[MrBean]

I picked this up the other day after winning it on ebay for £10.50

It is some kind of manually operated, negative scanning machine for digitizing photographic negatives.

This is my knid of swag. It's loaded with goodies and ideal for CNC conversion.
It's pretty much ready to go, as is. The linear motion hardware is nice and tight, but slides freely. All axis are chain and sprocket drive. I thought I'd have to replace these with belts, but they seem to have very little backlash. I've not measured it, but it feels like there's no slop at all. So I'll see how they work, before stripping them out for belts. I've stripped most of the stuff off that won't be required. This is much sturdier than my homemade CNC router will ever be. It even has a ballscrew to raise/lower the entire table and gantry, so you can have it at just the right working height. How thoughtfull.

So the plan is..... To get some shafts poking out from the chain drive mech on all 3 axis, so that I can attach the steppers via HTD belts and pulleys and make some kind of table to replace the glass & lights.

I have some steppers that should do the job already. I'm planning to put the PICStep drivers I built, in a purpose made box, so I can move the box between machines and just plug the motors in. (untill I build another set of PICSteps).

So not too much work really. Some head scratching to do over how to get the shafts sticking out far enough to attach a pulley. I have some ideas tho'.

I'll post pics/updates as I progress.

Regards Terry.....

[Bloy2004]

Geeesh Terry!
What a treasure you got there for so little! ....and so close to you.

...hope your retrofitting goes easy!

Bloy

[MrBean]

Actually I had to travel 130 miles to pick it up in the van. So add £25 in fuel. It's still a bargain.

Terry.....

[Bloy2004]

Are those slides/bearings something like Thomson pillow blocks?

Bloy

P.S. 130 miles isn't far for something like that

[Al_The_Man]

P.S. 130 miles isn't far for something like that

1UK mile = 10N.American miles
Ask me how I know
Al

[MrBean]

Yes they are made by Thompson. They are very, very nice units.

Regards Terry.....

[MrBean]

1UK mile = 10N.American miles
Ask me how I know
Al

Yeh. Your country is waaaay bigger. Anywhere in the UK would seem local to you guys.

Regards Terry.....

[2muchstuff]

Congradulations, that is quite a find for being so cheap. It should be a breeze to convert, most of he hard work is already done. Almost makes me want to check out the photo labs around town.

[10bulls]

Wow! Fantastic! Bean haggling?
Are those not steppers underneath the table connecting to the chain drive?
I notice Mk I skulking in the background fearing the worst!
Is it just me or do you have an urge to stand in front of it strumming the table and humming Toccata and Fugue in D minor?

[skippy]

Terry, I think you misunderstood Al's comment about 1UK mile = 10N.American miles. I have been to the UK many times but other than London I have generally ended up somewhere around the Dover or Canterbury area (close to ferry or Eurotunnel). Last time I went over for the day (on a Saturday from Belgium) and decided for something different I'd go to Sandgate which in terms of distance (+/- 50 miles??) looked to me like about 30minutes away from where the Eurotunnel exits in England. Well 2.5hrs to get there, 4hrs to look around, 2.5hrs to get back, plus about 2hrs each way (drive + Eurotunnel) to/from Brussels added up to one long day. Mainly due to my ignorance I might add! Your machine looks like a great find.
Skippy

[MrBean]

Wow! Fantastic! Bean haggling?
Are those not steppers underneath the table connecting to the chain drive?
I notice Mk I skulking in the background fearing the worst!
Is it just me or do you have an urge to stand in front of it strumming the table and humming Toccata and Fugue in D minor?

The motors under the table are DC servos. They were for winding rolls of negatives across the table. The motors seem pretty weak tho'.
The chain drive is connected to small hand wheels though an electromagnetic clutch thingy. It's very weak, not enough to hold the axis in position while routing. So I can't use the handwheel shafts to connect the steppers to. I have, however, managed to get long shafts exiting from the X & Y axis tho'. I'll post some pics later tonight. Z looked like the easy one to do, but it's turning out to be a head scratcher.

I can imagine Mike Oldfield in my garage, playing the "light organ". Shame I have to remove those. They looked kind'a cool.

Hmmmm. The Mk 1 machine will be dismantled once I've got the new one converted. I plan to beef it up some, as it's quite bendy. It's Ok if you take light cuts tho'. I may then give it to my farther, who has a small furniture making business.

Regards Terry.....

[High Seas]

WHATA FIND! Will the light table become a vacuum table for piece hold-down? Or will you use/mod the negative spools/rollers for cutting endless length vinyl signage?
Great SWAG! More pics and planning ideas! :cheers: Jim

[santiniuk]

Great swag Terry !

It looks like your well on the way to another machine. I will follow this log with interest.

I'm interested in how the chain and sprockets work out, could be a useful system.

Keep the pictures coming.

Cheers

[MrBean]

I got a shaft exiting from the rear of the X axis drive. I left it long for the time being. I'm going to make a support bracket and bearing for the outer end of the shaft, once it's been test fitted with an HTD pulley and shortened to the correct length.

[MrBean]

Here's a piccy of the Y axis shaft exiting from the left, outer side of the gantry.

[MrBean]

And finally.......The Z shaft exiting from the rear. The side exit shaft is the original one from the handwheel. It was worm driven, unfortunately the worm wheel was attached to a one way bearing, meaning you could lift the Z axis without the drive system moving. No good when plunging into a cut. For now at least, the easiest option was to get a shaft out the rear. The other (original) one will be removed and kept in case I deceide to use it later.

The next step is to get some pulleys ordered and think about attaching some stepper mounts.

Will keep you posted.

Regards Terry.....

[xairflyer]

Good find all right Terry, I bet there are other similar type machines out there used for other purposes that could be converted, I bet that machine was expensive when new.

[MrBean]

It's been a while since I started this thread, and I've made zero progress since then. Having said that. The machine has been a very handy shelf in the workshop.

Having been prodded into re-igniting this thread. (You know who you are). I made a stepper mount for the Y axis, so it looks like I'm building again. I'm going to try and keep on with the project this time.

A while ago I tried making some 5mm pitch HTD pulleys for this machine, mainly because I was too tight to buy any. It looks like they should work out ok. We'll see how it goes.....

Looking at the picture of the Y axis, it looks like the spiders have moved in while I've been away. The machine could do with a good dusting too by looks of it.

[spalm]

Didn’t I just see those gears and motor mount in the CamBam thread?

You guys in the “old country” seem to have a step up on us in the class department. Good Job. Glad to see you back on this project.

Steve

[MrBean]

Didn’t I just see those gears and motor mount in the CamBam thread?

You guys in the “old country” seem to have a step up on us in the class department. Good Job. Glad to see you back on this project.

Steve

Yeh. Seeing as I was testing 10Bulls' software I thought I may as well do something usefull with it.
Hopefully I'll get this thing done this time.

Terry.