New to me Partner 1H questions....

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    Default New to me Partner 1H questions....

    We picked up a '95 Partner 1 H for my son to run some parts and get his own thing going... I've had the Partner 4 for years now so felt comfortable with the Milltronics machine even though it's older. Given my machine never had a tool changer, I do have a few questions though.

    First, does the machine have air blow thru the spindle when it's changing tools? We don't have it home yet, but when I saw it under power it seemed to be having a lot of air noise when the tool was out of the spindle during the tool change... don't know if that is intentional air blow or leaks during the tool change process. It seems to be pissing air from quite a few places in the back, so first project will be to put new airlines on and check the solenoid valves.

    It has the 10,000 rpm spindle, haven't had the cover off yet, appears to have two pulleys for a high and low ratio, what's the top speed in low, 6000 rpm? I don't know yet if it has the encoder on the spindle for rigid tapping, if not, is that something that can be added? From the parts list, it looks rather simple mechanically.

    In regards to tapping, if it doesn't have rigid tapping, I've used Tension and Compression holder on my machine, but that can get a bit pricey for all the different quick change heads to hold the various sized taps. Back in the day I had a Fadal in the shop and we used Tapmatic or Procunier tapping heads with a special bracket that kept the housing still while the spindle ran. Does or did Milltronics ever use something along that line? Any other options other than thread milling, which is fine for larger holes, don't really want to be doing it on 10-32 though...

    We will hopefully be moving it yet this week, depends on the rigger's schedule, and then Chris will have a week or two at least of cleaning (it's filthy) and getting ready. Then we will probably have lots more questions to come.

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    Default Re: New to me Partner 1H questions....

    my 96 vm16 blows air out of the spindle any time the drawbar in in "release" mode as well. I read somewhere that is to minimize chips entering the taper.

    I assume rigid tapping could be added to the machine if it doesn't have it, but Bob told me once that its not a cheap en devour.

    If your son is using fusion, I strongly advise he try thread milling if tapping is needed. I played with it a bit and am hooked. It takes a bit of fiddling to figure out how to tune the threads but once you know it works super well.



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    If I'm not mistaken, I believe Bob told me around $1800 for the rigid tapping. Are you sure it has a 10k rpm spindle? What hp is the spindle motor?



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    Default Re: New to me Partner 1H questions....

    $1800 would pay for a lot of tap holders and thread mills. Not 100% positive it's 10k as we haven't had the cover off the top yet, but the original parameter sheet from the factory says 10k and that it has a two speed pulley setup.

    Good to know on the spindle blow, it was common on most of the VMC's I've owned previously, just wasn't sure about this one. Thread milling is a nice way to go, and I do it on some of the threads I do, but I generally tap below 1/4".

    I haven't used Fusion much yet, few times I've tried, it was more frustration than it was worth for me. I use a simple program called Sheet Cam for all of my 2D work and I've found it to work well, but then I don't have 10k rpm and an enclosed machine, so I don't push things very hard on the old knee mill. I know Chris designs stuff in Fusion, so maybe he can get a better handle on the CAM side of things than I do.



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    In my playing I went as small as m3x1.0 and as big as 1/2-13 and 1/2npt. The npt was a bit of a pain because fusion lacks native taper threading.



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    Default Re: New to me Partner 1H questions....

    My late 94 P1H mechanical Manual only shows the 10K spindle with a CSM 12.5 or 15 HP motor .

    If you have a CSM spindle motor you have rigid tapping.



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    Default Re: New to me Partner 1H questions....

    I'm not sure what spindle drive it had originally, the parameter list shows 10k spindle, but the machine has had the drive replaced with a Yaskawa V1000 VFD, it's running Emerson AC Servo drives with Parker AC servos... near as I can tell from paperwork we have found in the original folder. As soon as we get it up to my son's place, we can remove the cover and check out the spindle motor hp and verify the rpm ranges, along with rigid tapping or not.



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    Default Re: New to me Partner 1H questions....

    If its a Yaskawa drive you will see an encoder belted to spindle next to drive belts to have rigid tapping .

    My P1H has a CSM which has feed back for rigid tapping inside spindle motor.



