Yamazen CNC knee mill

[N4NV]

I am looking at buying a 1987 Yamazen CNC knee mill. The model number is 5VBK though Yamazen Inc. says they never hear of that model. I am looking for a manual or any other information about this machine.

Thanks

Vince

[N4NV]

I went ahead and purchased it. The price seemed right. The seller found some paper work that indicates it was made by Sanki and Yamazen was just a distributor. Yamazen terminated their relationship in 1989 two years after the mill was made. It has an Allen Bradley Series B 8400 control. The paper work does not say what type of spindle it has. I will have to have someone who is more knowledgeable than me look and it and let me know. I plan on stripping off the Allen Bradley control and using Mach 3 to control it. It's a big project and hopefully I won't get bogged down.

I will post pictures once I get it to my shop.

Vince

[Napoleon]

I have a Yamazen same as the one you bought. Here are the details on my machine in case you find them useful. I cut and pasted them since I had mine for sale. I was wondering what you paid for yours, I sold mine for 5K. The was one on EBAY but I think it sold. Check out the pic.
http://cgi.ebay.com/YAMAZEN-3-AXIS-C...QQcmdZViewItem


YAMAZEN 3 AXIS CNC MILL
Model: 5BVK
Model Year: 1988
Serial Number: 771757
Control Type: ALLEN BRADLEY 8400 MP
TABLE SIZE 42" X 13"
TRAVELS 30" X 15"
MANUAL VARI-SPEED 70-3800 RPM
POWER DRAW BAR
BOX WAYS
40 TP
5 HP 220/3PH.

Machine Manual
Control Manual
Control Schematics

Extra memory.
DNC capable.
AutoLube sytem.
Coolant and mist control.
Tool holders included.

Before you change the controller give it a try. I find it very user friendly and very easy to service and maintain. The machine itself is a good iron and the AB8400 controller reliable. Granted is an old machine- controller. I've had mine for 15 years. The IC's may go bad on you every 5 years but they are easy to replace and cost less than 10 each. If you decide to keep the AB8400 email me baytool@hotmai.com and I will give you a few pointers to keep it running at its optimum on the cheap. There are a few people that sell spare parts, form P/S to servo amplifiers, to servos in case yours may need any. The most important thing you will want to do is to remove the brushes on the Y-servo and check to see that oil has not soaked them. If it has, dissasemble the servo (carefull with the encoder at the end, but you knew that) clean it up, put it back together, then build a shield with brass or sheet metal on top of the Y-servo to prevent oil form the Y-screw dripping on the servo. After that TUNE all the servos. I can give you the specs or you can get them from the servo amplifier card manufacturer-the name scapes my memory but most machines from that period used the same servo amplifiers so thery are readily available.
More tips later if you want them.
BTW do you know anyone that runs virtual Gibbs on a MAC?

[N4NV]

Napoleon, your email address bounces. Could you send my a private message or send to "vince at flyingcritters dot com"

Thanks

Vince

[N4NV]

Here are some pictures of the Yamazen mill. I think it takes BT40 holders. I am so clueless on how this is going to work. I have no idea how to upload a program into the Allen/Bradley 8400MP controller (if it even works). I have only use R8 collets before and now I am findout out there are all diferent types of collets and even different pull studs. This should be an adventure.

Vince

[Napoleon]

Vince,

When you get the machine simply clean it up, level it and hook it up or have an electrician do it for you. Beyond that I will guide you from proper G-code format to file transfer and all the way to maintenace of the controller. You mentioned that the servos and servo amplifiers are not original, there you need to find out what brand they are and do some research on how to tune the servos so that you get 'round circles' or as round as the mechanical errors in the machine allow you to. Check out the servo amplifiers cards for a set of POTS- these you adjust to tune the servos.
The tooling on my machine is ETM 40. The draw bar has a 5/6-11 thread neumatically operated, and the taper is 40. It sound that your machine may have been modified so check before buying tooling for it.
Not sure how valuable is your time and your intentions are for this machine, but it would not be a bad idea to disassemble the table and see how much wear the machine has. That will give you a good indication on how many hours are in the machine. Also check that the screw nut assy in the Z axis is tightly attached to the spindle, there should be a couple of metric screws accessible from the left behind a cove plate.There should be a layer of turcite, check out how worn that is. You may want to run an indicator on to of the table and move the table end-to-end and that will also give you and indication of wear.
In a nutshell, check the machine for mechanical integrity and tighten it as much as you can for the type of work you need within the machine envelope. I think you can get this old machine accurate within .001 realistically.The rest is easy.
I am getting ahead of myself here. get the machine as ready as you can the let me know where you need a help.

My email address baytool@hotmail.com - typo error above.

[Napoleon]

From the picture of the controller I can see that the servo amplifier cards are the same brand and type as the original- so they may be original. The POTS are the row of yellowish-orange collor rectangular boxes with a tiny screw at the end. They sit next to the conector with the blue cables.

[N4NV]

I hooked power to it today. When it powers up it has a message "battery or fuse open" and another about memory might be lost. I changed the two AA batteries on the 8400MP board, but did not see any fuses.

After is checks memory and I hit Exit a security log in screen appears. The guy who sold the machine to me does not know the code. I tried **** as the manual says that is the "anyone can use the machine code".

I have the 8400MP installation manual, but it does not say anything about how to boot up without a password. It says that is set at the time you purchase the machine.

The drives are original, but the paper work I have looks like the motors might be newer. I would really like to get this thing booted up so I can at least try to move the axis.

Thanks

Vince

[BobWarfield]

Wow! Exciting new project Vince. Best of luck.

There is bound to be a "repair and service" code that works and is never changed, but who knows what it is. Need to find someone who services Allen Bradley controls, call and ask them. Tell them you just bought a used mill and can't get past the password prompt. They will have a procedure to bail you out.

Best,

BW

[N4NV]

I was able to get the motor to run by manually pressing in the contactor. It sounds good, though there is noticable vibration at the max speed of 3,800 rpm. I cleaned up the knee ways and moved the knee up and down. There is noticable staining on the ways that could be rust. I can't feel it with my fingers but it is a rust color.

The one shot lube system is working. There is a 120V solonoid on the top of it and I thought it might be controlled by the AB system. There is a manual plunger that I operated 10 to 15 times over the course of an hour and I finally did see some oil dripping out of the quill. That's good since I could not find any lubrication point for the quill.

If I can't get into the contoll system I have been looking at some Pixies contollers that will work with Mach3.

One other nice thing I have found is though the machine takes 3 phase, the only three phase item on it is the quill motor. I could run everything else from single phase and separate out the motor wiring and run it through a VFD. Right now I have the mill at my work and we have three phase here, but I have only single phase at home.

Vince

[Al_The_Man]

Originally Posted by N4NV The one shot lube system is working. There is a 120V solonoid on the top of it and I thought it might be controlled by the AB system. There is a manual plunger that I operated 10 to 15 times over the course of an hour and I finally did see some oil dripping out of the quill.

What gets neglected is the way oil system, its a pain, but it pays to replace the metering devices at the end of every oil line, on an old machine they may have never been replaced, what happens is they slowly get clogged and ends up only one spot gets the oil.
Al.

[N4NV]

Originally Posted by Al_The_Man What gets neglected is the way oil system, its a pain, but it pays to replace the metering devices at the end of every oil line, on an old machine they may have never been replaced, what happens is they slowly get clogged and ends up only one spot gets the oil. Al.

That will be another item on my list things to check. Thanks

Vince