[N4NV]

Hey Vince, Man that thing is NICE ! I love how beefy it is. I have lathe envy. Keep up the good work. Dave

I have two of these lathes. The other one was stripped of just about everything. When I am done this other lathe is going to the recyclers, unless you want to come by and pick it up.

Vince

[Belding]

Found a couple chuck mounting plates for your machine. http://www.buckchuckusa.com/products...ng-plates.html and http://www.workholding.com/BISON-SET...AND-C-TYPE.htm and http://www.kalamazoochuck.com/Manual...gAdapters.html

You are doing a great job on this machine.

zac

[davo727]

Approximately where you at Vince? Im at Texas Dave

[N4NV]

Found a couple chuck mounting plates for your machine. http://www.buckchuckusa.com/products...ng-plates.html and http://www.workholding.com/BISON-SET...AND-C-TYPE.htm and http://www.kalamazoochuck.com/Manual...gAdapters.html

You are doing a great job on this machine.

zac

Thanks. So if I get a 6" adapter plate, it will fit any 6" plain back chuck?

Vince

[N4NV]

Approximately where you at Vince? Im at Texas Dave

San Jose, CA.

Vince

[davo727]

I will have to refrain from trying to take it off your hands. Maybe someone closer will get it from you and be able to do something with it. Later, Dave

[N4NV]

This is starting to sound like a broken record, but more cleaning and painting today. I started to work on the turret. I found it had a broken stud, which if you read back to a previous post, you will see it in one of the pictures. Apparently someone tried to remove the turret without pulling the stud. The studs are threaded inside to enable them to be pulled out. I'm hoping the other lathe has an intact stud that I can pull. I will also have to drill out the broken one.

I posted a before and after picture of the casting that I welded. You can't even tell it was welded.

I need to track down some ferrules for all the tubing that I have to replace. I have all the fittings, but all the ferrules have to be replaced. I also need to get more tubing. I guess for physical protection, Hardinge ran a 1/8" tube inside a 1/4" tube so I need to get some of each. McMaster has the tubing, but I have not been able to locate just the ferrules.

I decided I did not like the condition of the Hardinge nameplate on the carriage so I made up some new ones. I am going to try several different color combinations and line widths. When they are done maybe I can post the pictures and people can vote on them.

I missed a 6” 6 jaw chuck on eBay this morning my 11 minutes. It was a buy it now posting. It was threaded for my Hardinge lathe. Oh well, I’ll just keep looking.

Vince

[Ken_Shea]

Most any parts store, especially NAPA, should have the ferrules, likely even Lowes or Home Depot might have them.

[kipdidit]

Vince, Your machine looks so good that I decided to go ahead and start on mine right away! I was holding off until I found a base for the lathe, but looking at your thread has got me itching to get going. Does anyone out there know where I can find a base in or near St. Louis? If I can't find one soon I will look into making one out of some oversized 80-20 that I have.
As for the ferrules, the 1/8 fittings seem to have the ferrules built in. Probably a Hardinge item? or maybe just make them...
Where did you find the wiring diagrams? My cables were cut also and I have not been able to find anything online.
Keep up your fine posts. I will follow closely, as this is my first build.

Let the paint stripping begin!!!

Kip

[N4NV]

Earlier in my post you will see a picture of the cross slide and some red arrows pointing to things I could not figure out. Well, I figured them out. Two of them turned out to be broken alignment pins for the turret. They are threaded dowel pins. You are supposed to pull them with an 8/32 screw before trying to remove the turret. Well, someone didn't and broke them both. The bad part was I had to remove the cross slide to get one of them out, which meant removing the baffles, end plates, ballscrew etc. As it turned out it was good because I found out that someone had also messed with the factor stationary gib setting. With the gib at it's rear most setting, the cross slide would still jam because the space was too narrow. I moved the factory stationary gib enough so I had some adjustment in the moveable gib.

The other night when I was drifting off to sleep, I had a thought about the caterpillar track casting (the one I welded) and the track itself. When I got in this morning I checked and sure enough, the casting will interfere with the coolant pump (see picture). The stand is for a HNC and the lathe is a CHNC. The location of the coolant pump is one of the things that changed between the two. There is no place to move it on the right side of the stand, so I will have to cut a hole in the left hand side behind the spindle and extend the plumbing.

Another oops was with the caterpillar track itself. The CHNC came with a guard that the track attached to. It was bent so bad I could not fix it. The HNC had a guard that was not so bad so I used that. I got it all finished painting yesterday. Then I realized that the HNC did not come with a caterpillar track, so the guard has no place to attach the track. I will now have to sand off the fresh paint and weld a bracket for the track to attach too (see the pictures).

I did made some progress in that I installed the turret check valve and unmasked the rear end plate.

