Light Machine Corp CNC Lathe

[44-henry]

I've got a CNC lathe manufactured by the Light Machine Corp which looks to be a slightly modified Sherline. It currently is mounted in a case with the motor control working fine and all the stepper motors look to be ok from a visual inspection. I have the controller and cables that went along with the unit, but no software or computer.

At the very least I could strip the machine down and have a nice Sherline manual lathe out of the deal; however, if it wasn't going to cost a fortune it would be kind of nice to get the machine working again as a cnc lathe. If a person was going to go this route would you work with what was their and simply try to find the software and a suitable computer and than cross your fingers and hope everything worked as it should? Or, would you replace the stepper motors and get a new controller? Would there be much of a savings going this latter route over buying a new Sherline CNC lathe? Any information would be appreciated.

[ibuildstuff4u]

I have a D&M milling machine and is very similar to the Light Machines line. I was able to retrofit the machine to work with Mach 3 quite easily. All you really have to do is add a parallel port breakout board to the machine and hook up the stepper drives to it.

I can send you picts and instructions if you send me your E-Mail address.

Mine is dpynenberg@new.rr.com

Dale P.

[mhaney]

I ran into the exact same problem with a spectralight lathe and mill right after Christmas. Another teacher had used them in the classroom and he left for another job, and the next teacher did not know anything about cnc so the machines got put up with the controllers, but that important card that was left in actual PC. I was given the equipment this year for my class and got to figure all this fun stuff out by myself. Intelitek bought light machine corporation so anything as far as parts goes can be purchased from them. I will warn you though they are very expensive. I found the software for the lathe and mill online. I got a replacement card for the PC from a company called Learning Labs Inc. They specialize in educational equipment. They were the cheapest at around $600.00, which I thought was crazy. If you want to use the stock stepper motors and controller you will have to have a certain PCI card that intelitek makes. Your other option is a retro fit with mach 2, I did not want to do a whole retro fit because I have a curriculum they students follow for this certain type of software. If you need the software or have any other questions email me at mhaney@haywood.k12.nc.us.

[ZipSnipe]

Try these links, I remember the lathe software controller is in there. All you need is an older pc(probably find one in a dumpster) it has to that LSA slot(I think thats what its called)

http://www.intelitekdownloads.com/So...traLight_Mill/



http://www.intelitekdownloads.com/Software/CAD_CAM/

Now if you look on your controller somewhere there will be a serial number. Lightmachines will still give you the software for free if you have the long serial number, I think it was 8 digits or more. Good luck

P.S. Do you have the interface card? If not then you will have to get ya a new controller and use software like Mach or Turbocam

[kweierbach]

Originally Posted by 44-henry I've got a CNC lathe manufactured by the Light Machine Corp which looks to be a slightly modified Sherline. It currently is mounted in a case with the motor control working fine and all the stepper motors look to be ok from a visual inspection. I have the controller and cables that went along with the unit, but no software or computer. At the very least I could strip the machine down and have a nice Sherline manual lathe out of the deal; however, if it wasn't going to cost a fortune it would be kind of nice to get the machine working again as a cnc lathe. If a person was going to go this route would you work with what was their and simply try to find the software and a suitable computer and than cross your fingers and hope everything worked as it should? Or, would you replace the stepper motors and get a new controller? Would there be much of a savings going this latter route over buying a new Sherline CNC lathe? Any information would be appreciated.

I'm been trying to get a spectralight mill running using the original stepper motors with a mechatronics driver board a 24v power supply and using emc2 on an old computer. Got everything working but max feedrate I can get is not as fast as the factory spec's. so far I have about $160 invested next I thinking about getting new stepper motors with more power to see if I can get the max feedrate faster.so far it's a lot cheaper doing this then getting the pci card from light machines. hope this is some help to you.
Kevin

[harryn]

Hi, I was given one of these specralight lathes and am attempting to resurect it, mostly for goofing around and some hobby use with my son.

I will mostly likely just drive the steppers with a mach III setup, as there is no control box with it.

The challenge I have at the moment is that the motor speed control does not seem to be working. The motor is a 10K rpm type, that fires right up when plugged in the 110V AC, but I need to figure out why it does not work when plugged into the lathe box.

Is there an external speed control box, or is every thing inside the main cabinet ?

Does anyone know if I can just use an external speed control of some kind? I am still trying to figure out the motor type, but it seems to have brushes and is 1/2 hp. Sorry for having no idea about this motor.

Thanks

Harry

[Fastest1]

I probably have all of the electronics but no software for 1 of these. Does yours have an AC motor? If it does then it had some form of rheostat and I am not sure that spindle speed control was via computer. If the steppers are there and everything but the controller. Buy a G540 and a power supply and get her going. Replace the steppers when and if they prove to be too weak. I just read of someone here on the zone that reverse engineered a card and is able to communcate just fine with his Spectralight/Prolight machine. It might not have been an identical machine but the issues were the same and the approach to a resolution was the same too. If I find it I will link it.

[kweierbach]

Harryn
there is a magnetic interlock on the lid. if the lid isn't shut the spindle won't run.

[harryn]

Thanks for the replies.

The spindle motor is AC, and the speed control is manul - there is a knob for it, which is fine for my use. The motor does not turn on when run through the circuit, and it looks like it was tampered with underneath, so I assume that the speed control has not worked for a while.

The speed control is what I am trying to figure out, and if I can just swap that out with another method. In other words, is this a voltage based speed change, frequency, DC - no idea.

Anyone have a manual for this thing ? I sent a note to the company that owns spectralight now and of course have some limited hope that that will be helpful.

I saw the interlock switch for the lid, and from its "sound", if seems like it is working, but I do need to check that with a DMM.

The steppers look like conventional ones, 200 steps, etc, so those are no problem for getting a mach 3 based drive running on, or just replacing as needed.

[harryn]

It turns out that the emo spade connections had corrroded with time, making that connection an "open". Once those were cleaned up, it turns.

Good reason to know an EE.

[jkcab95]

The motor is an AC DC universal motor. The speed control is a minirak 90vdc motor controller. The knob is attached to a 10k ohm potentimeter. If you have the later model it should say computer in the extream counterclockwise position. If that is the case it switches a jumper on the speed control so it will take a 0-10vdc signal to controll the speed. In theory 10000rpm would be 1vdc per 1000rpm. You can purchase a board from cnc 4 pc that will take the 0-5vdc signal from Mach and interpalate it to a 0-10vdc signal. The instruction manual for the Minirak controll can be found through a google search. If you decide to do all of this I can help you avoid a lot of pitfalls. No sense in reinventing the wheel. I had to figure most of this out myself. I retrofitted a Spectralight mill and am working on an auto tool changer for it. If you are planning on threading on the lathe there are some easy solutions for that as well. If you know a little electronics you can save some money with a few scavanged parts.
Jeff

[mredburn]

Jeff I have just bought a spectralight that has the 90v 5000rpm motor and the minirak control card with an encoder ran off the headstock. I would appreciate any help you might give to be able to hook this machine up. I would like to use it for threading. Mine runs fine other than there is o controller etc.