NEW MILL TURN ARRIVED

[n1tr0]

That's one way to make the delays feel more like a bonus
Just got a confirmation that the oiler upgrade will be included on my order as well. What other upgrades did they mention to you ?

[smallblock]

JT had given me that info on the QT and didn't expect me to post it- Sorry JT-

[smallblock]

The oiler system will be for the X and Y carriages and the X and Y ball screws. The Z axis runs on linear rails and those plus the 2 ball screws are easily accessible for manual oiling.

[sharpshooter90]

Shopmaster/Shoptask has always been good at listening to customer ideas and adding them to the machines whenever practical. You might find some more pleasant surprises when your machine arrives.

[dstevens]

The status of new machines is 'in testing' and shipment from China is being arranged. I'd estimate at least a month.

[n1tr0]

The shipment/tracking info has the container-load arriving in LA Oct. 15th. I'm guessing another couple weeks to get them off-loaded, turned around, and re-shipped out after that.
I'd love to see some more videos & insights of others 2015 Shopmasters while we wait.

[Dylan Hunt]

I'm looking for detailed information on the height of the 2015 Shopmaster mill-turn machine from someone who has one. The website says 82" + 1" for leg levelers. From the photos, it appears that the mill's spindle motor/housing is several inches higher than the bridge. I'm trying to find out if just the spindle motor/housing is (up to) 82/83 inches high and the dimensions of the housing along with the height of the bridge.

The reason is that I'm considering placing it in a basement where the distance from the floor to a suspended ceiling is 80.5" and floor to bottom of joists is 83.25". I'm trying to determine whether I'd need to take out a whole or part of a 2X4' tile or do something more. If need be, I could also use an alternative to the included bench that's a few inches shorter.

While I expect that many could speculate on the height, it would be most helpful if someone with the machine could share some insight.

Thanks

[dstevens]

The highest part is the top of the spindle motor. With the Z up as high as it will go, I measured 81.7" from the ground to motor top. That was with the base on the castors, so when leveled on the feet call it 82".
You options would be to 1) not use the full Z axis 2) make a cutout for the spindle motor (about 10x10") 3) take off the castors and drop the base down an inch or two. The feet are fairly tall.
Hope this helps.

[Dylan Hunt]

Thanks dstevens for the height info. Removing a ceiling tile should work as a temporary/indefinite solution for the height clearance. As it happens, I also have a narrow doorway to get through. I now plan to uncrate and separate the machine/bench and likely mount the machine on some type of suitable pallet to move. I'll have an opportunity to measure everything before moving it into the area to setup.

[smallblock]

You should be fine, the highest fixed part of the machine is 71"- that is the top cover. The mill motor will go up another 12" at its max height, so you could position the machine so the motor is between 2 joists. You also need about 6" clearance above the top cover to lift it up and off for servicing the upper belt,so your 80.5" will be plenty. Looks like you will get by with just lifting 1 tile up and inch or so.

[dstevens]

What motor speeds are people using? X & Y rapid seemed ok at anything up to 75 in/s with acceleration 0.5, so I set mine to 50 in/s acceleration 0.5. Z was ok at 25 in/s but there is a big difference going up or down, and acceleration needs to be lower, so I'm using 20 in/s and 0.1.
The spindle will not run below about 500 rpm, triggering an over current error on the VFD. From 500-3000 rpm (highest I went) the current seems normal (4-6 amps). What is the maximum spindle speed? At 3000 rpm there's a lot of pulley noise so I have not gone higher.

[smallblock]

The overcurrent error usually is the result of codes P0-009 and P0-010 being set too low. Those are the acceleration and deceleration times for your spindles and anything less than 1.5 seconds, the motors simply can't get up to speed that fast. Sort of like trying to start out in 4th gear.

[dstevens]

Thanks. It was the P0-013, P0-014 and P0-015 settings. The pulley noise was a combination of the spindle pulley being a little loose and the belt being a little loose. Now it runs 150 - 5000 rpm just fine.