Vince

[N4NV]

Today I also worked on my Hardinge nameplate. In a previous career, I worked as a silk screener. Part of that job was filling in engraved lettering for labels, panels etc. So I used what I learned there to fill in the letters of the labels I cut the other day. First I put my paint in the letters with a brush, enough so they over flowed. The next step is to take a squeegee and make a pass to remove the excess paint. I did not have a squeegee so I used a piece of cardboard (photo 1). The trick is to then let it sit for an hour or so, enough for the paint to skin over. Then, very carefully, take a rag with paint thinner and wipe away the streaks of excess paint. I should have used a lint free rag, but once I polish it out, it should not be so bad. The second picture shows the results. After letting it dry for a few days, I will take some paint polish and clean it up.

I almost forgot, I received my motors by UPS today. Searching the net I think they are 120V motors. I sent Mariss an email to find out if running them at 76v will cause too much performance drop. I would sure like to be able to use Gecko drives. If not, I will have to go with UHU controllers, which are not quite ready for deliver at this time. I will also have to add encoders to the motors. For the Z axis I will drill into the end of the motor and install a stub shaft to drive the encoder. I can’t do this to the X axis due to travel limitations. For that axis I am thinking of installing a stub shaft to the pulley end of the motor. I will have to make a bridge to go over the belt and pulley to hold the encoder. Not very elegant but doable.

In the picture of the motors you can also see the worm gear on the planetary section of the air motor. Next to it is the servo motor I am going to try to use to drive the planetary gears. I called Hardinge today and they want $1,100 for an air motor. If I can’t adapt the servo motor to the planetary gear box, I will just mount the worm gear to a shaft and install a bearing in the hole that the air motor would normally go. I can then turn the shaft with a belt and pulley to a servo mounted below the shaft.

Vince

[N4NV]

I finished up the Hardinge nameplate and installed it. Then I did a test install of my X axis motor. It fit just right without any modification. The motor came from a HNC. At least they are the same as the CHNC. I will now start working on my encoder mount. It will be a little tricky. The way I have it planed; the encoder will have to come off every time the belt needs to be removed. I will have to think about it some more.

In stead of stripping and welding the hose and wire cover the caterpillar track attaches to, I decided to make a side plate and bolt it to the cover. I just hate messing up that paint job.

Vince

[123CNC]

Vince,

I'd like to join your fan club, keep up the good work. Your picture diary/logs are priceless.

Perhaps you shouldn't do such a fine job on the paint, so messing it up won't be so painful. Need I remind you it is a used machine after all (just kidding, I know a lot of blood and sweat is going into this).

I know you mentioned many things were missing, but do you know where the lube pump is on a CHNCII? Is it left side bottom rear corner? and the coolant pump? is it right side buried in the cabinet??

Sights on your next project yet?

[N4NV]

Vince,

I'd like to join your fan club, keep up the good work. Your picture diary/logs are priceless.


I know you mentioned many things were missing, but do you know where the lube pump is on a CHNCII? Is it left side bottom rear corner? and the coolant pump? is it right side buried in the cabinet??

Sights on your next project yet?

Thanks. On a CHNC the lubricator is on the right front of the stand. The cooland pump is in the left rear, behind an access panel.

Vince

[N4NV]

I called Hardinge and inquired about an air motor for the carriage. They are very proud of their motors (which are made by Chicago Pneumatic). $1,100 dollars proud. I just could not afford that type of pride so I started on an alternative method to drive the carriage. I have the front end of the air motor, the part with the worm gear and planetary gears. I tried to get a sun gear, but was unsuccessful. Looking at the planetary gears I saw that the just slide off their pivots.

I took the unit apart and saw that I could make a drive adapter out of Delrin. I could then mount the adapter on the shaft of a servo motor to drive the worm gear. My adapter came out great and worked except for the fact that my servo motor's RPM was too high and had no torque at low speed. I am now looking for a geared motor. I calculated that for a full rotation of the turret in 4 seconds, I needed an RPM of 400 at the drive motor. Hopefully I can find a motor in the 400 to 600 rpm range.

This entire week has been spent on the turret motor, cleaning, painting etc. Not much to show for it at this time. I also spent time installing an engine monitoring instrument in my brother’s plane. I had to make a 3 ½ to 2 ¼ adapter to mount the instrument so some more time was spent on that project.

Vince

[N4NV]

For some reason, Mach has gone crazy on both my desktop computer and the computer that drives my mill. I have been wanting to make some parts, but I have been spending so much time with the program, it has been eating into my lathe project. At this point it still is not working properly. I am hoping that Brian can find the problem.

I did manage to make one part today, an adapter plate so I can mount the caterpillar track to the existing cover that I already painted. Now that will need to be painted, which will take another week.

I still have not decided what drives I am going to use, the Gecko or UHU. The UHU will not be ready to ship until March, but with that drive I can run the motors at 120V. But the drive only comes as a kit I will have to solder. I have used the Gecko drive on another project so I know how to make them work, but I will be limited to about 76 volts, which is 54V under the motor rating, which limits the speed to about 60% of max.

