[ckm]

Vince,

I brought some castings home from our last Hardinge acquisition. Temporary insanity I guess.
If any of the enclosed look familiar, I’D be happy to send them to you!
In the future, I’ll also keep a lookout for air motors before we send all the stripped parts to the Salvage Yard.

You wouldn't happen to have a complete headstock? I've got various bits to assemble a lathe, but no idea how to source a headstock/spindle without spending HUGE $$$$$....

Thx.

Chris (in SF)

[kipdidit]

CNCfun,

How are you fixed on CHNC bases?

Kip (in STL)

[N4NV]

Vince,

I brought some castings home from our last Hardinge acquisition. Temporary insanity I guess.
If any of the enclosed look familiar, I’D be happy to send them to you!
In the future, I’ll also keep a lookout for air motors before we send all the stripped parts to the Salvage Yard.

Enclosed is the Spindle Bearing Inst'l tool that makes the job possible!!

Regards…….W. Smith

I have all the castings you show in the left picture. What I am now looking for is the way covers (the pieces of metal that hold the rubber on to keep chips out from under the caraige.

Vince

[N4NV]

You wouldn't happen to have a complete headstock? I've got various bits to assemble a lathe, but no idea how to source a headstock/spindle without spending HUGE $$$$$....

Thx.

Chris (in SF)

I have the second head stock that is yours if you want it. A friend claimed the base to use as a column for a mill he is making.

Vince (in SJ)

[N4NV]

I have been tied up with other things, but I managed to get the coolant pump painting finished and I mounted the pump. I also finished painting the X axis motor mount/heatsink so I mounted the X axis motor.

Vince

[ckm]

I have the second head stock that is yours if you want it. A friend claimed the base to use as a column for a mill he is making.

Vince (in SJ)

Might be interested in that. I'll PM you.

Chris.

[N4NV]

Last night I soldered my encoder connectors to my cat 5e cable so I could install the motors. I mounted the Z axis motor. I still have to paint the PVC cap and run the wires to the controller.

I learned a lot today about the fitting Hardinge used for the oil and air lines. They are made by Parker. They do not take standard ferrules and you can not get them at NAPA. I visited the local Parker distributor in San Jose (Royal Brass on 10th street). The guy behind the counter had been working there 12 years and had never seen such a fitting. He said he would humor me and went in the back to look through some bins. He actually found the 1/4" part. On the 1/4" lines the ferrules are integral with the nut, so you have to buy the entire nut and ferrule assembly (all of $.89 each). He did not have the 1/8" ferrules, but said they did carry them at one time and he could special order them. I thanked him and said no thanks, just the 1/4" fittings.

I had previously purchased (30) 1/8" ferrules, but they were double tapered. I tried one but it deformed and cut into the tubing. I then cut one in half so it had a single taper, like the original. This worked. You can see in the picture the difference between the two. So how do you cut something as small as a 1/8" ferrule in half? With a watch lathe. Actually, this was huge to do in my watch lathe. I have over 50 collets for it and it took the second to the largest collet. In third picture you can see the custom cross slide I made to the lathe. Watch lathe cross slides usually go for $400 and up. Being a cheap bastard, I could not bring myself to pay that much. I bought 2 Taig cross slides for about $24 each then machined them thinner so they would work with my lathe center.

All said and done I think I cut up 28 ferules. I think now I can move forward on the oil and air lines.

I almost forgot, I spent most of an hour polishing all the brass fitting.

Vince

[ckm]

All,

I know we discussed Triangle upthread. Well, I have some bad news.

I was there yesterday and it was way more empty than I've ever seen it. Talked to Mohamed and he said he is selling everything off and closing in August.

Bummer.

Yeah.

He said the area had changed and that there is not much manufacturing anymore. Weird, because there are a number of eBay businesses selling this kind of stuff based in SV.

Anyway, there's a Bridgeport clone and three manual lathes. One looks similar to the CHNC, but is a secondary operation lathe with a turret (looks the same, tho'). There's also what looks like a surface grinder. He's also got tons of motion stuff, including steppers, servos, ball screws and linear rail, as well as lots of 3-phase motors.

If you go in the back there are 3-4 crates full of small-ish steppers and DC servos.

Anyway, just thought you all would like to know.

Chris.

[N4NV]

Triangle sounds like another casualty of the high rent in Silicon Valley. I was crushed when Haltec closed.

Now that I have the proper ferrules I figured I could start on the oil and air lines while I paint the motor mounting plate and end cap. As I looked at the carriage oil distribution block I realized I had better mount the forward limit switch first, or it would be tough to get to. I got the wire fished and the switch hooked up and in place. When I tested it, it did not seem to work. I thought it was a magnetic reed switch with NO and NC contacts, hence the three wires from the switch. I looked up the part number on-line and found that it is a Hall Effect magnetic switch. It takes 4.5 to 24V to operate. The data sheet is here:
http://sccatalog.honeywell.com/pdbdo...103sr13a-1.pdf
I will have to figure out how I am going to wire it up with my break out board. I not quite sure how it operates.

