I bought this mill a few years ago and have a items I could use some help with.
When I first commisioned it, it was setup for 480 power. I have 240v 1 phase in my shop and a 15hp RPC and have reset the taps for the lower voltage. I had issues immediately with the Y axis throwing a gross positioning error when running in rapid traverse in the + direction. I changed the MP to slightly lower the maximum speed and called it good for now. I've noticed that the Y- axis feed is jerky when run with the wheel or a program. Any thoughts on what to look for?
The other item is trying to connect to my PC to backup programs written on the control or to drip feed from my PC. I have a FTDI USB cable and TNCremo and TNCserver installed. I've read alot on the subject but don't seem to have a handle on exactly how to configure the MP, PC port settings and the TNCremo and server settiings. Then a step by step of the sequence for connecting and powering the machine and PC and then finally the sequence to copy progrmas to the PC and to drip feed to the machine.
I've covered quite a bit here, but would really appreciate assitance from those with experience here.
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Mactec54
I bought the machine a surplus from a large airplane manufacturer who had converted X & Y to linear slides.
I already had the RPC, but have been thinking about the VFD anyway. Already had some components burn up on the KTK drive which I was able to repair, thanks to reading a lot of posts on this forum
Using RPC's have a habit of burning up electronics
See if you can see the Ballscrew from under the knee like in this photo it needs lube this is a series I but yours is similar
Be good to see if it was one I converted some years ago I converted quite a few of these machines to linear ways, I added extra travel in the Y axes by adding a block to the front of the knee, so some photos would tell me if I did it or not, if they did it themselves they most likely copied what I had already done, I modified the Heads as well removing 5" off the overall height of the head, series1 heads mostly but some series II
Mactec54
Looks like your handiwork. Embarrasing to see what it looks like under there now. Looks like I have some cleaning to do. BTW. It looks like it's getting plenty of lube on the screw and after running it back and forth a few times to look underneath I noticed that the jerkiness is gone. Could be there is just enough old dried up lube on the original ways to cause some sticking on the wipers.
The linear ways have a a nice film of grease on them. What kind of grease would you suggest to use on them?
Interested to hear about what you did to modify the heads. What was the goal with that? It looks like converting the ways raised the table a few inches. Mine came with a 3" thick aluminum fixture plate on it. If I put a vice on it I had almost no headroom.
Also has Renishaw MP12 probe and OMM reader on it which I haven't figured out yet.
Your linear rails look like they use Grease make sure you use the correct Grease for the rails, looks like they have Grease points front and back
It's not one of my builds as my rails extended out more to give 2" extra travel, where the blue housing is on the front that had a 2.5" steel spacer block in front of it, I would say it was mostly dry, the oil pumps I used deliver the oil at 170 PSI for better lube
You can see the ballscrew thrust bearing, the rebuilds I did I added a shield and a seal to keep the Bearings from getting junk in them
There where different Heads so would need a photo of what yours has
Mactec54
This is one of many Linear Bearing Grease https://www.thomsonlinear.com/en/product/LINEARLUBE
Each Linear Bearing Manufacture have there own Grease
Mactec54
It is a pretty nice mill. I've been very fortunate. I had an old ENCO BP clone as my first machine for about a year before getting this. It's a good balance for the work I do between manual and full cnc.
I appreciate your suggestion on the lube. I'm still gettiing some jerkiness occasionally. Must still have a little too much resistance on the feed. How did you increase the pressure on the lube? Is cleaning the encoder scales a regular maintenace item I should do? Is that a difficult job on this machine?
Mactec54