Help with South Bend Magnaturn CNC lathe

[Fudd]

I have a South Bend Magnaturn CNC lathe that I want to get up and running. I have split off the single phase computer components and am running the 3 phase components from a rotary converter. I can get the fans to run, but nothing comes-up on the screen. I have tried a different monitor and it seems that I am not getting anything to the monitor. I can hold-in the magnetic contactor and get the blower and hydraulic pump to run. Does anyone know anything about these lathes? How about somebody that I can talk to? I don't want to have to pay BIG BUCKS for a service guy, but if I have to then I will. How about a retro-fit?

Thanks,

Scott

[MechMan]

Hi, Do you still have your magnaturn lathe?

[Fudd]

Yes, I do still have the lathe.

Thanks,

Scott

[MechMan]

Hi, I was wondering how the project come out. Did you do a retrofit? I have a
Magnaturn 612. I was hoping for pictures posted of you machine. I have mine posted under MechMan.

[jimfnd]

What model is it?
We run them here.
Jim

[MechMan]

Hi, I have the Magnaturn 612. It was designed to be run from 115 VAC single phase from day one. I would think setting your up to do the same would be fairly easy. The real question is was yours complete? I ended up having to purchase the PC Card and software from Southbend. Not Cheap. There is one other thing I need to purchase for mine that will have to wait until I have the funds. They offer an additional program called Ultrapath that requires a printer dongle to unlock. This program provides the toolpath graphics. Big drawback to my machine is there is little tooling available. You can see mine in my gallery. I was one of the top posters if you go to the gallery page.

[jimfnd]

We use 1218's in production turning with barfeeds.
A couple of the machines even have Ultrapath, though nobody here has bothered to learn a new CAM package that is limited to one brand of lathe.
We usually program off-line in either MasterCam or straight G-code and use a
utility that came with the machines to upload the ASCII files into their own language.
South Bend talks about importing a Taiwanese machine to get back into CNC, not realizing that users like us will just buy Taiwan machines directly from the Taiwanese if we wanted them.
Sadly South Bend, like what little else remains from the American machine tool industry, survives by overcharging for spare parts.

[MechMan]

Your right, it's sad considering CNC technology was developed in the United States. If you ever decide to sell one of the Ultrapath printer port dongles let me know. I would be interested. I'm proud of my little machine. It so rare that you find American CNC Iron. MechMan

[Fudd]

I replaced the computer with an old 286 that I had and the machine runs. I have two other CNC lathes and have not put the time into learning the South Bends Ultrapath. I did hear of writting standard G-code and sending it to the machine, but have not tried it.

Thanks,

Scott

[afn09556]

Anyone have manuals, wiring Diag.s, software, for the 1218 magnaturn.

If so email me at afn09556@hotmail.com

Thanks, Chip
Florida

[MechMan]

Hi, The 1218 is a different animal than the 612. The 612 is a very small machine. Manuals for your machine may be available from Southbend. I paid I believe $60 a piece for the two manuals that were available to me. SouthBend wouldn't release the board level repair manuals. The software is also exclusive to the machine. Those are closed loop machines and travel paramiters are designed into the software. The software is not cheap. I was close to doing a retrofit myself. If it were not for the closed loop quality I would have done it. The only thing the two machines may have in common is the PC control card. I only have the one. If you decide to retrofit let me know if you decide to sell that card. MechMan

[afn09556]

Thanks for the fast reply,

Just fired up the lathe, cpu powers up have F1-F10 keys on bottom of screen, save,load run ect....., start button / other swiches have no effect.

This is an early 1200 series sn00039 I think, Holding Hyd-Contactor in, spindle turns, X appears to home.

Looking for diag pin-outs not board level, just basic diagrams, considering retrofit unless I can find software, Just trying to find a starting point hear.

On your lathe is there a (software) disk that enables front panel switches / controls.

Thanks, Chip