Yet another bridgeport retrofit I need advice

[Jamf2]

I have a bridgeport series I rigid ram cnc boss 6. I will soon start retrofitting it. Does any of you have a manual for this or know where I can get one. I have had no luck with this particular model. I will post as I go. I have tried several of the manual sites but none seem to have this model. I do not know if they are that much different from model to model.

Does anyone know where I might find one? Do I need one?

I will replace all three stepper motors and I have a M2 break out board and relay from Bob Cambpell.

I have 4 Gecko drives model 210. The computer part is no problem, it's just the mechanical part I'm real iffy on.

Anyway any help out there?



Joe Welker

[machintek]

I purchased a Series 2 maintenance manual from www.machinemanuals.net on CDROM.
It has all the elctrical diagrams, board schematics, parts exploded views and numbers.
Best is the BPT detailed explanation of how the control thinks.

George

[Jamf2]

If i understand it correctly a series 1 has stepper motors and a series 2 is servo. is their much of a difference other than that? I just want to make sure it is something that will work for my cnc. My goal is to get everything I need up front and take a weeks vacation and put it together. I would like a manual and what ever advice i can get ahead of time.

Thanks for you input.

[machintek]

NOT CORRECT.
There was a OLD series 2 NC that had steppers. The first BOSS that was a series 2 was the BOSS 6 and it had steppers.
All machines after that were DC servo motors. This includes the BOSS 8 R2E3 which had a series 1 and 2 with DC servo motors, the R2E4 BOSS 9 again with servo motors in series 1 and 2, ALL the interacts had SEM DC servo motors and BOSCH drives.
It was not untill the VMCs came out that they switched to SIEMENS drives and AC servo motors. Torque cuts, V2XTs, EZTRAKS had DC servo motors and MSI drives.
Later TCs had Yaskawa AC motors and drives.

George

[unterhaus]

The difference between a Series I and a Series II is a small matter of around 3000 pounds of cast iron. Otherwise they were very similar.

If you are going to do a "ripout and retry" retrofit, I'm not sure how much a manual is going to help you. My series II had the controls ripped out and no motors, so I was starting with a blank slate. Obviously, you need to find motors. If you can find NEMA 42 motors with a 5/8 shaft, you're good to go. Many people use the bridgeport motors with geckos. It's going to cost a bundle to match them.

The bridgeport Yahoo group may be able to help you.

[Jamf2]

Yes that is what I have motor wise. Yes that is what I'm doing a complete rip out.

My main concern is the actual motor for the spindal. The head. I do not know if that works.

anyway thanks for the replies. Please keep the info coming.

Also everytime I try to upload a picture its to big. How do I make it smaller to upoad?

[machintek]

The old NC 2's had a 4 HP vari-drive (mechanical) 3 phase AC head.
The BOSS 6, S2 BOSS 8 and 9, R2C3, Interact 2 had a 2 HP vari drive head.(intermittant duty 3 HP).

George

[jdelaney44]

I use Paint Shop Pro to resize the photos for uploading. Any Photo Shop like program should be able to do that. Usually the resize features are under an Images menu selection. Windows Paint will allow you to size it down but not reduce the resolution. I find that I usually want to set the resolution at about 64 dpi and the size at 400 x whatever is proportional. That get's you a file that is OK to look at and is small enough to load.

You might have Microsoft Phot Editor on your machine too. It has some advanced optioni when you go to save a JPG. One will allow your to decrease the quality, that should effectively reduce the DPI. You still need to go to the Image menu to scale the dimensions of the picture.

On your BP conversion. Are your motors trashed or do you just want to replace them? If they are operational DC steppers or servos they are probably serviceable. Fresh and new is nice but pricey. Also the huge benefit of not having to mess with the mechanics would be negated to some degree if the motors were replaced.

Good hunting! Keep us posted.

-jd

[unterhaus]

Assuming you have a 2hp 3 phase spindle motor, my preference would be to get a VFD, no more than $200 on Ebay, and this time of year may be less than $50. I'd get a 3hp, and make sure it's 230v input -- the 460v input will not work. That should allow you to run the spindle, and has the added advantage that you can control it from your computer.

[Jamf2]

OK you lost me. I went to ebay but I'm not really sure what I'm looking for.

I do appreaciate the input.

[jdelaney44]

Search on Variable Frequency Drive, well VFD works too. Which was in

Home> Buy> Business & Industrial> Industrial Electrical & Test> Industrial Automation, Control> Drives & Motion Control> Drives & Amplifiers> Search Results for 'variable frequency'

What these critters do is take your 220 - 230V single phase (Dryer or Stove Circuit in your house) they flatten that out to DC, then they turn that back into 3 phase. They have the capability of modulating the frequency typically from 0 - 120hz.

OR if you have 3 phase it can be used just to modulate the frequency.

There are different models with different inputs, outputs, and capacities of course.

AC motor speed is determined by the physical design of the windings and the frequency of the power. So if you change the frequency you change the speed of the motor. They also have microprocessors in them and multiple inputs that allow you to configure the drive, program acceleration, deceleration, set up braking, set up different control circuits, input digital control, and get some data out of it. The more sophisticated the unit the more stuff you can do with it.

Mine is hooked up pretty simply. I have fwd., rev.,variable speed, and e-stop. The variable speed is really handy. I have a 3 hp Leeson I got from Leeson. But there are one's on e-Bay for less than $100.00 right now.

Hope that helps.

-jd

[Jamf2]

Thank you

I will keep you all updated as progress goes along.