Oh Blimey I bought a CNC Lathe !!!!

[Fred Bloggs]

Waiting patiently for more pictures and info   

Hope you getting better Awemawson

Fred

[awemawson]

Fred thanks for the kind thoughts - yes I feel absolutely fine, just not allowed to do anything serious for another 3-4 weeks

I've been gathering together what I need for the coolant wash out system that I'm adding so that I can hose things down inside. I've sourced the pump, the contactor to control it, the cut out to protect it, the panel switch and indicator to start it. This morning the 105 mm Starrett hole cutter arrived and I've cut out dummy pump flanges in 3mm plastic on my Beaver Partsmaster to check that the pump will fit where I intend to put it as it's a bit tight. Spent far far too long trying to remember how to set tool offsets on the Partsmaster as it's sat idle for too long and my grey cells are dying, but I've got the hang of it now.

The control switch will go under the console so that it is convenient to use, but this means that the wiring passes through the rather exposed and oily hydraulic section. I've bent up a little 3"x 6" x 2" box to surround them so I can bring conduit or possibly SY  armored wiring with a gland, but I'm not happy how the box has come out.

Currently contemplating cutting some suitable sheet half way through with a centre drill on the CNC mill to get sharper bends.

[awemawson]

I had planned just to weld up the corners of this box, and I may still do that, but as I have the Partsmaster currently set up with a 'spoil board' for cutting sheet held down by sticky tape I may experiment engraving deep lines for folding using a centre drill. However it's a bit of a bind as two of the bends are on the under side so it means location pins I suppose

[awemawson]

So I thought - stop pratting about and drill the hole now that you've got the hole saw.

Decided to check that I'd be able to get my hands onto the bolts holding the flange, so removed the access cover. Argh  Where I had intended to mount the pump is a separate compartment and doesn't seem to communicate with the coolant reservoir.

NEVER ASSUME

So I either need to open up holes into that compartment and hope that it is coolant proof underneath,  or find somewhere else for the pump. There is I think, room round the back but it's less convenient for plumbing and wiring.

[awemawson]

OK an action plan. Drill a hole in the top that will fall within the pump shaft opening, and tentatively fill or partially fill the chamber with coolant and see how much ends up on the floor! If none then trepan a large hole in the side to join the tanks

[awemawson]

Well that's the end of that brilliant plan 

Drilled a 20 mm hole, put in a few pints of coolant, mopped a few pints of coolant off the floor then bunged the hole up with a blind grommet. Time to seek plan B.

[philf]

Well that's the end of that brilliant plan 

Drilled a 20 mm hole, put in a few pints of coolant, mopped a few pints of coolant off the floor then bunged the hole up with a blind grommet. Time to seek plan B.

Andrew,

To quote one of my old bosses:

The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything!
 


Phil.

(Hope you don't need a plan C!)

[awemawson]

Well plan B is to put it in an external housing

(yes I know, John S you did offer me a pump in an external housing but it was only 1/8 HP!)

The chap who I got the pump from took a housing off to reduce the carriage cost - well it's on the way to me now 

It's not ideal as it's something else to trip over but it should solve the problem.

[awemawson]

Plan B was rejected on aesthetic grounds 

With a bit of jiggling and wriggling I reckoned I could get the third pump round the back of the machine next to the other two coolant pumps - it would be a squash but better than having a lump sticking out at the front 'like a carbuncle on the face of an old friend' to quote a well known person.

Best to do a mock up before cutting holes !

[awemawson]

So yes, they JUST fit, with very limited clearance on the sloping panel to the right - but hey - they're in, albeit balanced on bits of flat iron!

The two original pumps will need moving 50 mm left, their mounting plate shortening, another mounting plate will need to be made for the third pump, and there is a filter in the tank that will need a bit of re-jigging.

Oh, and the new pump, and the middle pump will need careful alignment or their outputs will not be accessible.  Simples really 

[awemawson]

Next to cut the 100 mm hole for the new plate. Due to the width and length of the plate I could only get two clamps on it. Then I attacked it with a big scary cutter 

[awemawson]

Due to the construction, the taller pump has to stand on a pedestal or would be too deep in the tank, so this means it has to be fixed to it's mounting plate along with the second pump as a sub- assembly then lowered into the tank

[awemawson]

However pump no 3 has to go in first or you can't get at it's bolts!

At this point I started attacking the filter, which would have fouled pump no 3

[awemawson]

Basically it had to be somewhat wider to clear the pump body, yet still stop swarf entering that area. A classic 'cut & shut' exercise with an angle grinder and a spot welder!

Then at last the whole assembly could be put together. As you can see the new pump just clears everything 

[awemawson]

As the original pumps moved left 50 mm one of the braided pipes no longer reached  so had to be re-made, but trivial really.

