slowly tooling up again

[jacquesm]

So, after two years of being a 'street mechanic' and bumming other peoples garage space I'm slowly getting to the point where I can do something again

The last couple of weeks have been spent scrounging around here looking for old but useable CNC stuff, I've found this machine:

A 1980's bridgeport, the controls are blown but the machine itself is still in excellent shape.

After putting out a call for a lathe someone closeby offered

this old weiler, weighing in at 2 metric tonnes! The electronics were already ripped out, as well as an elderly deckel

(1967!!)

Which they'd already started to convert to CNC using stepper motors, but it

turned out to be a bit more work than they anticipated.

The Deckel is already at it's new home, it's the lightest machine of the three

so I figured I'd start moving that one, but at 'only' 1000 Kg or thereabouts it

still took me a whole day to get it here. The problem was that there was very

little clearance above the machine to the roof of the shed that it is in now

so unloading was like one of those japanese puzzles, only with much larger pieces

Tomorrow a friend of mine will come and together we're going to pick up

the lathe, the big Bridgeport will live at his place because there is no

way it will fit here.

The deckel actually started it's life as a grinder, it does not have machined

ways but ways with rollers! The bed is not very large, but with the bridgeport

as a backup I don't think that's going to be a problem.

So, the next couple of weeks / months I'll be spending on getting all the

electronics working again and writing / adapting CNC software. I'll be

documenting the process in case anybody is interested in doing something

similar.

I don't have much power here, only a single phase,, 16A at 220V, so I'll be

using some variable frequency drives to run the spindles and I have

to change the spindle motors from star to delta. Also there won't

be power enough to run both machines at the same time, and running

a plasma table like the one that I built in Canada is not going to

be easy so that will have to wait for a while. The plasma + compressor

used about 12 KW, I'll have to get the electricity company in before

I can even think about something like that.

On the renewable energy front the local planning office has a habit of

not allowing anything, so we'll see what it takes to get a windmill

up. Right now the plan is to put it up 'decoratively' at first, see

if they notice and / or make a fuss and then slowly spin it up

Guerilla tactics for renewables.

[Bruce S]

jacquesm;

 Good equipment you have there. IS that blue motor off to the side of the decker a candidate?

Good luck with the planning commitee :-)

Bruce S

[hvirtane]

Hello,

really nice to hear that you are in the business again.

Your machinery looks nice. Are you going to make blades?

- Hannu

[jacquesm]

hey Bruce

that's the pump motor on a very nice grinder. The grinder is for sale, the pump will go  with it

I did pick up a nice 7.5 KW motor though !

It's 3 phase 380 V two speeds, about 80 Kg

The stuff is old but I think it's in pretty good condition, I did not pay too much for it but I'll be busy for a long time to get it working properly.

[dlenox]

jacquesm,

Good start, I have a G3616 knee-mill

and a G4016 metal lathe (13-1/2" x 40") with 10" chuck, shipping weight was about 1600lbs

Both are manual, but work fine for medium sized work.  I do have plans on making the milling machine CNC - as my background is CNC programmer.  While not commercial quality (and about 1/2 the weight) they can do as much as I can throw at them.

I also have a 300watt square-wave TIG unit, 250 amp MIG unit and a 40amp plasma torch (not to mention my wood shop that I also have...)

Between the metal and wood working tools there is not much that I can't do.

Your equipment will be nice once you get it running.  Moving this size equipment can be brutal, hope you have proper truck and equipment to lift on/off!!!

I assume that you are going commercial?

I'm sure that you know that you can spend considerable amount of money on vices/tooling/ etc...

Dan Lenox

[tecker]

Go man Go

[jacquesm]

Wow, that's some really nice gear you have there. Light is ok, as long as you're not in a hurry. In the immortal words of RonB: "increased feed and cut depth are no substitute

for proper planning"

Would you mind if I threw heaps of questions at you while developing the software ? I've been out of the CNC field for 20 years or so, with one project in between (the CNC plasmacutter) but that didn't use any 'regular' programs to control it.

The machines above will all share a common controller.

About going commercial, I have to do something I've been involved in lots of web projects over the last two years, but I find it harder and harder to enjoy. So, I'm trying to revive my old skills and to see if there is a market for retrofit controllers that will put 80's equipment that is mechanically solid but electrically broken back into service. The market seems to be flooded with gear like that.

I'm not sure if that's a viable business but I think it is worth a try, worst case I end up with some nice equipment, best case it will turn into a small business.

I have some ideas about what a controller could be like, such as having an embedded web server for job control and such as well as simulation capabilities to quickly validate your program or design. We'll see if it flies

The first machine on the 'operating table' is the deckel, it's the smallest so the

easiest by far to work on, and also it is already quite close to completion and

relatively simple. The biggest problem will be to adapt the z-axis. Probably I'll

try to hook a stepper to the pinole, but there is quite a bit of slop on the

handwheel that's there and I'm not sure if that's something that I can get rid of

easily.

I'm well aware of the fact that the tooling usually costs about as much as what you

paid for the machine  Fortunately there is quite a bit of tooling with this machine,

and because it's going to be computer controlled I won't need things like indexing

tables.