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Can anyone tell me anything about this mill? Dates of manufacture, dimensions, etc?
Thanks in advance.
Last edited by lumberjack_jeff; 11-20-2009 at 11:37 PM.
I'm pretty sure that's my new toy... That appears to be the one I just bought off e-bay on the weekend. I haven't seen it myself yet, but a friend of mine in Portland went and picked it up for me on Sunday. It looks to be in exceptional condition.
I'll dragging it back to Vancouver, BC in the next couple weeks where I'm planning on converting it to Mach 3 control. I'm sure I'll be asking lots of questions here in the next couple months.
Sheldon
Tree...Good Iron, poor control , 2 Axis Table 9" X 50" approx. 1978 to 1983 or 1984. The Z axis will be the challenge to control . A retrofit is the only way to go, but parts for the Tree of this age are real scarce. I reloaded the ball screws and if I'm real careful
( and slow) will hold tenths. Just recently enclosed my Tree ( got tired of wearing chips and coolant) Most likley your machine has either the Quick switch 200 spindle. The spindle is only 2.78" in diameter, so you can not push it as you would a Cat 40. The collets are outrageous in cost , hope your machine came with collets and holders !
There are some knowledable people on this forum that have a wealth of info for the Tree, so ask questions 1st .
Hoping you have a good time with your Tree...I have made a lot of parts with mine, but have been frustrated with repair parts for the Machine.
Adobe Machine (old, old,old as dirt)
Then I bought a Bostomatic 300 ...cheese, think I would learn !
Yup, that's the one.
Good luck to you, I'll be following your conversion progress.
Consider using EMC?
I have a JM 300 that i retorfited using mach3 and Gecko G320 servo amps.
I have also helped a business acquaiontance retrofit his older machine that looked at lot like your.
Adding a motor to the quill was going to be dificult so we added a servo motor to the knee.
Most of those machines were capable of running at 200 IPM. The motors are 130VDC servo motors. The geckos can only deliver 80V so the speed will be reduced proportionally.
The encoders on the motors draw 125ma as I recall. They have an incadesent miniature lamp in the read heads. ou will need to use and external power supply if you go with the Gecko drives.
You may want to go to my web site and read my exploits with my J300
Dan Mauch
www.camtronics-cnc.com
Originally Posted by slemoine
Adobe:
Thanks for responding to this thread. I've read many of your posts in the past and have enjoyed your insights. I'd be very interested in hearing more about your conversion, especially some more detailed pictures of your Z axis setup (I've seen the pics in the gallery but some close-ups would be great).
There were collets and some holders with it but I haven't had a chance to take inventory yet.
lumberjack_jeff:
I've got a couple other machines running on Mach3 so I'm going to stick with what I'm comfortable with.
Dan:
Thanks for the info about your conversions. It gave me some things to think about. I do really like Geckos and have a few spares sitting around so that may be what I use if it turns out that the motors are similar to yours.
I'll be going down to pick it up next weekend so I'll be sure to post some pictures shortly thereafter.
Sheldon
http://www.eurospares.com/graphics/m...ebrochure3.jpg
is the page from a factory brochure that shows the Tree 210, which is a similar (but no doubt later) 2 axis mill.
http://www.eurospares.com/graphics/m...ebrochure7.jpg
has the detailed specifications.
cheers,
Michael
The Tree 210 was a later machine ( 1984 +, from what I can figure) and had a larger quill/spindle, which is the Erickson 30.
One of the problems with a machine designed as a two axis mill is in order to operate the Z up and down , you can not tighten the Quill Jam Nut, therefor ,there is some loosness in the Quill to Quill housing, which increases as you extend the the Z down.This applies to Bridgeports and clones also.I always could see some wavy patterns when side milling, unless the Quill was all the way up and the jam bolt assembly was tightened.
The cure to that was to use the Knee as the Z axis.The problem there is the Tree Knee and X table is real heavy, so when I built the Enclosure, I installed 2 air cylinders ( 2 inch bore , 16" inch stroke ) installed a 1 1/4 inch ball screw and used the Z axis servo with a 4:1 timing belt reduction to controll the knee as the Z.That ment I could raise the quill and tighten the jam assembly very tight..The differance in appearance when side cutting is noticable , along with being able to use flood and high pressure coolant .
I calculate that 100 lbs of air pressure , relieves about 500 lbs of weight off the knee assembly, reducing the strain on the servo and ball screws. Since there is still a lot of weight on the ball screw, there is 0 backlash. The nice thing is there is a good 15 inches of controlled Z.
I think it is important to lube the Knee ways, so I Silver Soldered 3/8 inch lines into the oil cups and pressure lube both sides of the ways and the ball screw.
I will publish some pictures later, right now the machine is maching some exaust parts for my Hot Rod.
Adobe ( older Dirt)
I Think i can help. my number is 661-272-1288 or please provide your number
I will call.Please ask for Bernard or mail me at williamsbernard@sbcglobal.net.I will buy some parts that you will not be using if you are planning to retro fit.I do have a full schematic on that machine.
If you are planning to do a retrofit i would be interested in the two computer board mounted on the right panel door. please contact me at williamsbernard@sbcglobal.net.
Thanks,
Bernard.
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