Fitting PDB

[wbleeker]

Hi Everyone,
I have just received my PDB kit and have got as far as putting the cylinder on the eccentric pin and checking whether any washers have to be removed to leave a space between the ram end and the drawbar. I can't work out why but in my case it appears that I have to shorten the screw in the end of the ram to get clearance? Has any one had this issue? I have used a piece of wood as a lever to make sure the ram isn't extended, I could put a spacer under the eccentric to raise the cylinder a bit, but can't do much as the ram base plate will hit on the spindle collar.
I also have a slight problem with the hole drilled and tapped in the 45 degree section of the head casting that is for the levelling screw base, it is not drilled straight it is on a 15 degree angle and is tapped M6x1.0 not 1/4 unc as the paperwork suggests to do if you have to drill your own.
Hoping for some help
Will

[SquibLoad]

I just installed my new PDB this week. It went in without a hitch and didn't need any additional washers, nor any removed either. Regarding the 45deg holddown bolt, Tormach supplied both a metric and an imperial bolt for that location in my parts kit. My instructions mentioned that newer machines were threaded from the factory for metric (mine was) and the 1/4-20 was provided for those that needed to drill and tap. All the various holes mentioned in the instructions were already drilled/tapped where needed. I assume that is because my machine is a newer Series II (2010). It all went together like clockwork, and was up and running in a few hours. The hardest part was actually fishing the wires down the column. I used a stiff length of safety wire, hooked it at the lower end with a spring removal tool through an access hole in the electrical panel, and then taped the wires to that and pulled it through. That worked OK, but there was a bit of angst in getting it accomplished, and you really need two people to do it, one wiggle the safety wire once it is fed down, and one to hook it and pull it through the access hole. Worth the effort, though. The instructions are good and accurate. Only one trivial omission I found regarding the routing of the cable for the footswitch, and that was solved with a phone call. In retrospect, the routing should have been apparent to me, but I was just being careful. If you've owned your Tormach for more than a week, you'll wonder why you waited this long to add one. They are slick! I added mine in preparation for adding the ATC shortly.

[wbleeker]

Thanks for the reply, my machine is a 2010 model as well it arrived here a week before Christmas, the PDB got here this week after USPS keeping it in the US for 5 weeks!
The PDB kit did't have the metric screw, it only had the imperial one and no mention of the fact that the machine might have the hole already drilled and tapped, there was also no Allen Key as mentioned in the NYCNC video for undoing the motor and turning it?
This dosen't matter to me but it does seem odd that there are so many versions of the kit getting sent out?
I am thinking perhaps mine is old stock?
Will

[MFchief]

Am I understranding correctly? even with the washers removed from under the bolt in the end of the ram, you still have interferance? It's hard to see that much variance in the manufacturing of the parts for the kit, I would ask Tormach if they have seen it before, they may have inavertantly packed a wrong part.

If you have to live with it, and not knowing how much overlap you have, you might consider thinning the head of the bolt in the ram some on a lathe, or even taking a little off the top of the drawbar, the square section is pretty thick.

Good Luck with it
Terry

[SquibLoad]

MFChief makes some good points. I agree, it seems unlikely that there is that much difference in kits.
I would suppose the other possibility is that the drawbar is not threaded down into the spindle/collet correctly, or far enough. Following Tormach's directions for tensioning the cup washers (tighten until they no longer release with the PDB, and then back off a smidge), I was surprised at how much those washers are acually compressed. Visually, they looked like they were compressed too much, and it took a bit of 'Armstrong' to reach that point, with more effort then I would normally tighten the manual drawbar. But, it all worked perfectly when done, and it releases just fine. When done, I had scant clearance between the drawbar and cylinder bolt head, just slightly less than the thickness of one additional washer (I tried).
So, maybe it is worth re-checking for proper seating of the drawbar in its bushing, TTS R8 collet fully seated, proper orientation of the washer stack, lift collar threaded fully onto spindle, etc? Or, anything else that would affect how deep the drawbar sits in the spindle? Please let us know if you discover anything.

[TXFred]

Hi Everyone,
I have just received my PDB kit and have got as far as putting the cylinder on the eccentric pin and checking whether any washers have to be removed to leave a space between the ram end and the drawbar. I can't work out why but in my case it appears that I have to shorten the screw in the end of the ram to get clearance? Has any one had this issue?

Mine was similar. I had to remove the washers and turn the large bolt in until it bottomed out in the hole. That gave me just enough clearance.

If I had needed more clearance, I would have had to shorten the bolt's shaft or head.

It sounds like something changed in one of the PDB components. I'm guessing that it's the bolt itself, since that's an item that is purchased. And most people don't care about the thickness of a bolt's head, so it can vary quite a bit.

In any case, just adjust the bolt as needed to get the clearance, and you should be good to go. If it's really tight, you could get to a lathe and face off part of the bolt head to gain clearance.

Frederic

[kevinro]

I had to shorten the bolt on mine as well. I think I took about .250" off the end of the bolt.

[wbleeker]

All fitted and working, i had to cut a bit off the bolt and now have two washers under the head, I am going to face a bit off the bolt head and put three washers in to close the gap up a bit. I also put a shorter 6mm level adjusting screw in as there was no way the standard one was going to do the job.
Thanks for all the replies
Will

[rowbare]

It looks like you have it sorted out, but one thing to check is that your spindle can in fact use the spacer bushing that comes on the drawbar (they mention this in the instructions). The spacer wouldn't fit my older mill since it didn't have the pocket for the narrow part to drop into. It is about as thick as 3 washers.

I had made a spacer for mine so I just had to thin the wider section a bit.

bob

[rowbare]

Only one trivial omission I found regarding the routing of the cable for the footswitch, and that was solved with a phone call. In retrospect, the routing should have been apparent to me, but I was just being careful.

Can you share what the routing for the footswitch is? I just installed my PDB this past weekend but like you, I couldn't see a clean way to route the FS cable so I put it aside till I had a chance to ask about it.

thanks
bob

[TXFred]

I routed mine into the enclosure at the back center, where all the other wires pass through. Then into the shelf below the control box, where all the other electrical pluts are. From there, up into the control box. From the control box, into the column and up into the PDB box.

I was given a foot pedal with torn off wiring, so I had to make my own extension cable for it. I gave myself extra length, so I cannot promise that a stock foot pedal will have enough wire to go this path.

Frederic