Newbie- cant make my lathe chuck turn!!

[yatz]

HI!...

i just finished to set up my tri-power patriot cnc, but when i turned the lathe on, the chuck didnt spin in any position(high, low velocity)...i thought the spindle brake was too tighten, but then i realized it was okay....could someone please help me fix this problem??, is there any "lock" or screw that prevents it from spinnig?...i hope u can help me....thank u very much..XD

[instructor37]

Yatz,
Is your motor running? Can you turn the chuck by hand?
If yes to both, then it should work. Are you engaging the Hi-Low spindle lever on the upper Left hand corner of the sheetmetal housing? Moving the handle up engages low speed, in the middle is neutral and moving the handle down engages hi speed.

[yatz]

thanks instructor37; and yes my motor is running, but i cant turn my chuck by hand even in neutral. could it be lack of lubrication?....

[instructor37]

Originally Posted by yatz thanks instructor37; and yes my motor is running, but i cant turn my chuck by hand even in neutral. could it be lack of lubrication?....

Yatz,
Have you found the Hi-Low spindle lever? The lever is removed in shipping, but it threads into the round chrome block on the sheet metal housing. It sounds to me like your brake is on. In neutral, the brake engages and the belt tension is released, so the motor runs but the spindle stops. When you shift into high or low speed, the brake releases and the belts tension to turn the spindle. The shifter is like a car transmission, it has detents in hi-neutral-low, and it is spring loaded so it doesn't slip out of place when running. You need to move the lever toward the tailstock end to clear the detents when shifting.

[yatz]

once again thank you, instructor37!!. you were right, the spindle brake was engaged; after recalibrating it, the chuck started to spin...but i have encountered with another problem.
after i installed mach3 and i was testing the machine i realized that when i entered a simple g-code, G01X.1F5, the machine didnt moved. i tried with different numbers(X2,X5) and nothing, i dont know if it was because i forget to do something in the instalation process...i hope that you could help me one more time please...ill really going to appreciate it!.. thanks

[instructor37]

Originally Posted by yatz once again thank you, instructor37!!. you were right, the spindle brake was engaged; after recalibrating it, the chuck started to spin...but i have encountered with another problem. after i installed mach3 and i was testing the machine i realized that when i entered a simple g-code, G01X.1F5, the machine didnt moved. i tried with different numbers(X2,X5) and nothing, i dont know if it was because i forget to do something in the instalation process...i hope that you could help me one more time please...ill really going to appreciate it!.. thanks

Yatz,
Good to hear you got the spindle system figured out- on the CNC, there are a lot of things that can cause this-
1. On the control box there is a toggle switch that disengages the stepper motors for manual use- be sure your steppers are engaged.
2. Did you load your Mach III license file?
3. Be sure your on screen DRO is set to zero- if you are in absolute position mode, the computer may read that you are already at the place you want to go. Set your software to incremental positioning and it will accept any command.
4. Depending on the architecture of your computer, you may need to adjust the ports and pins as well.
For better help with the software try
www.artofcnc.ca

[yatz]

instructor37,
thank you for all the help you have given to me!...it has been really usefull, the problem was that the parallel port wasnt written in the mach3 configuration,once i did that the machine started working perfectly!...it has been a wonderful experience. right now im looking at the videos you told me to see, just trying to configure all the offsets, homeswitches( still i dont know what is that), and those important things,once again, thanks for all!..