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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2016
    Posts
    8

    Unhappy Spindle not working

    I wonder if anyone can help.... Over the weekend there was a water leek through the roof. The water has been soaking the top of the spindle. The machine is a Piranha PJCM 1325-3. The spindle is a 125mm diameter 5KW 10 amp 24,000 RPM motor. I undid the for pin cable to the top of the motor and dried out the electrics. Booted the machine up and selected a program. The spindle did not start and a puff of smoke came up through the four pin electrical socket on the top of the spindle! Crikey! I quickly turned the machine off. All its moving functions seem to operate OK. There was no water damage to the computer and processing side of the machine, just the spindle. Does anybody have any ideas as to how to fault find the issue and where I may get parts. I have contacted Radical Routing machines and am awaiting a response. I would like to know if there are any other options for servicing and repair. I'm in Plymouth in the UK and a very long way away from Radical. Thanks for reading the post.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Posts
    1916

    Re: Spindle not working

    Quote Originally Posted by Zhevster View Post
    I wonder if anyone can help.... Over the weekend there was a water leek through the roof. The water has been soaking the top of the spindle. The machine is a Piranha PJCM 1325-3. The spindle is a 125mm diameter 5KW 10 amp 24,000 RPM motor. I undid the for pin cable to the top of the motor and dried out the electrics. Booted the machine up and selected a program. The spindle did not start and a puff of smoke came up through the four pin electrical socket on the top of the spindle! Crikey! I quickly turned the machine off. All its moving functions seem to operate OK. There was no water damage to the computer and processing side of the machine, just the spindle. Does anybody have any ideas as to how to fault find the issue and where I may get parts. I have contacted Radical Routing machines and am awaiting a response. I would like to know if there are any other options for servicing and repair. I'm in Plymouth in the UK and a very long way away from Radical. Thanks for reading the post.
    That's really rotten luck. Sorry.

    Anyway, I'd start with measuring the windings. Disconnect the spindle and heck with a digital ohm meter between each of the three coils. You should read a very low value but not zero, and each of the three should be equal. Check also between each of the coil ends and the earth, which I suppose is the same as the frame of the motor also. The value there should be infinity. Be careful not to touch the terminals of the instrument otherwise the readings will be false.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2016
    Posts
    8

    Re: Spindle not working

    Thank you for the info. I measured between the red , yello and blue wires and they all gave me a reading of 1.4. There is another blue wire and that has no reading to the three other colours but does read .3 to the chassis...

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Posts
    1916

    Re: Spindle not working

    Quote Originally Posted by Zhevster View Post
    Thank you for the info. I measured between the red , yello and blue wires and they all gave me a reading of 1.4. There is another blue wire and that has no reading to the three other colours but does read .3 to the chassis...
    OK, so this seems reasonable. Now check the connection between the motor and the VFD. If there was a puff of smoke it may have come from the aviation plug at the motor end. If you are lucky you just blew a wire. By the way, I don't know your VFD, but have you checked if there is a fuse (or more than one) inside which may be blown? Check the manual, because the smoke indicates that there was a serious problem. Now no more smoke but the motor is not spinning, so something is wrong...

    I assume the the motor axis can easily be rotated by hand, so there everything feels right, is it?

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2016
    Posts
    8

    Re: Spindle not working

    Thank you for your help it is proving very useful. Yes the motor spins freely. I have checked the continuity from the VFD to the plug on the top of the motor and its all good. Is there a way of testing the output voltage of the VFD? on closer inspection, I can see that water may have got down the input power lead and into the actual motor workings. There is a metal top secured by three Allen bolts. The top is sealed, however where the cable goes through, the three wires are in a fabric sleeve. Water may have got down the inside of the sleeve and then would be on the brushes and windings and any other electronics in there. I don't know what sort of motor it is!

    Do you think is advisable to strip the top of the motor off breaking the waterproof seal and seeing if there is water in the motor? Obviously I can re seal the top back on. What do you think?

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