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It’s coming along nicely
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Member Videos / Homemade Metal Casting Course - Class Zero
« Last post by celsoari on July 12, 2025, 01:35:43 PM »
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(Use Youtube's auto-dubbing feature)

Greetings from Brazil

Celso Ari
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New from Old / Re: The Sequel - Oh Blimey I bought a CNC Lathe (Beaver TC 20)
« Last post by awemawson on July 12, 2025, 09:05:44 AM »
This afternoon I reverted to my original SMCC card (the servo subsystem card that drives the turret via Siemens power amplifiers)

Initially the turret would unlock by driving the tool disk forwards, but when rotated wouldn't re-lock when driven back due to angular error. Driving it to the correct position by manipulating the lock / unlock solenoids and physically turning it, it then would settle back and I was able to select tools by program.

I get the impression that the positioning is not spot on as the re-coupling of the curvic coupling is a bit hesitant. I came to the conclusion then that the output stage of the SMCC controller had a small error offset due to a hardware issue.

OK this where I was a couple of years back before shingles destroyed my brain. I have sourced another SMCC card that was in another Beaver TC20 lathe but that one was controlled by a Fanuc PLC. Reading it's internal program  it is virtually the same as my one only differing in a couple of lines but these are to do with addressing the card so probably crucial.

My attempts at programming these cards in the past have drawn a blank - more research needed.
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New from Old / Re: The Sequel - Oh Blimey I bought a CNC Lathe (Beaver TC 20)
« Last post by awemawson on July 12, 2025, 06:28:33 AM »
More positive progress this morning. Yesterday late on I found that the red 'I'm OK' LED on the main spindle drive for it's field windings was 'off'. Fully expecting to have to change the card - I have spares - I did a bit more research. That LED isn't going to glow when the card has no power  :ddb:

Tracing it through I ended up at manual contactor 'MBS' (a Telemecanique GV1-M07) which is as thermal trip. It wasn't latching on properly. With the power off a few cycles of exercising it got it to latch.

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Ebay has provided a reasonably priced 'new' one so I've ordered it just in case.

This got things moving - well it did when I remembered that the console 'Keyswitch' needed to be vertical to allow input !

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So now I'm back with a machine that basically works except for the tool turret. I can jog axis's about and control the main spindle. bit of a relief really as this latest excursion up an other alley has been a diversion from the main quest of mastering the turret.
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New from Old / Re: The Sequel - Oh Blimey I bought a CNC Lathe (Beaver TC 20)
« Last post by awemawson on July 11, 2025, 08:18:02 AM »
Thanks Steve - yes I'm a bit more able to get my head arround things now thank goodness.

This morning I went through all the digital outputs and proved that they were in the same state that the 'Q' words in the control were at - they were ! I suspect that the digital input output system is actually fine though it's not conclusive on the outputs as I can only observe rather than drive them.

However I HAVE found that the drive circuit for the main spindle drive is reporting an error - it also has a tell tale red LED that should be 'on' but it isn't. Fortunately I do have a spare so I'll install it when time permits - ATM waiting to meet and greet two sets of cottage guests whose arrival is imminent. (sounds of thumbs twiddling!)
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Our Shop / Re: Expanding the old "tiny shop"
« Last post by vtsteam on July 10, 2025, 03:39:35 PM »
Okay, tree and drain pipe sawed out of there. Now to try to dig that hole again.

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Our Shop / Re: Expanding the old "tiny shop"
« Last post by vtsteam on July 10, 2025, 03:37:22 PM »
Just to give a picture of how bad things have become, here is what once was my outside molding casting area. The Big Dig is on the left.

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Our Shop / Re: Expanding the old "tiny shop"
« Last post by vtsteam on July 10, 2025, 03:34:43 PM »
Okay so first step, digging a hole. I planned to pour a small concrete pad into the bottom, with some rebar sticking up, and when that cured a day, add sonotube and pour a concrete column up to about 4" above ground level with a J bolt at the top.

I got out the old two handled double clamshell posthole digger and well, immediate problems. a small tree, and also the rediscovery of a perimeter drain I installed about a decade ago.   :bang: Nothing is simple. I just wanted to dig a hole. Just to get into the mindset that I was building something....but now I have to dig a trench.

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Our Shop / Expanding the old "tiny shop"
« Last post by vtsteam on July 10, 2025, 12:19:40 PM »
It has become nearly impossible to get into my tiny shop and work because of unfortunate new acquisitions. My parents in law passed away a year ago and we have been cleaning out their house to put on the market. A sad and difficult task. Tag sales, online sales, large filled dumpsters, relative giving still has not done the job. In the end it just seemed wasteful to throw many things away that we just couldn't place, materials, tools, metal shelving, I think you all probably understand.

But I'm at a point now when I wondering if I'm creating the same situation for my family. I'm getting rid of things I haven't used in a long while. Still I have to work in the shop or I'll go nutz. The original idea was to keep it small, and present interior usable space is about 6' by 8'. One of the reasons for building my small but rugged bench lathe was to minimize what I needed to do even largish jobs.

But I am overwhelmed at this point. And my shop is very poor in energy efficiency, other than the fact that it is very small. So I'm thinking about enlarging it, and adding insulation and considering how I can have heat in our severe winters here. I don't really want to do this. I don't have the motivation and energy I once had for more building. But we'll see if I can do it.

First thought is, maybe build the new shop over and around the old one. There isn't room to only expand laterally by adding on because of the roof snow loads. The would dump onto any addition, and everything would have to be higher anyway to get enough headroom at the edges.

The other possibility, discounted, was to level the old shop and build anew. But where would its contents go during construction? I have no more storage space at all (part of the reason for expansion). And it's all machine shop stuff that you really don't want to expose to the environment.

It seems to me that if I build a roof over the existing one, leaving it in place, the shop can continue to be usable while building the expansion, which would be handy. There's power, and tools and a vise, etc. Eventually I could deconstruct the old roof (it's just galvanized tin), and would have an upper storage space in its place for materials.

Another reason for not leveling the old shed, is that it's built like a brick ****house. Actually, cement block with the recesses filled with concrete and 1/2" rebar run down every other one for the full height of the walls. Why, you ask? Well it was actually originally built as an outdoor wood furnace, with 11 tons of sand contained inside for heat storage. Called a HAHSA, the design originally found in Mother Earth News. It actually never worked well, and was later converted into a furnace room for an experimental wood chip Hot water furnace I built. Its final iteration was as a tiny workshop for me and my homemade lathe.

Anyway, those are the thoughts. I'm trying to get motivated. Maybe posting here will push me forward. The 90+ F temps here have not been encouraging, but yesterday I did start digging a hole where a central post to support the new peak might be, and I account that a start.
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New from Old / Re: The Sequel - Oh Blimey I bought a CNC Lathe (Beaver TC 20)
« Last post by vtsteam on July 10, 2025, 11:45:42 AM »
Good to see you working on this Andrew!  :beer:
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