Oh Blimey I bought a CNC Lathe !!!!

[awemawson]

I've not doubt that you'd carry a spare John, if you could find it in your den of iniquity 

A bit of web browsing leads me to suspect that the Sauter design works by indexing round to the 'hole'  for the solenoid locking pin, before a tool position, firing the pin into the hole, then reversing the drive motor which allows two plates with wavy surfaces and a set of rollers between them to force the Wirth Coupling together by cam action. Release is by popping the pin in, and driving the motor. This is conjecture based on a problem someone had on the Practical Machinist site:

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/cnc-machining/sauter-turret-fagor-8055-dont-seem-like-each-other-266023/

[John Stevenson]

I've not doubt that you'd carry a spare John, if you could find it in your den of iniquity 

After recently selling or scrapping 7 machines I have a semblance of clean floor, mind you the fact that I have rushed out after suffering from clean floor syndrome and bought three new machines has helped slightly.

I do have to be careful and keep in close contact with Tim Leech over disposals and acquisitions or the east / west fulcrum of the UK is going to suffer.

As it is all aircraft flying into East Midlands have been advised to re-calibrate their compass's

[awemawson]

Overnight, the nice man from Sauter has emailed me the complete 24 page manual for the Tool Turret disclosing all it's little locking secrets.

This has revealed a screw that you can remove to let a hex key be inserted into the motor shaft, to allow manual locking - basically you turn until the locking pin drops in, then holding the pin in, reverse direction until the cam rollers lock the Wirth Coupling, then the pin can be released. This explains why in the locked mode the locking pin isn't in the lock hole! In fact they call in a pre- indexing pin so all is forgiven.

[awemawson]

  The Tool Turret Lives 

Now the Tool Turret rotates to the selected tool on command from the Operators Panel. The rotation from station to station is by an in built three phase motor, with the usual arrangement of two contactors, one for forwards and one for reverse. However this system has a third contactor feeding the first two, and should be pulled in by the logic line 'motors on' However this is routed through a Platinum Resistance Temperature sensing relay box, with its Pt sensor embedded in the tool post somewhere. Lights on the front of the box claimed all was well  - but it lied! The supposedly closed contact was open, hence no power to the tool turret.

This is the box of tricks:

[awemawson]

Fortunately an openable unit susceptible to tinkering! Here I've substituted an 180 ohm resistor for the pt element and opened it for testing

[awemawson]

The offending part is a pcb mounted relay - yet more bad contacts - I've had a few 

This one was easy to fix - with gentle persuasion the plastic cover pops off, and I could scrape the contacts and spray them with contact cleaner:
 

[awemawson]

Next thing to check out is the motor and drive for the driven tools on the turret. I want to remove all the driven tools first, as some of the spare ones that came with the machine were seized solid. Obviously if any of the mounted one are in a similar state damage will be done. The jacking screws that clamp and unclamp the VDI tools on the way out have a collar that bears on a clirclip to give it something to extract against - several of the circlips are missing - standard 14mm internal ones so an order for a packet of them has gone off to BearingBoys this morning.

Soon I'm going to have to work out how to take a video of it doing things - my only video recorder is my iPhone and trying to shoot things through the closed safety door results in only the door being in focus. Of course if the door is open the machine refuses to come out and play !

[lordedmond]

Got my bucket of pop corn ready, would like to say I have some wine/beer ready for  the big event ( but my meds preclude the intake of alcohol )

Stuart

[Fred Bloggs]

Haven't commented for a while as I've been awestruck

Well done sir your patience is awesome >LOL

Fred

[Pete.]

Coming along in leaps and bounds now!

Err, you do know how to program it to make something, don't you?

[awemawson]

  No I don't 

However I do have a bit of programming documentation, and also some programs written back in 1993 by Dorman Diesels to make widgets for their engines, so I have a starting point!

[awemawson]

Ok a crude iPhone video of the turret working, then the opposing spindle moving is here:

     

[vtsteam]

Swarf please. 2013 vintage. 

