RF45 (MSC branded) with Ajax retrofit

[MikeC8]

Here are a couple pictures of the ways on the Z axis, which show how the bearings are tightened together. The threaded holes on the sides are only for mounting as far as I can tell. So I think the only way I will be able to adjust them, is to put shims in them.





I won't be taking the table apart this month, I have a project I am working on this month that I will need to mill a few small pieces for as I go.

[MikeC8]

Found out last night that my cheap import vise does not use standard 6" jaws. I needed to make some 3" tall soft jaws, and was just going to use the standard bolt spacing for kurt soft jaws. But I decided to check if the set of soft jaws I ordered the other week fit my vise, before I did anything. And sure enough, not even close. Thankfully I only bought one set of soft jaws, I was going to order more. Looks like I will be making a trip to the local metal supplier to pick up some aluminum bar stock and making my own soft jaws.

Is this common with the import vises?

[MikeC8]

I bought a digital height gauge the other week, so I can start measuring my tools off the machine. I tried it last night and reset my entire tool table, this is a huge time saver.

I also ordered a set of 10 ER20 collet holders off ebay, which I got the other night. I'm impressed with the quality of them so far. I also ordered a few collets from Dorian, Lyndex, and Techniks.

I need to make a larger tool holder now.



Using my edge finder as the zero height tool.



and measuring my offsets



I regret buying two 1/2" drill chucks, as most of my drilling will be under 1/4", but they work just fine.

[MikeC8]

Long over due update for this thread....

I installed a beltdrive from arizonavideo last summer, and it was well worth the wait.




Last fall I unplugged the mill with the intentions of rewiring the mess. I picked up a steel enclosure, and started thinking about how I would mount it, and where everything would go. A few months passed by, and I started thinking why not just upgrade the Ajax controls to the latest version. By making the upgrade, I would gain WCS, windows 7/8 support, and the ability to transfer my files either through the network, or USB memory sticks. After weighing my options for about a month, I placed the order for the upgrade, and built a new smaller PC to go with it.

I've slowly been plugging away at it, but its starting to come along. I mounted the box on the left side of the mill. The signal wires are all wrapping around the front.



The wiring is coming together inside the enclosure. All of the wires will be labeled, routed cleanly, and secured in place. You can see some of them are labaled and secured already.



I will be using this cable panel for the servo power and encoders, along with my control pendant cable.





I am also redoing the Z axis counterweight system. It was to wide before, and would not allow me to run the electrical enclosure on the side. After pulling the counterweight cross bar out, I needed to trim it down. So I tossed it in the bandsaw, I love cutting solid steel bar on this thing.



Here are the two drops next to a 123 block, cuts looked very square for a bandsaw cut. No complaints here.



And here is the bar along with the steel plates I will be bolting to it.





I am hoping to finish up the limit switch wiring, and a few loose ends on the PLC. Then run power to the box, and start testing the servos.

[MikeC8]

Been working on the new computer swing arm. Moved it over to the right side.



Tucks in nicely behind the table for storage.



Once the machine is up and running, I will probably add a dedent plate on the pivot.

[engnerdan]

I considered going with a smaller ball screw, but the ways are very tight. I was not able to move the table at all with the ball screw removed. And from what I can tell, the only adjustment on these ways would be to shim them? I have not been able to find any information on this style of linear bearing.

Do you have a lube pump on this machine? One that oils the ways and ball screws?

It looks like you have a seriously nice base machine. heavy duty "Box Ways" and 38mm ball screws.

If you are looking to re-ball the ball nuts. You can do it yourself. But first I would get the ball nut out so we can see what you are working with. I just did a couple ball nuts and it was not too bad. The hard actually is measuring the balls. Loose balls measured by a ball bearing manufacturer are going to be measured optically and this is not the same as you will measure with a micrometer.

I bought my replacement balls here
items in store on eBay!

I ended up making a correlation spreadsheet to correlate the measurements I made and the measurements from the ball vendor.



I would start by going up only 0.0001-0.0002" to start with.

-Dan

[MikeC8]

It does have a manual oil pump, and I give it a few shots before every use. You can see the glimmer from the coat of oil on the ways in my pictures.

I had the ball nut out last summer when I was chasing down the source of the slop. Had I known I could get balls that cheap on ebay, I might have reballed it when I had it out.

[MikeC8]

I finally got my mill running the other weekend, and finished the computer console last week. Took awhile to to everything setup and running smooth, but its good to have it back.




Made a prototype part over the weekend, and everything worked great. The only hickup I had, was I had forgotten to enter a tool height offset into my tool library. That ended in a broken drill bit, with most of the bit stuck in a brand new soft jaw... and one ruined part.



I also picked up a Tormach superfly, and noticed my Y axis is out of tram.



I spent about a hour dialing in it, but after another test cut it was still off some. I will probably try adusting it again tonight.

[MikeC8]

Working on adding a PDB, so I will need to make some new brackets to mount my motor. I will most likely make them at work, so I do not have to put mine back together with the old brackets, only to have to take it back apart again to swap them out.



I printed the back half of the brackets to make sure everything fits and clears properly.



I need to drill and tap my top plate to accept the new brackets. Then I can bolt on the printed brackets and make sure everything looks right with the motor in place.

And I need to design the plates for the PDB.

