YAHKMB1R (Yet Another Hurco KMB1 Retrofit)

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Thread: YAHKMB1R (Yet Another Hurco KMB1 Retrofit)

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    Default YAHKMB1R (Yet Another Hurco KMB1 Retrofit)

    Good morning! So, here we go with yet another Hurco KMB1 retrofit. I recently acquired three Hurco KMB1 mills. Actually, (2) KBM1 and (1) KMB1x. I bought them unpowered but I felt the price was right. I've got them moved into my garage now (boy was that fun) and have started the pre-operational inspection.

    Some shorthand for the next part...
    M1 & M2 --> KMB1
    M3 --> KMB1x

    After a initial visual inspection, M1 & M2 seem to be in good mechanical condition. M3's spindle appears to be slipping (I can turn the spindle by hand but the belt between the spindle and motor does not turn -- maybe there is a sheared key on the spindle shaft). All machines are very dirty, so lots of cleaning in my future. It looks like some of the air tubes and electrical systems are disabled (cut). M2's spindle motor is not bolted down in its proper place (looks like it was slid back to accommodate a larger spindle to motor driver belt and is held to the frame by some clamps). M3's y-axis chip shield is stuck open and you can see the ball screw. Lot's of hours on the usage meters. Other than that, they look pretty good.

    Next goal is to power up the machines and see what kind of operational condition they are in. I built a rotary converter a few years ago to try running a 3-phase compressor. I am going to use this as the initial power source. It's a screamer (very, very loud), so I'll eventually just convert the machines to single phase. Based on the schematics posted by those who have traveled this road before me, it looks like an easy task.

    So, with that, let's begin the journey! I have so much to discover. So many new options to consider to drive the retrofit.
    -Steve

    Similar Threads:
    Last edited by Ninensei; 02-16-2019 at 01:40 PM.


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    Default Re: YAHKMB1R (Yet Another Hurco KMB1 Retrofit)

    You got my attention! I'll be watching for updates.
    I just got mine painted yesterday. YEP only took five years to get in paint!!!



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    Default Re: YAHKMB1R (Yet Another Hurco KMB1 Retrofit)

    I'm very excited. I've read through your thread multiple times now. It's like a good movie where each time you watch it, you see something you didn't see before. Anyway, yours and Bob's threads have been a fountain of knowledge and I have enjoyed the depth of coverage. M1 and M2 look like your machine. M3 looks like Bob's.

    I've been thinking of paint. Hmmm, what color? There's always Hurco blue, but it might be a good opportunity to get creative! I've got some time to think about it.



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    Default Re: YAHKMB1R (Yet Another Hurco KMB1 Retrofit)

    I hooked up M1 to the rotary converter, powered up and I was able to load the master program. I tried jogging the axis, but got a fault error. This happened several times. Moved on to M2. Same result.

    Back to M1. Tried placing an 18V battery across each servo motor. All three motors moved. I'm not confident at all in my rotary converter build, so I'm going to go ahead convert the system to single phase 240V. Besides, that rotary converter is really loud!!



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    Default Re: YAHKMB1R (Yet Another Hurco KMB1 Retrofit)

    The conversion to 240V single phase is mostly complete (still have the VFD to hook up). Turns out the rotary phase converter wasn't the source of the problem. M1 still fails at the same point: servos are not moving under program control. What I did notice is that the low/over voltage light was lit on all of the servo amplifier cards. Per the servo amp manual, I verified that the two DC supplies (+/-15Vdc and +90Vdc) were present and in range. So, my best guess right now is that all three servo cards are somehow non-functional. I'm not quite sure how that light could be on with valid voltages present. Tomorrow, I'll attempt to troubleshoot them. I'm a bit disappointed right now to say the least.



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    Default Re: YAHKMB1R (Yet Another Hurco KMB1 Retrofit)

    What a day. Lots of wrong turns. Lots of dead ends. But, the problem with the servos has been isolated to the +/-15Vdc servo supply. I'll attempt to figure out what is wrong with the power supply before I just replace it.

    With a temporary power substitute in place, I finished up the 240V conversion and took her for a spin. There is a bit of creak and rattle in those old bones, but she is working!! Now to take her mechanicals apart, give her a good cleaning and check for anything that needs to be replaced. I also have to tackle the lube and brake systems.

    Enough for one weekend. Enjoy the pic!
    -Steve

    YAHKMB1R (Yet Another Hurco KMB1 Retrofit)-img_20190217_162156-jpg



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    Default Re: YAHKMB1R (Yet Another Hurco KMB1 Retrofit)

    Have any of you dismantled your x-axis table? I was thinking of doing so to really clean out the insides and check it out. But, I'm not exactly sure the best way to do it or what to watch out for. I made a spanner wrench today for the nut on the end of the ball screw.



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    Default Re: YAHKMB1R (Yet Another Hurco KMB1 Retrofit)

    We've gotten a bit further into the disassembly of the table (x-axis). The spanner wrench I made worked on one nut (motor side), but broke on the other. That was ok though because we found out that the right side nut didn't have to be removed to get the shaft out. We noticed that there is a bit of backlash present (we can rotate the ballscrew back and forth a bit with no movement in the table position). I guess that's to be expected on a machine with 32K+ hours. Time will tell if the ballscrew will have to be replaced or not. Also, when we took the x-axis motor cover off, we noticed that the encoder housing was being held together with electrical tape. Turns out the encoder disk was cracked. So it looks like I'll be replacing at least one encoder so far. $100 bucks at US digital.

    Next task is to figure out how to actually slide the table off without hurting someone.



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    Default Re: YAHKMB1R (Yet Another Hurco KMB1 Retrofit)

    I have also wanted to take off the table and have it ground...but it looks REALLY heavy! Good luck and let us know how it goes.



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