Either way I will have to mount encoders to the motors. Today I bored a hole in the shaft of one of the motors. I had to first drill a hole in the end mount of the motor, I made this hole .255". I then mounted the motor in the lathe WITH THE LATHE POWER OFF, to make sure I did not accidently turn on the lathe. I applied 20V to the motor and used a 1/4" end mill to bore the hole in the motor shaft. I had to work slowly, cleaning the chips out every .010" or so to keep them out of the motor. I will install a .250 stub shaft (dowel pin) on which to mount the encoder. I did the same thing on the motors for my mill project (see earlier post).

When I disassembled the motor it was full of way oil. I cleaned it all out, assemble the motor, did my boring, and then took the motor apart to clean out any chips. The motor was full of way oil again. It turns out the armature had that sticky oil all inside the windings. I put the armature on the lathe and spun it up to 2,000 rpm for about 20 minutes to try and get as much oil out as possible. I also cleaned up the commutator. In the pictures you can see all the oil on the blue towel on the lathe. Another picture shows the hole in the end of the motor shaft.

The motor runs incredibly smooth and quiet. When it was mounted to the lathe I could not tell if it was running or not without looking at the timing gear.

Vince

[N4NV]

I had fleeting thoughts about mounting the x axis motor from the other side. The down side is it would stick through the back of my enclosure. I could add a 4"x4" electrical gutter along the rear of the enclosure, but this would keep the mill another 4" off the wall in my garage. I am already at the minimum clearance. The upside is the encoder mount would be fairly easy.

I covered the lathe with tarp because I noticed that I was getting some overspray on it. It has been raining here most of the week so I have to do my painting inside.

Vince

[N4NV]

I relocated the coolant pump to the spindle end of the stand due to interference with the caterpillar track. I had to drill a 4 3/4" hole in the stand for the pump. I used a hole saw and right angle drill. I really hate to drill holes that big with a hole saw. If something grabs, you are going for a ride on the drill. About half way through the hole the vibration caused the pilot drill to loosen and fall out of the mandrel, then the hole saw went for a walk across the stand. Oh, well, just a little touch up. At least I did not get hurt. Now I have to re-route the plumbing under the stand.

I also tried to re-bond the metal band to the caterpillar track. With out this band the track flops down. The band keeps it straight. I forgot to take a picture of the jig I used, maybe tomorrow.

I have pretty much decided on the Gecko 320 drives. I have all the components for a DC system at 74 volts. I have a 43v transformer and a buck boost transformer that should get me 52V or so. I will wire it up tomorrow. If I get the volts I want then it will be the Gecko. To run the UHU controllers at 120V, I will need more expensive caps and a different transformer, though I might be able to buck a 120V one. At 74V, I should get 1500 rpm which will give me 60 ipm rapids. Given the short travel of the X and Z axis, it will be plenty fast.

Vince

[N4NV]

I was bidding on some 400V capacitors on eBay, but some scoundrel beat my price, probably one of you reading this ;-) Without those caps, I am limited to a max of about 80 volts DC (100V rated cap). I hooked up my boost transformer to my 43V transformer and came up with 54V. That will give me 76VDC. Since I have everything to make such a power supply, I went ahead and ordered two Gecko 320 servo drives. I also ordered a Cubloc CB405 and a Cubase board 40M. This is a mini PLC and board. I hope to be able to control the turret with this. I will probably go ahead and order a UHU board, just to see how it compares with the Gecko.

In picture 1 I did a quickie wiring job just to see if my transformers worked. I realized that I was running out of room in the cabinet so I mounted the boost transformer to the side of the cabinet in picture 3. That cord above the boost transformer in picture 3 is just temporary as is the yellow cord. Picture 2 shows how I will mount the cap and also the VFD for the coolant pump. I picked up this little VFD on eBay for $50.

I am quickly getting spread thin. I am now working on painting, the power supply, the coolant pump and its plumbing, the lubrication lines, the encoders on the motors and the turret. Oh and I almost forgot. I designed the cabinet enclosure and gave it to the sheet metal guy I am renting space from. He will have his crew start cutting the pieces on his plasma table. I may have to slow down a bit and just finish one thing at a time. Probably not, that's not my style.

Vince

[N4NV]

Since I was going to start on the DC power supply I figured I would clean up that enclosure first thing this morning.

Two days about I tried to re-glue the metal band to the caterpillar track. The second picture shows the form I made to hold the track together until the glue dried. The third picture shows that glue did not stick. The track was not clean enough. This turned out to be a good thing. I decided to clean the entire track with a reloc pad in a right angle die grinder. At first it was just to get the track clean enough to re-glue, but I then decided to polish the entire track. I went over each link twice, once with a coarse pad and once with a fine pad. It took almost two hours to do. Now the track shines. It would have looked pretty bad to be the only thing on the lathe that looked like dirty.

When I received my motors, I also received two tach/resolver pairs. I got to looking at these and decided it would be easier to remover the tach/resolvers and install my encoders in the center of the mount. One problem I see with this is if there is any belt stretch or slop, the motors will oscillate. Another is the turning the motor. It is easier to bench tune the motor then install it than to have it installed and try to tune (the axis will be moving and I may run out of travel before I get it tuned). Anyway, I figure it will not take too much to adapt the encoder. If it does not work out I can always go back to my original idea.

Vince