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Hi Guys,
Just have to make the final decision to spend the cash to get my knee mill conversion underway and I am looking for people who have bought and installed the MACH based AJAX retrofit to step up and give a very basic comment on the experience they had with the kit.
Are you happy with the process and the outcome or not? Is your project making chips?
I have seen lots of banter about the internet but has been all over the place and without a consensus one way or the other. I have looked at many other possibilities but keep coming back to the AJAX MACH set-up as offering the most features at least on paper!
Appreciate everybody who can spare a moment to comment but please only reply if you have purchased and done a conversion!
Gerald
I just did a colchester clausing lathe. with the centroid from ajax. Love the simple setup and programing (even I can understand it) and the guys know their beans. But try to get service afterwards. been trying to get help for 2 weeks now. one email response and that was to ask more questions, only got thru on the phone once and then was told there would be a updated version for download that afternoon. that was days ago. still nothing. so I dont think I would go the Ajax route again.
I see some of them that run ok. It is because the guy installing it is a very talented electrician.
If you want something the average+ machinist can put on, do something else.
The service seems to be the biggest complaint.
On the Ajax board, most of the problems are solved through the other members.
I was looking at the DC310 set-up. After figuring it out they raised the price. Then after I saved the money for it, they went up again and replaced the one I wanted with an ALL IN ONE DC.
After asking about the All IN ONE DC, they didn't have any info out on it yet. They were selling it, though.
If you are real good with electronics, you could do it.
Heinz
Heinz,
That is pretty common. Quite a few of the happy retrofits are from experienced machine repairmen & technicians, that have done a few other retrofits.
JAckal
Everything is bio-degradable, if you run over it enough times with the lawnmower.
I did a retrofit on a boss 5 mill. I am a machinist with a manufacturing technician degree. and I did a retrofit with gecko and mach 3 prioe to ajax.
It was hard but if you take your time and buy the right pc it will work awsome. I run mazaks at work and my centroid control is as good or better. On the other hand I couldnt get that Mach gecko setup to perform well.
I would suggest going online and downloading the wiring diagrams. then you will know exactly what your gettting into.
Adam Korell
Thanks for the comments so far and please keep them coming!
I am an experienced electronics tech for some 30 years so that part doesn't bother me so much. I am really just interested in the overall satisifaction with the finished project. At the end of the day, the volume of chips and good parts says it all.
ADAM, I wonder how the performance is on the BOSS 5 with the AJAX control? IS it a stable platform and did it take a load of tweaking and fine tuning to get it there? I wonder what sort of SERVOS and ENCODERS you run and what is teh DC supply voltage for the motors? Are you running the AJAX motor drivers or another brand?
Thanks
Gerald
I wired it up only thing that got me going was inverted axis movement and limit switch confusion. I runt the latest centroid software upgraded it myself it was easy took about a half hour. Ive made 6 lithophanes running the machine flat out 3.5 to 4 hours at a time thats 240 inches per minute in the open areas. I do have to put a fan on the z axis servo but other then that it works flawless. The other job I did was drilling 1.063 holes in 3/8 thick steel square tubing. did that pretty alright. I have the 29 inch pound motors.
I havent had even one problem with ajaxs system or service. while installing my system I fried a tranformer and ribbon cable. I sent them back my control pendent and control cards they checked and sent them back to me for free. I just bought an unlock. I emailed scott then next morning at 8 am I had the new parameters.
My freind owns a ajax system aswell and his works flawless too he used it in his business for the last five years.
I think ive had mine for 4 years
Cool Adam,
Any pics of your conversion on this site or your own website? I also have the 29 in pound motors. My existing power supply is about 115V dc but I am concerned that my 500line (2000ppr) encoders may be too coarse for the AJAX. You have any idea what the resolution of your encoders are? How about your DC power supply voltage?
I will only manage the budget to do this once and I am doing a lot of research to make sure I get it right :-)
Gerald
115VDC is just fine.
You could probably get by with the 500-line encoders, but the performance and precision would not be as good as what you could get with the standard/recommended 2000-line encoders (8000 quadrature counts/rev).
I bought everything right fromt the ajax site. i bought the motor pre wired. and i bought the vfd they recommended.
as for the power just look at the transformer they sell on the ajax website
I recently completed a Bridgeport Series II and am very happy with the results so far.
The CNC11 software is very stable and the system is far better than Mach 3. I have 2 more mills lined up for retrofits and this is the system that I plan on using.
Good luck on your venture!
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