"All" that remains now to do to this bit of the project, is mount the controls, wire them and the motor up, and plumb it to the hand held wash down nozzle.

My intention is to wire it so that the pump can only run if a/ the switch for it is on, and b/ the doors are open as that is the only time it will be used.

[awemawson]

  It's been a long time in the coming, but at last we have a working coolant system. 

Firstly I needed to wire up and plumb in the manual wash down pump. The wiring went very well, I was actually able to pull a multicore 'SY' cable through the existing ducts from the control panel all the way to where I've mounted the 'motor protector' and the contactor that drives the new pump.

[awemawson]

I had a stroke of luck wiring up the motor protector, which is on the far right hand end of a row of them. Turns out that the three contacts for the three phases are distributed using a busbar. They obviously had standard length busbars  using two in this row, one of which would have been too long originally, so they overlapped it on two devices. All I had to do was remove it and 'single overlap' the busbar and the three phases were connected - result 

When it came to the plug and socket leading from the machine to the pump, there was already an existing cut out in the machine chassis that was blanked off. However the size of the cut out was suitable for a ten way Harting industrial connector which I couldn't source at a sensible price. I could get a 6 way as a 'Han-Kit' comprising plug / socket / inserts / covers / clamps - the whole shebang for the price of just a 10 way insert 

So .... reduce the hole. Not too hard really as the width was the same just the height was out by 13 mm - so I milled out a little adaptor ...

[awemawson]

So now there are two plugs  in that row that could be put in the wrong sockets. The extreme left hand one is for the motor for the swarf conveyor, and of course the new pump. They are both 415v 3 phase motors, so as long as I used compatible pin outs at least things wouldn't go bang if someone made an error!

Checking the swarf conveyor connector it turns out that pins 1&2 are intended for a thermal trip, which isn't present in my conveyor, so just had a link across them. It's as well I didn't just use pins 1,2, &3 for the three phases 

So I copied the swarf conveyors connections using 3,4 &5 for the phases, and assembled the plug such that if it was put in the swarf conveyor socket the cable would point upwards. hopefully this will stop someone connecting it wrong in the future, as there is no other way of personalising the socket so it cannot be used by the wrong plug 

[awemawson]

I also installed a tramp oil skimmer - just managed to squeeze it under the rising part of the swarf convayer where hopefully it'll be out of the way and not get knocked. Although I cleaned the tanks as far as I could, there was still a lot of tramp oil that I couldn't reach.

[awemawson]

I've uploaded a video of the coolant system working, and mostly going in the right places.

I had bought a 'venturi mixer' to fill the coolant. A gizmo that fits on top of the 20 litre drum of concentrate, which it draws up using a venturi in the line from a tap. It incorporates a setting valve so that the correct ratio is mixed.

All sounds a very good theory, and with 320 litres to mix for this machine seemed a good idea. Total waste of time, and it's going back to MSC on Monday as not fit for purpose. Even at it's maximum setting the highest concentration I could get it up to was just under 5% measuring with my refractometer so I'm confident of the readings. I need at least 7% and really aiming for 8%.

[RussellT]

I'm not familiar with the plugs you describe, but how about cutting off one of the unused pins and blocking up the corresponding hole.  You would have to modify both plugs on different pins but even one would prevent getting them crossed over.
Russell

[awemawson]

Yes Russell I'd thought of removing a socket and putting a customised peg in the corresponding plug, but the way it's wired all that will happen if someone gets it wrong is that the swarf conveyor will start instead of the pump, and vice versa. I also considered paining each plug/socket combination a different colour, but where do you stop !

[RussellT]

My idea was that if you cut off pin 1 on plug A and blocked hole 1 on socket A (eg by putting in the cut off pin) , then plug B couldn't be inserted as it would still have pin 1 and there'd be no hole for it to go in.  If you did the same to pin 2 and hole 2 on plug B and socket B then plug A couldn't go in socket B.  It'd be physically impossible to insert the plugs the wrong way around.

Russell

[vtsteam]

Cool, coolant! 

[AdeV]

I had bought a 'venturi mixer' to fill the coolant. A gizmo that fits on top of the 20 litre drum of concentrate, which it draws up using a venturi in the line from a tap. It incorporates a setting valve so that the correct ratio is mixed.

All sounds a very good theory, and with 320 litres to mix for this machine seemed a good idea.

Eh? What's wrong with pouring the entire barrel of concentrate into the coolant tank, then adding the 300 (?) litres of water via a hosepipe (and, if you really must be accurate, via some barrels to measure).

Once you've filled one 20ltr barrel with water (say, the now empty coolant concentrate barrel), you now know how long it takes to supply 20ltrs of water. So multiply up for the remaining 280, sit back & have a cuppa!

Let the coolant pump do the hard work of mixing the stuff....