[lordedmond]

It moves    al on its own  :bigeye:


Stuart

[AdeV]

VERY VERY JEALOUS!

I can't wait to see this machine make some swarf, I have a feeling it's going to be tremendous (either that, or the biggest tool-crash in madmodder history....)

Re video - why not buy a cheap 2nd hand GoPro (or even a proper 250 quid new one), IIRC there are various kits, some of which will include a suction mount & a waterproof case; ideal for mounting inside the the machine to get those full HD swarfy shots.

I have to say - I am in awe of your skills & patience; I have a feeling I would have lost interest long ago & found some other stir-crazy project to get involved with.

[awemawson]

Well I had to fix it Adev - it's too big a lump to keep tripping over when it doesn't work! But thanks for the kind words.

Today my task was to remove all the VDI tooling from the tool turret to ensure that none of the driven tools were seized before I spun up the tool power motor.

VDI tools are retained by a stout pin sticking into a socket on the turret, with a rack shape cut into the pin. A similarly racked wedge piece pulls them onto a mounting face and is secured by an allen headed bolt. To remove them the bolt is loosened, and the top of its head bears on a washer that in turn bears in a circlip acting as a shoulder. This pulls the racked wedge out releasing the tool.

Several of the circlips had been lost. It turns out that the tooling was so firmly in, and the wedge so tight, that it wasn't coming out without a few stout raps from a copper mallet on the tool block. Eventually they all came out:

[awemawson]

It turns out that there was only one powered tool installed:

[awemawson]

So this let me get on with testing the tool power motor. Long shot is that it works and can be driven cw and ccw at a controlled speed - I think it's 2 HP so Bridgeport sort of power.

Along the way a couple of irritations happened:

Firstly that temperature relay failed again for no good reason - I temporarily linked it out of circuit and got on with it, but I've just again dismantled it, cleaned the relay contacts, re-soldered the pcb joints and put it back with no definite fault found apart from it can only be the relay contacts or wires going to them, as the relay was energised when the fault was present.

Secondly the monitor screen went blank, then came back - loose mains connection found in its sealed box (only 14 screws and a gasket )

As I was testing the drive, I also played in MDI mode starting and stopping the main spindle - hey what's that odd clicking noise It turns out that while a program is running the amber beacon that I repaired yonks ago lights up, and when it ends it flashes - the clicking was its relay 

Have an amber beacon:

[awemawson]

I eventually got to the bottom of the Temperature Relay issue - in fact the relay contact wasn't being pushed firmly enough against its partner. Although I've given it a tweak and it now works fine, I've ordered a replacement relay for better reliability - only £2 off ebay !

I think I have now got all functions that I can test at this point working - even the little 'parts catcher' flipper scoop that can be extended under the part before parting off. A few things cannot be checked until I fill her up with coolant (220 litres  )

So time to start putting the tin work back round the X axis and Tool Turret. It needs a clean up before fitting, and close examination shows one part has some horrid corrosion - Very odd as it is limited to one small location, some swarf must have got trapped there that they had been machining that set up an electrolytic reaction with the steel:

[awemawson]

Options -  Cut out the offending bit and mig in a replacement, or re-make it

I decided to re-make this part - but when I checked my stock I had no 1.5mm sheet, only 1.0 & 1.2 - as this mounts wipers to keep the coolant out I don't want to go any thinner.

I thought I'd had a go at 'lead loading' - the old fashioned bodywork repair method - not done it since the mid 1970's when I did the doors of my late brothers MG TC !

So - sandblast clean:

[awemawson]

Clamp it down against a wooden backing sheet:

[awemawson]

And solder it. I used a blow torch and 'leadfree solder'

[awemawson]

Then clean it up a bit:

[awemawson]

I decided that the result was less than brilliant, and I've ordered some 1.5mm sheet 

[lordedmond]

nearly there now if you are on to body work

boy thats a lot of coolant  its a drum full of concentrate about 45 litters  if my memory is correct

Stuart