Knee sorted, as is pretty much the whole machine - I've cut metal with it, but not spent a deal of time testing it for accurracy. It cuts nice, but I haven't managed to run the spindle and the table together yet (not sorted the drives out yet).
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Seadog
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Tonight I had a play with the larger vsd, both the milling head and the bed drive connected. So did some cutting, firstly with a rough old end mill, and then with a nice sharp slot drill. Well what a racket - the blunt end mill just made so much noise in the quill it really pee'd me off. I'm guessing it's because the timken bearing at the top is not clamped or spacered - it just sits on the shaft with finger tight tension, held by tabbed washer.
The sharp slot drill by comparison was quiet and cut cleanly as expected. The table drive was at its fastest setting, cutting mild steel, dry. It cut well, still need some work to set the head, too many ways adjustable.
Some pics later.
Little mill now has all its handwheels, I was short of a 185 thou key for one, so I made one. Bit of a faff. Then I remembered I'd borrowed it for the Richmond...
I have to say it's a delight to use, all the controls are sensibly placed, it all works well
I have to say it's a delight to use, all the controls are sensibly placed, it all works well
And so it goes on. Today I spent an age tightening the clamp at the bottom of the spindle, to crush the needle bearing. Initially I had over a though of side to side, managed to eliminate it all. Stil had over a thou of up and down. So I dropped the quill out again. I marked the nut before removing it to inspect the timken bearing. It eeds replacing, it's not serious, but the rollers are marked slightly. For now though I packed it with grease and put it all back together, tightened it back up and test ran it.
The search for a new bottom adjustable needle bearing goes on, so far the only people who I can find making these are ntn in the States..
The search for a new bottom adjustable needle bearing goes on, so far the only people who I can find making these are ntn in the States..
Time for an update, seeing as I've spent a couple of hours on this today, essentially tidying up the wiring.
But first, the replacement gear is in the notcher, cover is on and it works. Yes I need to borrow some o/a brazing gear to repair the corners of the gearbox cover, but that will come. Also need to sort out some cutters.
Back to the 'letrics.
I'm running this off one single inverter, since none of the motors is over a kW I don't see an issue with this. It has a table drive, head motor and notcher. If I ever decide to use coolant I'll rig a little squirty dosing pump up.
What I don't want though are cables hanging everywhere like a fairground, so the idea is to use the socket panel provided on the side, with the head or the notcher on plugs, as they were from the factory.
There is a problem though, there is no earth pin, or rather no socket for the earth pin, I think the spring loaded brass "ears" are meant to provide this, and I can't strip the plugs to clean them. Anyone seen these things before?
But first, the replacement gear is in the notcher, cover is on and it works. Yes I need to borrow some o/a brazing gear to repair the corners of the gearbox cover, but that will come. Also need to sort out some cutters.
Back to the 'letrics.
I'm running this off one single inverter, since none of the motors is over a kW I don't see an issue with this. It has a table drive, head motor and notcher. If I ever decide to use coolant I'll rig a little squirty dosing pump up.
What I don't want though are cables hanging everywhere like a fairground, so the idea is to use the socket panel provided on the side, with the head or the notcher on plugs, as they were from the factory.
There is a problem though, there is no earth pin, or rather no socket for the earth pin, I think the spring loaded brass "ears" are meant to provide this, and I can't strip the plugs to clean them. Anyone seen these things before?
Agroshield
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Electrical connectors look like they might be these:
Can you check earth continuity with a meter to determine its rightful path?The picture with the pins face up has a 3 + 1 arrangement, so would that not be the three phases and earth being the round one with screwdriver slot?
Edit:
Another source of info. is this: http://www.cablejoints.co.uk/upload/Reyrolle.pdf
It confirms that what I wrote above and have now crossed out is completely wrong. The spring-loaded pins are indeed the earth, referred to as a 'scraping earth' in the documents. The slotted pin is the pilot connection.
If you are sufficiently interested, you can find a pdf copy of BS196 online at: https://cupdf.com/document/bs196.html
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Can you check earth continuity with a meter to determine its rightful path?
Edit:
Another source of info. is this: http://www.cablejoints.co.uk/upload/Reyrolle.pdf
It confirms that what I wrote above and have now crossed out is completely wrong. The spring-loaded pins are indeed the earth, referred to as a 'scraping earth' in the documents. The slotted pin is the pilot connection.
If you are sufficiently interested, you can find a pdf copy of BS196 online at: https://cupdf.com/document/bs196.html
Last edited:
Yep, the “earth” pin does nothing but locate the plug. I’ve tested earth continuity and the brass “ears” work, but I think the whole machine will also have an earth which goes back to the inverter supply. I would be a lot happier if there was an earth in the socket.
Good link that, thanks.
This has been playing second fiddle to my motor home rebuild, but today I got around to connecting up and setting the parameters for the Siemens VFD. Oddly, it wouldn’t latch the run signal - press the run switch, it started, let it go, it stopped. So the simple answer was to use it’s own relay output in parallel to the run switch. All worked fine. I haven’t set up a remote speed control potentiometer, will use the up/down buttons on the drive for this.
Should add that this is the inverter from a skip, maybe 15 years ago that had the exploding mains noise suppression capacitors. I changed four or five with new ones from Farrell. Something very satisfying about rescuing old stuff like this.
So, a question for turret mill users on a VFd - is using the up/down buttons on the drive the best option? Or do I need a potentiometer for speed control?
So, a question for turret mill users on a VFd - is using the up/down buttons on the drive the best option? Or do I need a potentiometer for speed control?
Agroshield
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The buttons on a VFD are best thought of as for infrequent use. Simliarly, the VFD has a very low IP rating, so would more normally be placed in an enclosure and more industrial-quality (remote) controls used. You have to decide how likely and how serious it is if you wear out the keypad from too many oily-finger pokings.
Hmmm, it doesn’t need to be protected - it will sit on a chipboard wall next to the machine, high up enough that the slotting head doesn't hit it as I rotate it . I expect to be setting the motor speeds before starting a job and leaving them there - The machine has a 5 way pulley range as well as a low/high splitter. We’ll see how it goes for now I think.
This is confessions time as well tbh - I have bought an electric guitar and 7 string neck to modify and fit, so I will be using the mill on high speed to do some wood bothering.... I promise to cover the lead screw and clean it all thoroughly when I’m finished! Might start a thread all on its own...
Didn't know you played guitar. A man of many talents!
Lol, I don’t. I have short fat fingers, and am learning to play, and finding it extremely hard to play chords on the Yamaha electric I have. So I need a wider spacing between the strings. A 7 string neck, with a modified (6 instead of 7 slots) gives you an added 8mm total across the 6 strings.
Agroshield
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Is there a parameter in the VFD for this? Perhaps the factory default setting or the previous owner's setting is not high enough.
