Oh Blimey I bought a CNC Lathe !!!!

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awemawson:
So now I could fit the actuating tube, and screw the female thread on the end, onto which I'd screwed the threaded rod and locked it in place with a locknut on each side

awemawson:
Next I needed a way of turning the actuator nut in the chuck, so that I could screw it, complete with my male threaded adapter, onto the studding to make length adjustments.

A tubular spanner came with the chuck, but due to it's diameter it will only engage the nut from the mounting side of the chuck - not a lot of use in my application ! Spanner wall not thick enough to reduce so need to start afresh.

Hunting for heavy walled tube or suitable bar it then occurred to me - there is a swarf guard at the front of the nut - would it remove and let the spanner in . . . oh YES :thumbup:

awemawson:
So now I'm ready to mount the chuck and try it out . . .

. . . . EXCEPT . . . I need to be sure of the hydraulics - a lot of power in that actuating cylinder. Operating force is tweakable by setting the hydraulic pressure, and I need to familiarise myself with the hydraulic manifold before I start random twiddling :scratch: :scratch:

The chuck says maximum operating force is 22 kNewtons ie 22,000 Newtons

Powering up the machine (no chuck fitted) lets me see that the current operating pressure is 30 bar, and the chart on the cabinet says this gives 4000 deca Newtons or 40,000 so presumably that pressure needs about halving.

Also I'm not sure how much tension that I can put on that 12 mm studding. It's only there to prove movement length and position, so I will turn the hydraulic pressure as low as I can for testing, then re-set it when I make the final adapter.

Have a hydraulic circuit diagram:

vtsteam:
Always amazed by your abilities and knowledge, Andrew :coffee:

awemawson:
A bit of fiddling about and I've reduced the hydraulic pressure to 2.5 bar (from 30 bar) which I'm sure is a safe level for testing the movement of the chuck mechanism. I've also been able to reverse the direction the hydraulic cylinder operates when told to close (The original collet chuck pushes closed, this chuck pulls closed)

Now I need to sort out the other end of the spindle where the proximity feedback sensor is housed, as it needs to operate in the reverse fashion. There is an adapter disk that is the element that is sensed, and I suspect I'll end up machining another one 'top hat' shaped so the bit that is sensed is to the rear, rather than forward as it is at the moment.

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