Rebirth of a Denford MIRAC CNC Lathe

The Craftmans Shop > New from Old

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awemawson:
They advertise their part #12786 which doesn't say it is an NUC and they advertise #14366 which IS an NUC. It was #12786 complete with monitor I was after at $799 but wanted a spec first as none is shown. For that sort of money I want to know what I am buying !

I see they have changed the registration form now to accept 'none' as to which item you own - too late, they lost a sale and I saved a lot of money !

Still had no reply to my email which is rude to my way of thinking

awemawson:
So at long last I've managed to install a second serial port into the Compac DC7600 SFF PC that will be embedded into the MIRAC. :ddb:

I traced the correct Compac part PA716A which despite appearances is NOT just an external socket and a ribbon cable, but has active components, and plugs into what appears to be a socket on the motherboard carrying a subset of the PCI bus.

I had previously tried PCI express serial cards but could not get them to map to the correct address and interrupt lines for the MIRAC software to use, however the PA716A plugged straight in, appeared in the BIOS at boot and was already on the correct address and interrupt :thumbup:

So this mornings job was to lash in the new DC7600 SFF PC to prove things work before hacking the old Viglen out. Glad to say all went well and I've successfully turned parts this morning just as before.

I now need to check airflow direction to ensure that the PC fan and the cabinet enclosure fan aren't fighting each other, then I can plan how to mount up the DC7600 SFF

awemawson:
A quick test with a smouldering paper proved that the original cabinet fan, and the airflow through the PC will tend to pressurise the cabinet. This is correct design as it tends to keep stuff out of the cabinet unless its been through the filters.

However there seems to be no designed exit for the air. Apart from a cable duct passing into the machining space - no exit :scratch:

. . . Need to think about this and possibly adding one :coffee:

awemawson:
Time for a bit of an update:

The replacement PC is now mounted in the enclosure with suitable metal work to suspend it in place and present a fair face to the outside world by way of an escutcheon plate.

I've made and fitted a replacement for the headstock end panel keeping fingers out of belts :bugeye:

I've made a replacement for the lubrication pump access door

All await painting, but that will be done when the entire machine enclosure can be dismounted and sand blasted

The machine is working well and I've today been experimenting with the G76 threading cycle. The machine obeys the Fanuc dialect of G code and the G76 command (which occupies two lines of code) is one of the more complex ones with loads of parameters to tweak.

Net result: today I've made some of the most expensive and time consuming M6 brass hex bolts ever :lol:

Please excuse the swarf on the pictures of the bolt :palm:

The sliding front cover / door is obviously not the original, and whoever started making this one made a reasonable job of it but never finished, so there is no provision for a lower slider. I've various bits on order to make not only the slider arrangement but also to insert a better sized window (in 6 mm polycarbonate)

(I've a video uploading to Youtube that I'll link in when it's finished)

tom osselton:
This is coming along nicely! I wish I could say the same about mine!

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