Oh Blimey I bought a CNC Lathe !!!!

[awemawson]

No I just hate damaging my volunteer force with flattened toes 

[vtsteam]

Guess you'll be needin' a jack er two, some crib wood n' some rollers.


er put a new window in.....

[karlas]

Awemawson ,

after reaing about your adventure here, I realize that you would not give up for anyhting,
and your engineering skills are fantastic ..........

Absolutely amasing work, congratulation on the results ...........

Karl

[vtsteam]

Surely true, and congrats Andrew on the servo drive and bar feeder scores, and the cabinet and cable completion and stowage. Coolness level is increasing!

[Pete W.]

Hi there, Andrew,

I'm following this project with AWE!!!         

It seems you might need to put down enough tarmac in the car park for two or three charabancs.          

How much would you want for the ice cream concession?              

[awemawson]

Thanks chaps for the encouragement. I did semi seriously consider a 6 foot extension forwards of the machine, but it involves moving a 4 metre wide roller shutter and creating a new framework for it, and the the complications of roofing and insulation. I suspect that I will probably just content myself with getting the bar feeder fettled up and working, and (with the roller shutter open) wheel it into place for occasional testing, rather than have it as a permanent fixture.

But there again . . . . . . . . 

[John Stevenson]

Mount the bar feeder in the back of an old van or trailer that you can wheel into position.

If you can't find a crappy old van or trailer then there must be some Disco's in your neck of the woods ?

[vtsteam]

Problem with that is it could fall off the back while moving it. Rare occurrence, I grant, but it does happen.

[awemawson]

Sore point Steve. That is literally what happened to my Bridgeport Interact

[John Stevenson]

Not if it's bolted to the back of the Chelsea Tractor. 

[vtsteam]

I was just kidding you a little Andrew.....kinda thing that doesn't happen twice!

[awemawson]

So I managed to liberate the Sameco Multisam MUZ12.65  Bar Feeder from it's previous owner and drag it home. As the small Chipturn CNC lathe didn't get collected until the following day, the bar feeder had to stay out on the loading dock tarped up over night:

[awemawson]

Hopefully all these panels are the right ones - I grabbed what I could from the tip the chap calls his workshop

[awemawson]

As you can tell the chap really looked after it well, keeping it spotlessly clean 

Air regulators smashed, cables hanging off, how do these people earn a living when they treat their machines like this

[awemawson]

This bar feeder uses a PLC controller, however the fellow 'neglected' to tell me that the power supply had gone away for repair and not returned. I have however traced the place it is  and negotiations are afoot to recover it. If I never get it back it's not the end of the world as it's only a single rail 24vDC supply with physically several outputs, and the main transformer for it is still in the machine. It only needs a terminal block, bridge rectifier and capacitor.

An identical PLC flitted past me on ebay last night, and as no one else was bidding it seemed only right to give it a home

[awemawson]

Anyway it has now been moved into my 'dirty workshop' where the welding and grinding happens. This will be its temporary home until I decide if it is going on the lathe or just being fixed then stored.

Looking at the last picture - is this the only Shaper in the world fitted with a bar feeder 

[awemawson]

A bit of progress today: I've identified the tin work as all being the correct stuff - mighty puzzled at first as some was too large, until I realised that the fellow I got it from had adjusted the height to suit his new Mori Seiki lathe which had a spindle 60mm lower than mine! It screws up and down on jacks inside the framework.

Turns out the plonker had seen the bar feeder had a 20 pin industrial socket the same as his new lathe. Put them together,but didn't bother to check the pinout, which was different, blew out the psu on the bar feeder and caused £3K of damage to the Mori

Anyway - progress: A nice man in Germany has emailed me some technical info on the unit: Not exactly the same physical layout in the electrical tray, but seems to be the same actual circuitry:

[lordedmond]

Some people should not be allowed within 100 miles of equipment

see a socket plug it in and boom     then you read the manual 


Stuart

[vtsteam]

Yes, but it was 20 pins on both. Call that just a coincidence? What are the chances they'd be different?

 

ps. Maybe he did read the manual and it said "Plug the 20 pin female connector into the 20 pin male connector."

[awemawson]

So where to start? Well as usual I'll do a psychological clean up! I find that it helps to sort out in my mind what is what, and what is where. and there's nothing more horrible than poking around inside a grimy  machine fault finding.

I started by taking off the slanted top frame that the stock bars roll on to give me better access, then went at what I could reach with WD40 spray and a rag. Can't use my favoured 'washing soda' here as the electrics are all exposed.

[awemawson]

But what to do with this sticky mess ?

Seems that the various air spool valves discharge their air here and the air supply  must be pretty contaminated with oil.

That pair of red wires lead to what might be an indicator, or might be a push button - it's so covered in crud it's impossible to tell, but it was just floating unloved on the 'shelf' that the spool valves occupy, and yes the other end of the red wires are attached in the electrical area!

[awemawson]

In the end I decided it needed a good soaking, so I've dowsed it in a liberal coating of WD40 to soften up over night, and I'll attack it tomorrow.

Meanwhile to get better access to the electrics and that mess I took off the rear and side panels

[lordedmond]

A bit OT but a thought to ponder on

when I was maintaining a number of Croning shell moulding machines ( plus the there 750kw induction furnaces ) a problem was found in the internal wiring the germans used RED for the earth returns inside the machines , as you can imagine that caused a lot of bonce scratching .

mind you this was in the late 1960's  I do hope things have improved now a days

the moral don't trust the wiring colour , I would sooner have them all the same colour then there is no confusion

that machine is just disgusting inside I know things need to be oiled up but yuck, no wonder you had a lot of bad contacts in the main machine if thats the standard of the maintenance by its past owner

keep up the good work I am confident you will arrive at your destination if good fettle

Stuart

[awemawson]

Thanks for the CAVEAT and thanks for the encouragement Stuart. They seem to have stuck to Green/Yellow on this machine for the CPC, and mainly blue for the inter unit wiring.

There are four runs of 30x60 'closed slot' slotted trunking used in the electrical tray, most of which is missing it's capping. The surviving capping is of a rather unusual curved shape in white. I'd like to replace the missing ones but I don't recognize the pattern - not one I've come across before - so if anyone recognizes the manufacturer I'd appreciate the wink!

If it was 'open slot' I'd wriggle it out and replace with the more conventional grey square edged stuff, but as the slots are 'closed' it would be a major undertaking.

So I reckon tomorrow is back on with the rubber gloves and more cleaning . . . .

[John Stevenson]

If it was 'open slot' I'd wriggle it out and replace with the more conventional grey square edged stuff, but as the slots are 'closed' it would be a major undertaking.

So I reckon tomorrow is back on with the rubber gloves and more cleaning . . . .

Jesus H Christ with a Bridgeport.

Do I have to teach you EVERYTHING Mawson ?

Get the secateurs and turn the closed slots into open, unthread and fit new trunking