Oh Blimey I bought a CNC Lathe !!!!

[awemawson]

And this is the complexities of the 'opposing spindle' ie the one facing the main spindle. It has again a hydraulic clamp / un-clamp set up, with a host of proximity sensors:

[tekfab]

You know i really really admire your dogedness in pursuing this BUT if ever there was another reason needed NOT to go down the CNC route then this thread is it ! 

GOOD LUCK !  and may the fruition of your toils be soon.   

[awemawson]

Ah - but is it the end result or the journey that I 'enjoy' - I'll leave you to draw your own conclusion!

[awemawson]

Late yesterday brought an email with a large pdf file attached - yes at last the correct (hopefully) circuit has arrived. Printed out all 169 pages on my A4 laser printer, but I decided that now I have it as a pdf  I would print out the relay side of things at A3 (old eyes you see - or rather don't    ).

So this morning back into the fray: The relay in the following pictures had been giving me particular problems, and was causing other relays to chatter due to poor contacts. I can buy them still but firstly they are about £50 each, and secondly the contacts bear different numbers which will lead to future confusion, so - it has to come out and be cleaned.

First - remove all the (unlabeled) wires, and label them, putting a 'boot lace ferule' on each

[awemawson]

Then remove the relay, and take into the operating theatre:

[awemawson]

Separate the coil from the contact pack

[awemawson]

Open up the contact pack and carefully clean each contact with a scalpel. You could get special contact cleaning slightly abrasive pads for this job, but I've not seen any for years!

Test operation before replacing !

[awemawson]

Then pop it back in. Whole operation took just over an hour - now there are a further how many relays 

However glad to say it's cured the chattering so a bit of progress 

[lordedmond]

another step forwards on the journey


congrats on getting the drawing with the same date as the machine it will help i am sure




Stuart

[vtsteam]

Glad the relay is functioning again, awmawson!

I still use the old writing paper trick -- slid between contacts held closed for cleaning carbon from breaker points on my old tractors, and I have a point file or two in case of spikes and pits. I think you can still buy point files here at automotive supply stores.

[Fred Bloggs]

Glad to see some progress, I have got into a habit of check madmodders daily for progress, like a family member expecting good news at any moment

keep at it we are all rooting for you

Fred

[awemawson]

Thanks Gents!

Sadly the contacts on these relays are recessed so the paper trick doesn't fit   The contact surfaces are rare metal plated so I don't want to be too harsh with them - there seems to be a powdery deposit on some of them. Possibly oxide but I don't think so. I did another relay dismantle this afternoon, this time one with an auxiliary contact set added on the top. Doing the relay was just like the last one, but I could find no way of getting at the auxiliary contacts short of busting the  plastic moulding. The contacts were bad, which is why I pulled it out, but I had in the end to try and flood the inside with contact cleaner / de-oxidiser and even getting that 'inside' was flaky - obviously essentially sealed. However working it by hand with the switch cleaner floating around in the end gave a good contact, but not a satisfactory solution really.

Meanwhile if anyone knows a source of Siemens relays at a sensible price:

Main relay 3TH 2031-0BB4 (3 N/O & 1 N/C 24v DC coil)

Aux Block 3TX442-2A (2 N/O & 2 N/C)

please let me know. They need really to have the same numbering scheme as the following pictures - the are a few around marked up L1 L2 L3 but I feel that is just going to lead to confusion in the future

[dsquire]

awemawson

I tried looking for the part numbers that you listed and I think I may have found something. Here is the link to it.

http://www.ebay.fr/sch/sis.html?_nkw=Siemens+3TH2031+0BB4+Schutz+mit+Hilfsschutz+3TX4422+2A+&_itemId=110846361606

I will continue to keep looking to see if anything else shows up at a reasonable price.

Cheers 

Don

[techonehundred]

Here is a lot of 6 Contactors

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LOT-OF-6-SIEMENS-3TH2031-0BB4-CONTACTOR-3NO-1NC-10A-24VDC-/130891552864?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e79be9860

[modeldozer]

Hi,

Had a bit of a look arround the normal suppliers and found these

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/contactors/7352787/  relay only
http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/contactors/4111700/  with aux contacts push in

Cheers
Abraham

[awemawson]

Thanks Abraham and others. Problem with the RS ones is at £39 plus 20% VAT you are at the circa £50 level which is why I was casting around looking for good used ones. The various one not in the UK seem quite reasonable until you calculate the shipping, which brings them up to 2/3rds new price. As there are so many of the darn things it get pricey very quickly

Not much activity recently on the machine - I've been called away to sort other things. We've got some large scale building works going on here, and the builder (who I've employed for over a year now) has gone to pieces over the potential loss of his mum who is having heart troubles. This gives scheduling issues so for instance I have to get 1100 tons of earth shifted tomorrow!

Lucky I'm not using a shovel and barrow:

[AdeV]

If only you had some kind of large capacity CNC lathe machine, you'd be able to turn out loads of shovel shafts and wheelbarrow parts.... 

 

[awemawson]

I made good use of my enforced imprisonment in the farm office to go through all 160 plus pages of the circuit diagrams pulling out all references to inputs and outputs to and from the NC controller as I was sure something was missing. I put them all in a spreadsheet, which has allowed me to sort them by i/o address and also by terminal number. Sure enough I've found five inputs that are not documented and contacting Traub, they also don't know what they do  So next job is to put the cable tracer on them and plot them out.

If you are having a really boring day have a read of the spreadsheet:

[awemawson]

And to keep Adev happy - yes the earth moved for me! It took four of us from 07:00 to 22:00 non stop.  My shovel and barrow are in the second picture!  Just need to let the place it was dry a bit then harrow and re-seed.

[AdeV]

Yep, that's what I call a spade & a wheelbarrow If only I had the room for such toys....

Loving the gate BTW.

[millwright]

I enjoy this thread and admire your patience. was pleased to see the gate was shut to keep the livestock in.
John

[awemawson]

We call that 'The Gate to Nowhere' - it used to be the access to a smallish paddock, but we took the stock fencing down to let the dumpers better access when we dug out the ditches and stream a couple of years ago. The paddock will be reinstated soon, with a double stock fence with hedging between.

Anyway - back on topic: Tonight I've been buzzing out those elusive input output lines. It turns out it's down to two manufacturing errors  all be it slight ones. Firstly two of the termination blocks on my machine were incorrectly labeled, and secondly the 'survey' printed in the circuit diagram showing physical locations also has an error. In the attached picture the upper terminal block, which is 'X206' is labelled 'X103', and the block below it is actually 'X103' but wasn't labelled. 

Makes a lot more sense now.

[Henning]

The suspense is killing me! How is this going?

[John Stevenson]

The suspense is killing me! How is this going?

It's not, thats the problem. 

[awemawson]

I think I alluded to this is a previous posting, but we are coming to the end of a major refurbishment here involving rebuilding the farm house, renovating two cottages and some substantial landscaping, and the poor old 'main contractor' has had a bit of a breakdown, meaning I've had to take on his role. Fortunately I've been able to use his sub-contractors (some of which are his sons) but it takes up all my play time

However there has been some progress on the machine. Firstly I think I've solved the relay issue. I now have the correct circuit as far as I can tell, and have sourced some identical relays from German eBay: