time to set up my tripod so I just held the camera.

To try and clear the chips out of the center while boring, I turned up the coolant to high. What a mess it makes. The entire enclosure fills with coolant mist. Everything is coated by it. It did not help so I turned it back down to what you see in the video.

I tried to upload some pictures but CNCZone was not letting them upload. I will try again tomorrow.

Vince

[N4NV]

I found if I uploaded the pictures one at a time the website would take them. The way cover is made froma piece of felt covered by rubber covered by a piece of copper I had laying around.

The pulley will get a bearing in the center.

The turret shows the holders and tools I have.

Vince

[brucesu1]

Where are you located?

[N4NV]

Where are you located?

San Jose, CA

Vince

[Kerry Harrison]

Very Nice Conversion!

What do you use for lathe CAM programing. Seems like finding a good lathe CAM program at a reasonable price in nigh onto impossible.

Does Mach3 Turn control the turret or do you use something else?

Thanks,
Kerry

[N4NV]

Very Nice Conversion!

What do you use for lathe CAM programing. Seems like finding a good lathe CAM program at a reasonable price in nigh onto impossible.

Does Mach3 Turn control the turret or do you use something else?

Thanks,
Kerry

If you read back through the thread you sill see that I am using a Cubloc PLC to run the turret. Mach3 tells the Cubloc what tool to select and the Cubloc takes care of physically moving the turret.

Right now I am programming by hand. Art is working on a program called LazyTurn which will turn a profile that is drawn in the .dxf format. He works on it in his spare time so it is slow going. I already paid for LazyCam and LazyTurn, $50 total. I would guess by the middle of next year most of the bugs will be worked out of LazyTurn.

Vince

[N4NV]

Man, what a mess. I changed my encoder from a 200 line to a 500 line on the X axis. I thought the original was a 100 line so I multiplied my steps per inch by 5. It almost looked correct, but after adjusting my entire tool table (all 8 tools), I realized that something was wrong. I am running in diameter mode so the measurements I was making with a dial indicator looked correct, until I realized that the indicator should only be reading 1/2 of the measured move. I changed the steps per inch to the proper amount and had to redo all 8 tools again.

In addition I notice that my turret was tilting when it lifted up. I removed the turret and found the nut on the lower support piece was loose. I tightened the nut and then found that the turret would not seat properly after indexing. I made an adjustment to the turret cushion and then the turret started to seat properly. I also need to adjust the X axis gib.

After doing all that I started making my pulleys again. I made several and could not get two to come out the same. I realized that the insert cut off tool I was using had a problem with the insert. It would move in the slot when I made a cut to the side of the insert. After re-writing the program to make lighter cuts and slowing the feed, I started to have success with the pulleys. I only needed to make 8 of them.

I did find out how to change the macro for the M6 command so that the Z axis would move to the tool change position before changing tools. I have been writing the code manually to move to that position prior to a tool change. Now if I forget, Mach will make the move prior to a tool change.

I still have to do something about the coolant and the doors I have. The coolant runs down the doors and fills up the door track, then starts to overflow out the front and back of the door and onto the floor. I think if I add a Z channel to the sliding doors it will keep the coolant out of the door track.

I am also having some strange movement issues. I am not getting consistent moves. If I move the X axis .5", it moves exactly that, but if I move only .2" it comes up .002" short and if I move .7" it moves .002" too much. I think I may have screwed up the encoder when I installed it. I will try another encoder and see how that works.

Lots of thing to take care off before I can relax. I am still trying to find the best tooling for this machine. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Vince

[keitholivier]

Vince, your story of the restoration (and modernization) of a classic lathe is truly inspiring in our disposable culture. You do appear to be a perfectionist, which is both a blessing and a curse, but it does make for projects that the rest of us can only admire.

I'm in the process of restoration of various machine tools including a 15x36 lathe, Kent mill and Gallmeyer & Livingston surface grinder. It is my intention to apply cnc controls to each of these since I think it is a justifiable investment. With current market conditions there is an incredible amount of equipment on the market for bargain prices. Clearly for commercial applications it may be more cost effective to buy a new Haas for the warranty and future product support, but for us HSM'ers that kind of equipment will always be out of reach.

