Buncha things Milltronics related

[trevj1]

Been having some greif with the Partner mill at work. IIRC it is equipped with a Centurion 4 control. Given that I have repeatedly seen references to the fact that it is no longer supported by Milltronics themselves, I have not bothered to bother them. I'll check tommorrow and add a post with the exact details of the machine.
(edit: It's a Partner 4 machine, with a centurion V controller. I figure to drop the folks a Milltronics a line tommorow if time permits)

Issue #1

Running at about 3k rpm and 25 inches per minute, when the feed was notched up one click, the screen blanked. Prior to this, I had a full stoppage in the middle of a program (3500 rpm, low feed rates, engraving a brass plaque with a 1/16 ball end mill) where the screen first went shades of green, then the screen quit, then the machine quit thinking.... At least it did not try to tunnel out through the table!
Shortage of power to the motherboard? AT power supplies (used ones at least) are cheap and available, but I am wondering if I am limited by the 600 watts that the 110 volt supply supposedly puts out.

Issue #2

Documentation. I have a Milltronics users manual (3 ring binder type of book, two copies of same.) a diskette marked "Parameters" and not much else.

Should I have any other software on disk? The machine is 386 based with a simdisk board. If it takes the long sleep, what are the odds that it goes to the scrap dealer?
There is a zero chance that this machine will see a control upgrade if it dies, and at the rate it is going, only a marginally higher chance that it would be replaced by another Milltronics machine when it does. Most likely is a fully enclosed VMC, and with the limited availability of ANY service techs these days, we will likely end up with something that can be serviced locally (at least, from Edmonton)
Circuit info? The manual we have, has a few diagrams showing more or less WHAT the cards are, though even that does not match up, as our machine is of different layout than shown, and does not appear to even have an I/O on the board to support a disk drive. To my knowledge, these manuals were supplied with the machine when new (1993 IIRC)
Trouble light interpretation? Are these things covered in a manual I am likley to find anywhere? All well and good that they put nice LEDs on the boards, but labels would have been cheap enough to add onto the print run of the circuit boards, I figure.

Issue #3

I have been able to run a couple parts that needed round features. I have had to rework most of them on a manual machine to bore them round.
I'm new to the whole CNC thing, but learning as fast as I can. I wish to check the backlash. Is it as straightforward as planting an indicator on a fixed point on the machine, and comparing notes between what it moved, and what it was supposed to? Is there a way that it can self check for backlash or movement errors? The machine is equipped with a set of scales. How does one check that the scales are working?

For that matter, just how accurate sould I expect the machine to be able to be? I was running about 4-6 thou out of round on the part that I last ran, on a 4 inch diameter. Feed rate on this was not very fast, like 12 ipm, on aluminum, with a sharp HSS cutter, climb milling.

#4 The non Issue!!

Our monitor crapped out a couple months ago. Turned out to be a good thing! The potting let go on the back of the picture tube. No loss!

When we opened up the controll box, we found that the monitor was running off a standard DB25 monitor cable, so we tried the one off our desktop. As that worked, we aquired a Philips 17 inch flatscreen and built a sheetmetal rack for it to mount over the original monitor on the control. MUCH better! About the only thing that could have improved things would have been a touchscreen!

Given the limited size of the screens, even on the new Cent 7 (A 12 inch is an "Oversized" monitor in their world???? Geez!) , I would do this mod in a heartbeat. Flatscreen LCDs are plenty easy to find,and plenty cheap. Mount kits are easy too.

Cheers
Trev

[AMCjeepCJ]

Contact Milltronics, I've had similar problems with my old mill from the same era. We just dumped $3,000+ into it and it more or less works now. It's a piece of crap to be honest (our old 'partner' knee mill). I bought a VM-22 about 20 months ago and couldn't be happier. It was a risk staying with them but I don't regret it at all.

PS
I've found the milltronics guys and gals to be awesome, can't hurt to write them... They check this forum, including the owners son, good luck!

[Farmers Machine]

Don't give up on Milltronics!!!! I have 2 machines ML 20 lathe and RH 30 Mill, new 2001. there have been some small quirks but there has never had to be a service man in my shop to make a repair. on ocassion when there is trouble Milltronics will go futher than anyone to help make sure you get back up and running.

[M_Controls]

Hi trevj1. I repair these machines. I was working on a hard-to-find intermittant problem on a Milltronics ML-20 lathe last summer and talking to their tech support, and the man commented that the machine was 5 years old, in a way that suggested the machine is getting old! He would not comment on what he meant by that, but it was obvious to me from the context of the conversation that he meant it might be near its end of usefulness! I was appaled that a CNC machine company might make a machine designed to last only just a little more than 5 years. Yours is 14?

I have posted two other posts regarding this machine, if you like you can see these:
Milltronics electronics buyer beware
Milltronics Error 450 E-stop annoyance

BTW, the same customer has a 30 year old Matsuura that I am currently fixing, now that was a great machine. It had the control retrofit with a Fanuc 0-M in '86, now that's a great control too. They have had NO problems with the Fanuc system (except replaced the keyboard membrane, cheap too); I don't make money on Fanuc controls very often, they hardly ever break down.

[One of Many]

Intermittent problems are nearly always hard to find. Any 5 year old machine is becoming aged, but no where near the end of it life unless the parts are no longer available.

We have 7 Milltronics milling machines I am responsible for the repairs on along with 5 Bridgeport DX-32 VMC's. All are getting near 12 years old. Very few electronics problems with the Milltronics compared to the Bridgeports.

Any time I have had to call Milltronics Tech's for support, they have been very helpful in every aspect.

I don't think the comparison between Matsuura and Milltronics is fair in terms of machine tool class of 30years ago. For the money, it is hard to beat what Milltronics has to offer in a PC based control, reliability and support.

DC

[AMCjeepCJ]

I'd buy another and after my new waterjet arrives, I'll probably do just that!!!

[trevj1]

Well, the machine is limping along.

Have had minimal running time since it had the issues described above, and there have been a couple higher priority things to deal with in the shop, than digging around in the Milltronics.

I'm pretty sure it's days are numbered though. Probably gonna end up with a Haas in there, as there is a dealer available within a few hours drive.

It's likely that it will be a good deal for it's next owner, if they have the wherwithall to install and setup a new controller with a modern computer at it's core, but my workplace is unlikley to spring for that.

Cheers
Trev

[Mark Hockett]

Trev,
My 1994 Milltronics mill has been far more reliable than my 2005 Haas lathe which has less than 200 hours . On the Haas I have had a wire harness fail, tool turret fail (still not working properly), X axis ballscrew noisy and the chip guard welds broke causing the guard to fall into the part I was working on. If your looking at Haas make sure they have close relaible service.

Mark Hockett