Ok - this really is rising from Ash !

[contactirfu]

Folks I recently encountered a router which was completely gutted by a fire -

the cause of fire was unknown - but here is what it looks now

I have volunteered to redo the controls and then to get it back to life.

The heat has bent a couple of tubes and a major challenge would be to get it bk to shape

where this router is would not be a point of discussion, I am very sorry for the poor bloke who lost so much and has to reinvest in this now - the machine is just one year old - on hiwin rails and with a colombo 2.2kw spindle.

looks wise the spindle looks ok but I suspect the bearing have lost all the grease in them.

RGDS
Irfan

[CarveOne]

Oh WOW! That looks ugly Irfan. Though the location is not for discussion I sure hope the bloke who owns it is not you.

It does serve notice to all who sees this to keep good fire suppression equipment near by and to keep the area as clean as is reasonable.

If you were "a little closer" I would offer to help repair it.

CarveOne

[LeeWay]

I agree that is a sad looking sight. Most of it looks salvageable. Of course, none of the electronics and doubtfull that the trucks will still work as well.
Maybe they could be rebuilt. I know there are plastic endcaps and seals on my THK trucks that would not take kindly to flames.

Rails are likely fine as is the control panel itself.

Spindle? If the bearings are gone, isn't that the major cost? Not sure I would even trust a high speed spindle after a fire.

Looks like most of the work to the frame will be cleaning. I sure hope nothing warped.
Good luck with this and I'd be interested to follow the progress.

[harryn]

Hi Irfan, it would be helpful to have a sense of how intense the fire was in order to estimate the damage. As an example - does it appear that the fire is from the surrounding room and caused the router to be "inside of a hot, intense fire zone" - really bad, or that "something" on the router caught on fire, and anything nearby was damaged?

Clearly the electronics are shot, so that is perhaps the easiest to diagnose. A bit more challenging of course are the rails and frame.

A great deal of the strength and hardness of modern steel and aluminum is from the heat treatment process, so a "mostly smoke" situation is quite different than an "intense, sustained fire".

Try to roughly judge the steel and Al properties in various locations with a hammer and punch - just to see if they have become very soft compared to what you expect from "normal" metals. If they have gotten very soft compared to normal materials, then it might be entirely scrap metal. Hopefully not, but it is better to know now rather than later.

At a minimum, any painted surfaces need to be sand blasted and repainted, or the smoke smell will last forever, which can be quite bad, as it makes you wonder if something is wrong - forever.

Unless you are certain otherwise, it is possible that any previous flat, straight surface is no longer flat or straight.

[garagefela]

If this machine ever gets to go again you really must name it "Phoenix"

Truly one back alive from the ashes.

Cheers M

[contactirfu]

Hi All,

considering I have seen so many machines built over the zone - this is one of the best I have seen,

the super structure is of 4 inch pipes - this is separately bolted to another frame structure where the hiwin rails are bolted and this could be leveled separately- yes the trucks on em are a gone case - those were hiwin hg 20's,

the heat has distorted the structure and since we have a separate top frame we are currently looking at get it back to shape using a hydraulic bender.

the reason for the extreme heat were the resin based idols kept below the machine which caught fire and slowly burned away the whole thing.

The gantry is all aluminum extrusion and is still straight
also we are utilizing the occasion to increase the gantry height by 3 inches. hope this will not affect it much.

apart from this we are planning to recondition the spindle and we are yet to know the costs involved.

one most important thing I wanted to share with you folks is that this machine ran on a online 5KW UPS as the location was rural and the power supply was more often interrupted!

way to go

RGDS
Irfan

[contactirfu]

OK today I have ordered the bob c11g from cnc4pc.com,

i needed a little help from folks who own a colombo spindle. There is supposed to be a capacitor in the wiring box(T-box) on the spindle - its melted and I need some info on what exactly it is. I will try to post the pictures later tonight.

RGDS
IRfan

[contactirfu]

here are some pics of the spindle,

if you see the thing I am holding in my hand - that is what I want to know about - any of you have any idea?

RGDS
Irfan

[CarveOne]

here are some pics of the spindle,

if you see the thing I am holding in my hand - that is what I want to know about - any of you have any idea?

RGDS
Irfan

Irfan,

I don't see anything in the photos that looks like a disk or tubular capacitor. I doubt that there would be any kind of chip capacitor in an assembly like that. If the white stuff on the end of the green wires is what you are referring to I can't think of a capacitor type that would look like that if it exploded from a serious short circuit.

CarveOne

[contactirfu]

Well carveone - its white and has melt like plastic - I will try and get a better picture.

RGDS
IRfan

[lgalla]

Irfan,Hve you checked with a VTVM if the motor windings are a dead short?The motor windings are copper coated with laquer or enamil.The meter will read an impedance if OK.If a dead short the spindle is toast.Can you turn the shaft by hand?There is plastic caps that melt,but I am surprised from the photo that the wires appear in good condition.
Usually low power spindles are not worth re building at least in the US because of the labour rates.
Again check that the windings are not shorted.If so contact PDS Colombo and ask of the melted cap.
Good luck
Larry

[contactirfu]

according to the technician who chked the winding they are ok, they have a red enamel over them, just found out from blurry customs that the burnt out thing may be the thermistor - the shaft turns freely by hand.

now only if any one can give me the spec's of the thermistor.

RGDS
Irfan