Brideport 2 x and y working. Z ?s What tool holder? Kenametal qc nut #40

[Mark Kraus]

IN 7/2005 I wrote about my project bridgeport series 2 nc with 4 hp head. Tonight I got x and y working with gecko 202 and cnc4pc bo board and mach 3. I had turbo cnc and had it working a year ago then my computer crashed and I bought another windows 98 to run it and it didnt work. I just about gave up. Then I tried mach 3 on my laptop compaq r3000 amd athlon 1.9 gig hz xp and it moved some but terribly. unuseable. Then i got a pentium 3 1gighz xp desktop and it works great. In the process of trying to figure out all the problems I bought three new motors and Installed one of them. IN the process of taking the one off I used the mounting pllate from the motor and trashed the motor. Now I know the motors were not the problem at all. Anyway I really feel like I know this cnc from front to back now because of all the trouble Ive had. I never did get the z powered up because I was not sure how to tell if the pnuematic cylinder was working or not and what air pressure to use. I know that from your answer on a previous post You know alot about these machines. I trashed the tower that went with the machine. I stilll have the box on the back. I did not touch much inside. I would like to know what voltage the bijur oil pump is and ac or dc I dont know how complicated it would be to computer control it or maybe just have a button to pusle a few seconds. What are your thoughts. One of the main questions I have is what tool holders fit this machine? It has a kenametal qc 40 quick change nut and no drawbar. I have bought some nmtb 40 holders and they dont work with the nut althougth I believe the taper is correct. I can sendn a picture of the spindle opening and the nut. I also removed the spindle wizard. Is it rack and pinion inside that makes the spindle move? Would it have enough accuracy to atatch a pulley and stepper motor to move it up and down. Would it be worth it since the table already moves? If you like instead of typing I just learned about skype it is a voice over internet thing all you need is a mic and speakers or a headset. Thanks in advance for any thoughts you have. Also what do you think would be the maximum ipm on this machine. I already tuned the motors in mach and I have not gotten the stop watch out. My power supply is 56 volts taken from the old tower. Could I increase my speed with more voltage to the drives. Ps the old motors perform as good or a little better than the keling NEMA34 HIGH TORQUE STEPPER MOTOR 1160OZ-IN. With using inches and 2000 step units My maximum velocity is 450 and 100 accel without missing steps. Are there any other ways to tweak the mach system? Mark Kraus 704 637 0360 salisbury nc

[colin1544]

Hello Many years ago I had one of these machines and found it to be very good I am suprised that you took off the spindle wizard as I found that once I had got rid of the air leak problems it proved to be very useful and accurate because you have obviously not tried the Z axis drilling cycles they were available in the old boss control system but to see the knee going up and down in rapid when doing a drill cycle with peck is quite frightening. and although it will do very accurate drilling it puts alot of stress on the screw and air assisted cylinder and yes I suppose you could put a stepper motor on the quill feed but you would probably have to set up the backlash compensation on it dependent on the wear on the quill rack If I remember correctly if the air was turned off the system would not run as it protected the drives trying to move the knee as without any air assistance it would burn out the drives to the stepper motor so if you do turn the air off and your knee gets very heavy to move then this will give some indication as to the air assistance you are getting and the state of the seals also without air on if left overnight without the knee clamps on the table would fall under its own weight rotating the ballscrew as it went down but this also gave another indication as to the condition of the seals on the air assist because another way was to put a ball stop valve in curcuit and turn this off at night as well again testing for air leaks. the spindle on mine which looks the same as yours was a bristol Erickson quick change using 40 international size holders I have some of these which came from off a Series II BTC machine and although they have the pullstud built into them it didn't matter as the flange gage line was the same and also has the same flange locking dimensions i have just re-read your post and realised I missed some points out that you queried if i remember the lubricating pump is 110 volts AC and was connected inline with the spindle contactor so that when it was running it pumped oil around the system it also had a float switch in line also again as safety point for the machine so as not to be able to run it without oil it stopped the spindle from being started and also the program from continuing and although I have not had a look at the outputs on Mach3 I would have thought that it could be linked into the safety curcuits. But all in all my machine was old but had a very useful large bed movement and I wish I had the space to put another one in my garage. Best of luck Colin