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    Default Re: New to me Partner 1H questions....

    Well, today was moving day, the rigger I use had a family emergency and it's taken a couple weeks to get the machine moved, but it's done and safely in my son's garage. We wired it up and it turned on but the monitor was dead (it worked last time I saw it), fortunately I had a spare flat screen from when I changed mine out, so we will fit it up. Motor is a 7.5 hp unit, has two belts, and two step pulley ranges, so even though the parameter sheet from the factory says 10,000 rpm, I suspect this will only go 6000. No rigid tapping unfortunately. Machine runs fine, moves around smoothly and tool changes fine, Chris will just have a ton of cleaning to do. Machine does have a 4" raiser in the column, so we were a bit worried it would fit through the 82" garage door, but it did with room to spare, we did have the fiberglas motor cover off though.

    New to me Partner 1H questions....-img_3469-jpg

    New to me Partner 1H questions....-img_3477-jpg

    New to me Partner 1H questions....-img_3482-jpg



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    Default Re: New to me Partner 1H questions....

    Upon closer checking, we might actually have a 10k rpm spindle. The machine had the speed parameter set for low and yet the belt was in the high position. So we swapped the parameter to Hi and it runs 6000 when commanded 6000 and speeds up considerably when commanded 10k. I'll have to take my digital tachometer up to confirm exactly, but it seems the spindle will run 10k.

    A couple of tool change questions, what is the procedure for setting the pockets on the carousel if they are off, right now you call T1 and it's actually indexed to T2. Do you need to home the carousel upon start up? Previous machines I've owned with a tool changer you did home the carousel, but not sure with the Milltronics software. Also, when using CAT 40 tooling, which way do you turn the holder, with the deeper notch into the tool changer pocket or the other way? Again, machines I've owned previous were all BT40 and it didn't matter.



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    Default Re: New to me Partner 1H questions....

    home the carousel that should set the pockets to correct position unless proximity switch is faulty. The shallow notch goes to the carousel.
    reset your tool tables to correct length and diameter as you build your tool tables per your tools you have.



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    Default Re: New to me Partner 1H questions....

    Found the home and it did set the carousel. Shallow side to the pocket, got it. Found out the coolant pump only runs when the spindle is running, knew that on my knee mill, but wasn't sure on this one. It's been leveled and is in the process of getting cleaned up, lots of caked on gunk from years of setting.

    Looks like I saw a Teleflex sticker on the from way covers, anybody rebuild theirs? Need rubber parts or what? What sort of fabric is on the roller shade style cover for the rear of the Y axis? This one isn't too bad of shape, but I wonder how long it will last.



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    Default Re: New to me Partner 1H questions....

    Call sportybob on the roller fabric and the wipers for way covers 952- 288-6340 , cant remember how much it was 8 years ago when I did mine but was much less than from factory.



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    Default Re: New to me Partner 1H questions....

    Well, it's been a few weeks, but we finally have Chris's machine running parts. I guess from the move, we lost the LCD screen, fortunately I had a spare from converting my mill and we got that fitted into the panel nicely. Chris also had a short in the proximity sensor on the tool carousel, fortunately that issue had been documented in this group a few years back (search Proximity) and we got some new sensors ordered and managed a work around with a magnetic proximity sensor while we wait for the correct one.

    I went up to his place (he's about an hour and a half from me) today and we sit up one of the parts we make for our products and got the machine running. It does have a 10k rpm spindle, took my electronic tachometer and 9000 called is running just under 9400rpm, so a little bit off, but not much at 1000, which is wehere most tapping will be done. We were able to double the rpm and triple most of the feed rates that I run these parts on my mill at. Parts turned out beautiful with a much better finish than I can get on my machine.

    We did have some issues with the tool lengths and realized that you have to program TXX M06 on one line and then G43 Hxx on the next line, I've always combine them on my knee mill and it evidently wouldn't take the length offset unless it was on a different line. Once we figured that out, things went smoothly.

    We put up a google album that has a lot of pictures from the beginning and a video of it running today.

    https://photos.app.goo.gl/FYvQYuVEfmihpyqP9



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New to me Partner 1H questions....

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