Boxford 240 TCL Retrofit (Pic Heavy)

[ozo]

Hi All,

After 5 years of reading I thought it was about time I shared a project with everyone.
About 4 years ago I rescued a Boxford 240 TCL from a machinery dealer, these are a slant bed lathe that were originally supplied to schools in the UK & Ireland.
School lathes have an easy life, generally getting switched on once or twice a year to impress parents on open nights.
Apparently when the lathe was brought to the machinery dealers it was in perfect condition, but it lay and rusted for a few years before I got it.
The lathe originally ran on a BBC Micro, when I bought it someone had tried to butcher the electronics probably to try to get it working.
When I bought it, I ripped the old electronics boards out only saving the spindle drive board, I stuck in modern stepper drives and used Mach 3 for control and got the lathe running.
Then the Z Axis motor died, I had just started my own business and really didn’t have the time or money to sort the lathe out properly.
Fast forward to now, I run a business specializing in R&D and Product Design, I get tired of waiting on prototype parts coming back for me to take projects forward, not the machine shop’s fault, it’s just the way things are, everyone waits their turn.

So onto the lathe, it’s a fairly well built piece of kit, quite capable of light production work and importantly has an impressive 35mm thru spindle bore.
Here is a picture as the lathe sits.
Its just a place to set c**p on!




First thing to do is to strip it down...





Unfortunately the motor is shot. At least I'm not tore between the original and replacing with a 3 Phase AC and VFD combo.



Here the parts of the lathe stripped down



The lathe was bedded onto the stand with some type of mortar, anyone any idea what this would be?



The plan is to replace steppers motors, new drivers, 3 phase motor and vfd, Mach 3 to control. Flood coolant and ATC or Tool Plate on down the line.

TBC

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[ozo]

Next I needed to order the parts I would need to do the retrofit. I did consider using geckos but instead decided to support the UK based CNC suppliers.
So I ordered:


Nema 34 8.7Nm x 2No. (I had planned to use steppers with 4.1Nm of torque but I ran across a website which specialized in retrofitting these machines, the offered a 8.9Nm motor as a direct replacement.)

Stepper Drivers 6A x 2No.

600W PSU

Uniport Breakout Board

Spindle V4 board for controlling my spindle speed.

I have a Brook & Crompton 3Phase 2HP AC motor and a Power Commander SE VFD left over from a job that fell thru.
The Power Commander unfortunately is a 3 Phase - 3 Phase unit and not one that can run on either single or 3 Phase, I would ideally like to have the machine able to function from a 240V line but I can live for now with the current VFD and always change out at a later stage.

Here is some more progress on the lathe:

I stripped the paint and blew on a rough coat of primer to stop rust and help me see wheres needs more work. I'm not looking a bodyshop finish but I do want it looking respectable.

(I could take a bath in thinners but nitromors is still definitely nasty stuff)



Here is a pic of the bed and z axis cleaned and put back together without the ballscrews.



Got the rest of the lathe cleaned up, forgot to take some pics.
Received all the parts I had on order, I needed to bore out the axis drive pulleys to fit the stepper motors, so I quickly bored them on the lathe and then cut the start of the keyway on the mill, I then filed the keyway out square with a hand file.
Endmill wasn't ideal for the task but its the only 5mm cutter with enough flute length I had to do the job.







Next is to finish base, build motor mount and bench lathe before re assembling.

[shoot]

Next I needed to order the parts I would need to do the retrofit. I did consider using geckos but instead decided to support the UK based CNC suppliers.
So I ordered:


Nema 34 8.7Nm x 2No. (I had planned to use steppers with 4.1Nm of torque but I ran across a website which specialized in retrofitting these machines, the offered a 8.9Nm motor as a direct replacement.)

Stepper Drivers 6A x 2No.

600W PSU

Uniport Breakout Board

Spindle V4 board for controlling my spindle speed.

I have a Brook & Crompton 3Phase 2HP AC motor and a Power Commander SE VFD left over from a job that fell thru.
The Power Commander unfortunately is a 3 Phase - 3 Phase unit and not one that can run on either single or 3 Phase, I would ideally like to have the machine able to function from a 240V line but I can live for now with the current VFD and always change out at a later stage.

Here is some more progress on the lathe:

I stripped the paint and blew on a rough coat of primer to stop rust and help me see wheres needs more work. I'm not looking a bodyshop finish but I do want it looking respectable.

(I could take a bath in thinners but nitromors is still definitely nasty stuff)



Here is a pic of the bed and z axis cleaned and put back together without the ballscrews.



Got the rest of the lathe cleaned up, forgot to take some pics.
Received all the parts I had on order, I needed to bore out the axis drive pulleys to fit the stepper motors, so I quickly bored them on the lathe and then cut the start of the keyway on the mill, I then filed the keyway out square with a hand file.
Endmill wasn't ideal for the task but its the only 5mm cutter with enough flute length I had to do the job.







Next is to finish base, build motor mount and bench lathe before re assembling.

nice work ozo,did you get it finished?its the first time ive seen one stripped down they look a well built lathe for the size.

[ozo]

Hello Shoot,

We did finish the lathe, I just never got round to updating the thread. We ended up using linuxcnc & a dc motor rather than an ac with inverter. It can be quite deceiving looking at the footprint of the machine, they are well put together and really have the same sort of travel as a smaller "professional" lathe, 35mm thru bore and single phase is handy also! I sold this one and regretted it so much so that I have bought another one! A boxford 250 (3 phase) with a full gang tool setup came up recently so I ended up buying it too, currently building up the 240 and then I will make a start on the 250!

Regards,
Andy

[glidingskygod]

Hello Shoot,

We did finish the lathe, I just never got round to updating the thread. We ended up using linuxcnc & a dc motor rather than an ac with inverter. It can be quite deceiving looking at the footprint of the machine, they are well put together and really have the same sort of travel as a smaller "professional" lathe, 35mm thru bore and single phase is handy also! I sold this one and regretted it so much so that I have bought another one! A boxford 250 (3 phase) with a full gang tool setup came up recently so I ended up buying it too, currently building up the 240 and then I will make a start on the 250!

Regards,
Andy

Did you ever get your Boxford 250PC working. I am just about to remove all the electrics out of the cabinet. I am hoping to re use the stepper motors and put new controllers in with a break out board. Did you use the original spindle motor? I have the 2HP 3 speed pulley drive i can't find a 3hp motor to replace it. I am thinking of using Linux CNC as someone has written a macro for the turret for Linux