[Chophead69]

The jaws for kurt vises are different from other import vises. I have a gilbartar vise and even that is different from my kurt. I have a 5in shars with a swivel plate (my 1st) the 6in gilbartar and I just brought the 6in kurt!
I brought the gilbartar using overtime money from work and ordered it from msc. It's nicer by far then the shars but it's no kurt. I wish I would have returned it and got the Kurt but I didn't. Even the height is different so I have to use different home made parallels when I need the 2 on my mill. But since I have 2 mills I won't complain and the 5in is now used for angle cuts.
I find making aluminum jaws is better then buying them. I buy 6th of aluminum stock and I made a few sets for each vise. I can circle mill them to hold round parts or even pockets. I also step them so I don't need parallels. I have 6in tall ones to. They come in handy.
The belt drive setup seems really nice. Does the software you use control spindle speed? Is this a 3axis?I ask because I couldn't see a stepper or servo anywhere. I have a cnc masters baron I am trying to retrofit a new controller to run mach3 but I can't seem to find any help here at all. Anyway nice mill

[MikeC8]

Machining soft jaws is easier now that I have a fly cutter to face all 4 sides. But I think I will be investing more money into mitee bite clamps, rather than buy a Kurt.

My controller does control the spindle speed. Though right now if I change the belt ratio I have to change the parameters for my spindle speed in the controller. I know it's capable of switching between high in low via a switch. That's on my list of things to do yet.


And it is a 3 axis. The z axis servo is behind the motor. The ball screw is inside the column. I have also removed the quill lever.

I have never used mach 3, I've only read about others using it. There is plenty of info out there on what parts they use if you dig into more build threads. The Ajax controller I use is more along the lines of what you see in industrial CNC machines. There are features that our hurcos have, that I wish my Ajax had. But there are also some features that my Ajax has, that I wish hurcos had.

[Chophead69]

I sent a message again to Arizonavideo about the beltdrive setup but I have not heard back from him since I 1st talked to him. It's a definite mod I will do either as a kit or just do myself if I could find out more information about how to make or buy the pulleys for it. The spindle also has to be modified right?

Also without sounding stupid why do you need to cut all 4 sides of the jaws? I normally but 1x2 or 1x6 or even 2x2 aluminum 6061 stock and cut it to what ever length I need.either 6in long or even longer depending on the part I need to do. I might clean up one edge on the fix and movable jaw for relocation purposes only. Since I either mill a step or what ever profile I need to hold my part I leave the rest alone. 6061 bar stock normally comes pretty flat and I don't believe I have ever had to cut all 4 sides.

I found a 1200 Oz 3 axis kit I am thinking about buying but I am unsure of the power supply to go with. Do you know by chance the size of yours?

And I found a bit of information on the Web on how to make those myte bit clamps. They seem real easy to make and alot cheaper. I do believe I will make some this weekend. I have a 1.500 thick piece of aluminum that's cut the same size as my zx45 table and I am doing a 1/2-13 with 3/8 dowel pin holes on a grid pattern for a permanent fixture plate. I will also have it hard anodized to cut down on corrosion between the table and plate. I worked in alot of shops where fixture plates were the way to go so I guess I became a custom to it.

[MikeC8]

Arizonavideo is a busy man, I think it took 6 months to get my kit. But it's worth the wait.

On the soft jaws it's a mix of things. Ocd, pride, good machining practice. One side might be good enough, but I feel that machining all sides helps develope better habits.

I could not find any info on my power supply, it was part of the kit from Ajax. Ask the place that sells the kit you are looking at what they recommend.

[MikeC8]

Since I am waiting on parts for the PDB, I decided to pull the Y axis ballnut assembly out. I pulled everything out last night, and I could not feel any noticeable slop in the ballnut. So I put everything back on tonight, and measured the backlash on the table, and the ballscrew. The ballscrew had 0.0010" of backlash (I did not want to give it to much preload as the bearings were dry). And the table had 0.0045" of backlash. I will be empty the ballnut and measure/count the first dozen or so out of each circuit, then empty and count the rest.

Here are some pictures.

The backlash measured off the table


And the ballscrew backlash


And here is what my thrust bearing setup looks like.


And here it is again, but stacked up.


And the ballscrew


I don't know if replacing the tapered roller bearings will help, or if I just need to grease them and apply the proper pre-load. Right now I am leaning towards just reballing the ballnut, and measure my backlash after that. If I am still getting over 0.0005" backlash on the ballscrew, then I will try new tapered bearings as well.

[MikeC8]

Finally working on this again, started machining the brackets at work. Going to cut the other one after work today, and hopefully bolt them on my mill this weekend.





I still need to rebuild my Y axis ballnut, the first bearings I ordered were to big. I am going to order some more this weekend.

[arizonavideo]

That motor stand off looks sweet.

I found on the Y that some backlash is just the slide rocking rather than moving. That's a rather nice looking Y screw that looks ground. Can't have too much lash there.

[MikeC8]

I think most of it is from the thrust bearing setup.... Not sure how I can improve the design/setup of it though. I know that supporting the tail end of the leadscrew would help. But that would require getting the end of the screw ground for a bearing.

[MikeC8]

Finally bolted the plates on top of the spindle head. Now I just need to take them back off, and drill and tap a few holes along the top edge.

And I finally ordered some more balls to rebuild the ballnut. The large ones measured 0.1249, so I ordered some 0.1250 balls. Hopefully I can get it rebuilt this weekend.

[MikeC8]

Starting to put things back together, ended up bead blasting the brackets.

[MikeC8]

Turned out I ordered the wrong size belt... Had a 260, ordered a 300 which was far to big. I got a 280 belt today, which fit as I intended in cad.

The touch screen install was fairly painless. I did have to change the default resolution, and then redo the touch calibration. But I do like having the ability to navigate the system using the touch screen.



I also started squaring up some steel plate for the power drawbar. I just used the MDI, 1 line of code at a time until it was square. Having the Kurt D688 was nice for this part, as it had no problem holding the 8" plate.