Thanks for posting and keep the pictures coming.
Keith

[N4NV]

I got tired of the coolant leaking out over the door tracks so I made some door guards that should keep the coolant out of the tracks (see pictures). I used some Loctite adhesive to glue them to the doors. Time will tell if the coolant eats through the glue. If it does I will have to use countersunk screws to hold them in place. I still have to make a gasket to close the gap between the doors.

I found a Keyed 1/2" drill chuck on eBay with a 5/8" shaft that I can use on my turret in place of the keyless chuck that is there now. I found that sometimes when the vibrations were right the keyless chuck would turn. The keyed chuck is shorter as well which should give me a little more room with the turret rotation.

I have been having a fit trying to get my steps per inch correct. I posted several messages on the Mach 3 board as well as others. I got some good answers that helped solve the problem. One of the main problems was my cheap dial indicator had a sinusoidal error in it. I purchase a digital Mitutoyo indication with a resolution of .00005" from eBay. That cleared up some of the error. I found the rest of the error in my gib adjustments. After assembling and adjusting the gibs months ago, they have now settled in and I was able to take them up just a bit, enough to account for the rest of the error I was seeing. I made several moves in both the X and Z directions and when I returned to the original X position the indicator consistently read 0.00005". Pretty good repeatability.

Vince

[BillTodd]

Might be worth drilling some drain holes in the slide channel to stop it filling up.

[N4NV]

Might be worth drilling some drain holes in the slide channel to stop it filling up.

I did that first, but the coolant is too thick to drain fast enough. I have about 15 holes in each channel. The early models of the CHNC have to use oil based coolant. It looks like a 50 weight motor oil.

Vince

[samco]

Great work!

One of the emc developers has just got his running with emc2

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWuOZutnjTk"]YouTube - Hardinge HNC conversion running EMC2[/ame]

He is using the existing servos/amps/resolvers. (he is using JonE resolver->encoder converter)

you can read about it here
http://timeguy.com/cradek/01225159413
http://timeguy.com/cradek/01225419960

sam

[BillTodd]

I did that first, but the coolant is too thick to drain fast enough. I have about 15 holes in each channel. The early models of the CHNC have to use oil based coolant. It looks like a 50 weight motor oil.

Vince

Well if your new gutter fails; how about this

[N4NV]

Well, I'm stumped again. All of the sudden, my turret does not want to index properly. If I command a tool more than 3 stations away from the current tool, it indexes and seats fine. Anything less than that it does not seat, it comes up just a bit short. The problem has to be the turret cushion. I noticed that one of the O-rings is a little torn and that may be allowing air to leak out.

The turret comes up just a little short when it stops. If I manually turn the turret in the direction of normal rotation, it drops into place. This would indicate to me that the turret cushion would have to move out, away from the turret to allow just a little more rotation. I turned it out as far as it would go without the O-ring being exposed, and it is still not enough. I tried turning it in, a little at a time and still no change. When I first adjusted it, I could see a difference in the turret seating with a little as 1/4 turn in the cushion.

Another thing I noticed is that when the turret is turning, the turret gear seems to be hitting the cushion pawl. I don’t remember it doing that before.

The problem seems to have started when the weather turned cold. Last month the temperature in my garage was in the 50’s, today it is in the low 40’s. It may not be related.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Monday, I hope to be able to pick up a new set of O-rings for the cushion.

Vince

[Karl_T]

I feel your pain. I took that d$%^ thing apart so many times I had it memorized. My solution was to add an exhaust solenoid. The turret has full air till one stop away, then close this to slow it down, then close stop pawl. On long runs it still fails 1 per 50 indexes if only moving one station. So I have to set up tooling to go at least two stations. After a long sit between runs, I have to just let the turret index a while to warm it up.

New CHNCs have servo to index the turret. I've thought about building my own. This is easily the most troublesome spot on this lathe.

Karl