Cunliffe Horizontal Milling Machine

[Kevinb71]

Looks like a lot of adventures ahead! Seems to be a very well equipped machine.

 

[Brain Coral]

Well, before you go throwing it in the water, let me know.
i'd be tempted to go up to New Brunswick and fish it out of the drink!!!!
wiring in the RPC is the fun part, at least for me.
should you need any help figuring things out, i'd be happy to assist you in any way i can.
it looks like you aren't afraid to get down and dirty,
so i'll be very interested in seeing how this comes along.
good luck.

Thanks Doc,

I will certainly be looking for answers about the RPC in the near future.. .

Brian

 

[Brain Coral]

Looks like a lot of adventures ahead! Seems to be a very well equipped machine.

Hi Kevin,

Yes, it is a very well designed and built machine. I just hope that it runs... :bitingnails:


Brian

 

[Brain Coral]

Well, I'm back again...

I finally got stuff shifted around in the shop, built some shelves and moved the mill into it's resting place. I had posted some pics of that process in another thread, so I will only post a couple here as well.

Shelves built and mill moved...









I could see that the cord for the mill would reach the cord from my 5hp RPC, so I decided to see if it would start the mill in the low speed (4hp) setting. I first had to fill the main body sump with oil, as well as two other gear boxes. It fired right up, but was running in reverse, which meant that the oil pump would not be working. So I stopped the mill, unplugged it and exchange two wires in the plug and it ran in the proper direction. I put it through all of the gear speeds and feeds with everything working very well. I also tried the table feed and rapid traverse, which worked fine, but the "Y" axis feed is not quite engaging. I think that it has something to do with the vertical and cross-feed selector, which seems to be stuck in a neutral position.

I then put the arbor into the mill and the outboard support and made a cut in some aluminium plate. Nice smooth cut...



I have a fairly major oil leak where the transmission shaft exits the mill...



I'm not sure just how to remedy that, but for now, I'd better get my new 10hp phase converter wired up.

Cheers...

Brian

 

[Kevinb71]

Brian
You've got things set up nice there! I need to get some time and do that. It looks like you can get some things done now with the new machine!
Just to the right of the steady rest and follow rest is an item I am not sure what it is? it is the round item threaded at the bottom and has a chuck key? laying in the top. Is it a collet chuck? I can't tell from the pics.

 

[Brain Coral]

Hello Kevin,

Yes, that is a Burnerd collet chuck with an LO mount that fits my Colchester lathe. It is scroll tightened and takes these multisize collets that will hold any size from 1/16" to 1 1/2" and any size in between...





Brian

 

[Kevinb71]

Ah it was the LO mount that made it look different. Looks like it can come in handy!

 

[Brain Coral]

Well, I got the 10hp RPC all wired up but had the body sump drained of oil, due to that oil leak, so I couldn't test the RPC on the mill.

So I decided to see if the oil leak was from one of the allen cap screws holding this small casting over the transmission arm...



I could see that the lower cap screw was full of oil right into the threaded hole and surmised that that threaded hole went right through the casting and into the body sump. There appeared to be some remnants of a grey material on the threads of the cap screw. After cleaning all surfaces carefully, I applied a silicone gasket sealant to the threads of both cap screws and the casting contact areas. Impatient as I am, I went ahead and filled the body sump with oil, turned on the RPC and fired up the mill in low speed (4hp).

Yaaaaaaaaaaahhh... !!! No more oil leak... I put the mill through it's paces and tried a .125" cut with a .500"x6" cutter in aluminium and it performed like a champ. I then tried a .250" cut and no problems. I don't remember the feeds and speeds, but chips were flying and it still left a nice finish, in spite of the cutter being mounted on a bent arbor.

I decided to take all of the spacers off the arbor to clean everything up and to try and rule out junk between the spacers as one of the reasons for the runout. The last two spacers were very difficult to remove from the arbor and key, but once I had them off I discovered that this arbor had been cut in two at one point and joined back together.... :yikes: I'm not sure what is in the joint, but the key bridges the joint and was stuck in pretty good.

Looks like I will be looking for a NMTB 50 taper 1" arbor in the near future.

So far so good...

Brian

 

[Brain Coral]

Here's a bit of an update on the RPC and running the mill. After running on the low speed setting, I decided to try it on the high speed setting (8hp). It sounded like a jet plane winding up to power and then when it reached full speed, I engaged the clutch. Immediately, it tripped the main switch in the mill control panel and stopped, although the RPC was still running right along.

So, I reset the switch and tried it again with the same results. I tried it a third time and was successful in getting the clutch engaged and the spindle turning. I shut it back down and tried a different spindle speed. This time it shut down for good. There was the faint smell of smoke coming from the mill panel and upon opening the panel some smoke escaped. There was nothing obvious that was burnt so I checked all of the fuses. One of the three 50 amp fuses at the bottom had blown.



I have an aquaintance in England looking into obtaining some NOS fuses for me.

In the meantime.... do any of you have any ideas as to what might be going on to blow a 50 amp fuse in the high speed setting ?

I never did check the amps coming from each leg of the RPC but the voltages seemed fine. Maybe one of the motor contactors isn't disengaging in the high speed setting ?

I'm at a loss as to where to begin my troubleshooting at the moment.

Brian

 

[Ulma Doctor]

something smells a little fishy,
an 8 hp should run on about 25 amps , but will take more amps at first to get it spinning.
a 50 amp breaker should be sufficient.
was this mill running on 240v at it's last time in service?

as a precaution,
i would perform a full winding test with an ohm meter, both low and high speed sets.
the test is performed unplugged with the motor electrically disconnected, so there is no danger to you in performing the test.

i can walk you through the process if you need a hand.