[n1tr0]

What motor speeds are people using? X & Y rapid seemed ok at anything up to 75 in/s with acceleration 0.5, so I set mine to 50 in/s acceleration 0.5. Z was ok at 25 in/s but there is a big difference going up or down, and acceleration needs to be lower, so I'm using 20 in/s and 0.1.

Thanks for that. My DRO was defective, so I'm waiting on a fix/replacement before I start pushing the movement speeds for fear of missing steps. I'm also wondering exactly what sort of oil people are using in the one-shot oiler ? It looks like it's plumbed to the ball-screws, so I'm not sure that 'way oil' is the right stuff to be pumping through it. The ball screws on other equipment I have usually require a heavier grease.

[dstevens]

I asked JT about oil and he recommended marvel mystery oil.

[dstevens]

Any idea how to tram the table and spindle? Mine has a slight lip when milling parallel face cuts, which would be the spindle to table angle.

[Rocketman]

How do you know your tail stock height was dead on? The proper way to check that is to put a center in the chuck and another in the tail stock and then move them together so the points touch one another and then clamp the tail stock down to see if it stays put. Since the table is so big on these machines you can't get the tail stock any where close to the chuck even when it's fully extended! I'd try the taper extender to get the centers closer but Shopmaster failed to include it with my machine even though it was supposed to be included with my new machine. Anyone reading these threads without a Shopmaster machine, I'd suggest you buy something else.

[n1tr0]

What motor speeds are people using? X & Y rapid seemed ok at anything up to 75 in/s with acceleration 0.5, so I set mine to 50 in/s acceleration 0.5. Z was ok at 25 in/s but there is a big difference going up or down, and acceleration needs to be lower, so I'm using 20 in/s and 0.1.

I was just setting up my machine parameters in HSMWorks and I was going to use your rapid speeds in fields set to specify the maximum feedrates when I noticed a big difference in units; are you sure that wasn't ~75in/min on the feed rather than in/s ?

What sort of maximum feed rates is everyone else using?

Also, just got my repaired DRO back and hooked up. Can anyone tell me if the Y-values should be increasing or decreasing when moving the table towards the front of the machine.

[smallblock]

Your feed rates should be in inches per minute. On my machine I found the following to be reliable with no lost steps
Y axis 80 inches per minute
Z axis 12 inches per minute
X axis in the original configuration with 2-1 reduction it was 40 inches per minute, but I changed the motor pulley and belt and went 1-1 drive and now run 60 inches per minute.
These are the designations in the mill mode

My DRO has a plus and minus button to set the direction of the travel.

[Rocketman]

Your feed rates should be in inches per minute. On my machine I found the following to be reliable with no lost steps
Y axis 80 inches per minute
Z axis 12 inches per minute
X axis in the original configuration with 2-1 reduction it was 40 inches per minute, but I changed the motor pulley and belt and went 1-1 drive and now run 60 inches per minute.
These are the designations in the mill mode
My DRO has a plus and minus button to set the direction of the travel.

Your not going to help sell many machines by telling people the Z axis rapid rate is 12 inches per minute. I've been a fan of Gecko drives for years and I don't think I've ever heard of anyone getting such poor results. I've got gecko's running far older and slower steppers on a Terco Swiss mill at more than twice that speed and it's running with an under powered power supply. I also retrofit a D and M lathe with Gecko's and it too will out perform the speeds and feeds your getting. The Shopmaster machines have many faults but the steppers, power supplies and Gecko drives are not to blame.

My Patriot has so much slop I found when I tightened up the gibs to an acceptable level of play things were then almost too tight to move. There's not much you can do about it. Either loosen things up and live with the slop or run at slow speeds to maximize the torque of the steppers. Your going to need plenty of torque to run without the slop if yours is made anything like mine. Forget about the factory settings. Unless you have everything loose if will never run at those settings.