I moved on to installing some new oil lines. It is a lot harder than I thought it would be to install the 1/8" line in the 1/4" line. If it were just a single line the length would not be critical, but the 1/8" line has to be within about .25" or it will end up too long or short to make up in the fitting. I managed to get three of them done.

Vince

[drsteele]

Vince,
I'm using the Bob Campbell breakout board and both the X axis switches and also the Z axis magnetic sensors will activate a shutdown.
Duane

[N4NV]

Vince,
I'm using the Bob Campbell breakout board and both the X axis switches and also the Z axis magnetic sensors will activate a shutdown.
Duane

What I don't understand is, are they NO or NC? Can they be wired in series or do they need to be parallel. With regular switches I wire them NC in series so that if a wire comes loose, it will cause a fault. How can these switches be wired so the integrity of the wiring can be monitored?

Vince

[N4NV]

Well, it looks like I am going backwards. I am installing the oil and air lines and the wiring. I have to take things apart to do so. I also decided to replace all the existing air lines in the cross slide, the lines that control the turret. One of these days I will get back to the control box.

I just had another thought. I should have made the air lines a different color, oh well, I guess I can tell by the type of fitting.

Vince

[N4NV]

I found some plastic ferrules for the air lines so I replaced just about all of them. I found I had to press the ferrule into the fitting or it would not seat correctly. I used a screw and some pliers (see the picture) to get the ferrules seated. With the oil lines I found it was very important to mark the 1/4" line at the nut so you can verify that it did not slip out while you are tightening the nut. I had a couple of them come loose because of this.

I replaced all the lines in the turret/cross slide. I still have to finish up wiring the clipper valves. Once I get this done I think I can get back to the motors and wire them. Maybe two weeks I can get things moving under Mach.

Vince

[kirk_wallace]

Nice work on the CHNC. I have an HNC conversion here:

http://www.wallacecompany.com/cnc_lathe/HNC/

I noticed some talk earlier about Hardinge parts. I would like to do another conversion if I can find a good deal on one. Keep up the good work.

[N4NV]

Nice work on the CHNC. I have an HNC conversion here:

http://www.wallacecompany.com/cnc_lathe/HNC/

I noticed some talk earlier about Hardinge parts. I would like to do another conversion if I can find a good deal on one. Keep up the good work.

I looked over your page and it gave me some more ideas and some answers. Is that turret encoder custom made? I don't have one and was thinking of making my own. If you have already done it, I would be interested in your design. Also, did you have to make all your gaskets for the cross slide covers?

Thanks

Vince

[N4NV]

I spent most of my time today on the wiring. I finished up the Clippard valve on the front of the cross slide. The Y axis motor is done except for a final splice. The X axis compartment is getting a little busy. I am going to stop by Halted tomorrow and see if I can pick up some quick disconnects. That should clean things up a bit and make it easier to trouble shoot.

Vince

[kirk_wallace]

I looked over your page and it gave me some more ideas and some answers. Is that turret encoder custom made? I don't have one and was thinking of making my own. If you have already done it, I would be interested in your design. Also, did you have to make all your gaskets for the cross slide covers?

Thanks

Vince

That is the original encoder board. The material it was potted in was deteriorating so I figured removing it wouldn't make it any worse. So far, it is working fine, but I planned out the basics for a new board in case I need to replace it. There is not much magic to the Hall sensors and the two IC's are 4000 series CMOS 4 bit priority encoders. Copying the original should not be a problem. With SMD chips, I was thinking a board could be small enough to house it in a fluid tight case and still fit under the cover. Another thought is to use a PIC instead as a turret controller. It could be set up with a three wire serial port to the PC and IO for the solenoids and Halls sensors. You could send it a tool position number and change command and have it reply with a status when it is ready. Other features could be added, but I can't think what just now.

I cut and punched the gaskets from a sheet I ordered from McMaster (?) along with servo motor brushes, bearings and almost all of the o-rings and seals for the turret. (I have a lot of spare o-rings.) I also made spacer rings with o-rings that fit under the cover screws that have through holes. I haven't changed the seal under the rim of the turret because it was $75. In the long run I'd like to figure out an alternative.

Let me know if you need more information.

[kirk_wallace]

Wasn't someone looking for a lathe base?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Base-Cabinet-for...mZ120231780785

Kirk, http://www.wallacecompany.com/machine_shop/

[kirk_wallace]

Vince,

Have you given any thought to converting your spindle to something like an A2-5 taper? My HNC threaded spindle makes me nervous. Or is there a trick to make sure a chuck will stay put?

Kirk, http://www.wallacecompany.com/machine_shop/

[CNCfun&games]

Vince,

Is this the replacement part you need for your Hardinge?
If so, send me a PM with your address & I'll send it to you!

W. Smith