New mill Wells-Index 745

Well everyone today, this wells-index 745 project was finally brought to completion. I would have got this done sooner had it not been for COVID. But this week I hired an automation specialist and he wired up a VFD to run my mill, includes a tachometer and some other features. I made a few chips today to test out the mill and it works great. I'm super excited to have the mill up and running.
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So at least for now I guess that concludes this project. Time to start buying tooling and making chips!
 
Well everyone today, this wells-index 745 project was finally brought to completion. I would have got this done sooner had it not been for COVID. But this week I hired an automation specialist and he wired up a VFD to run my mill, includes a tachometer and some other features. I made a few chips today to test out the mill and it works great. I'm super excited to have the mill up and running.
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So at least for now I guess that concludes this project. Time to start buying tooling and making chips!
Absolutely beautiful work. You should be pleased for many years to come.

Regards,
Terry
 
Congrats on a job well done!
 
Thanks guys, I'm pretty excited to finally have an operational Mill after 2 years. I think it will do everything I will ask of it.
 
Those are beautiful. Can you share a link where you got them? And what did you do to remove the chome? Scotch Bright pads?

My apologies I totally missed this question,I know I'm way late but wanted to give you an answer. I used a 3M multi-surface wheel on my 8in bench buffer. Followed up with some Black then red polishing compound on a cloth polishing wheel.

I think they were from MSCdirect but I can't remember for sure.
 
No, it doesn't hurt at all to plug/unplug or to switch on/off. In fact, that's exactly what I've done. I put a 220V Double Pole 20A switch between the wall and the VFD so I can switch it on/off as I didn't want to leave it powered up all the time and unplugging was a little hard to get to in my garage.

Interestingly, I've read many people say they leave their VFD powered on always (for many years straight) with no issues. The VFD isn't doing any work until you've pressed the start button. Only then does it actually produce the power for the motor. Other than that it's just the leds on the display. I don't even think it generates any heat passively but someone may correct me if I'm wrong.

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You were most correct the automation specialist I hired to do the wiring confirmed that so long as the motor was not running it would not harm the VFD to turn the power off to it. Mine has a cooling fan so definitely don't want it running all the time. He made a 4 way switch for my 220V power supply. The 4 options are 1.all outlets off 2. Oven powered, 3 VFD/mill powered 4. welder plug powered.
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NVM that yellow wire, it is not powered and was for a machine that never ended up in the shop.

I'm glad I hired the wiring out. You guys that do this are talented. The automation specialist was in my workshop for 2 full days figuring it out and wiring it. He only charged for 4 hours as per his quote, but I gave him a bonus since he was there for 2 full days.
 
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Well everyone today, this wells-index 745 project was finally brought to completion. I would have got this done sooner had it not been for COVID. But this week I hired an automation specialist and he wired up a VFD to run my mill, includes a tachometer and some other features. I made a few chips today to test out the mill and it works great. I'm super excited to have the mill up and running.
View attachment 333985View attachment 333986View attachment 333987View attachment 333989
So at least for now I guess that concludes this project. Time to start buying tooling and making chips!
Thanks @dmittz for the replies. Your project looks absolutely fantastic. I love the look of the wiring and enclosure etc. It would be awesome to hear some additional details about the VFD if you wouldn't mind sharing. Make/Model... Would love to see the inside of the box too. I'm interested to know how the automation guy did the RPM as well.

And just to understand how you have the buttons set up... I see a Motor Run and Stop as well as a potentiometer (lower right) and the emergency stop. So does that mean to power on the VFD, you'll set the 4 position 220 switch to the Mill/VFD position and then use the motor run/stop buttons to turn on/off the spindle/VFD? And the potentiometer to control the speed of the spindle by varying the frequency? If so, I assume the physical on/off switch (upper left of the head) doesn't do anything now or is just always in the on position. I guess i'm indirectly asking if you're planning on using the gearing in the head at all for high/low speed torque scenarios or if you're leaving the gearing to a mid-range setting and then using the potentiometer to adjust torque/speed.

I opted against using the potentiometer method to control the speed of my motor as I figured the gearing in the head of mine would be a better (or at least more native) method of controlling the torque/speed of the spindle than manipulating the speed of the motor by varying the frequency/Hz. I'm not suggesting that's a wrong approach as i've read of others doing the same although mostly on machinery that had lower torque requirements. Things like wood lathes and drill presses. In my situation, that effectively means I need 3 positions to control my mill (On (fwd), Off, On (rev)). It's hard to make out in my picture from earlier in the thread but there's a grey 3 conductor wire that goes to a 3 position switch on mine. I programmed the VFD accordingly based on which position it was in.

Thanks again for sharing the great content.
 
I'm jealous, @dmittz . I'm jealous of that beautiful machine and your resolve. On behalf of everyone I'd also like to thank you for taking your time to post the pics and write ups along the journey. Beautiful job! :encourage::encourage::encourage:
 
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