New Guy, New Mill (pm940)

mrbasher said:
Well I've officially dived in head first... (Dove? Don't think that's right)
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Yup, ''Dove'' is correct (past tense of dive) ;) That's OK, we don't subtract points for misused words.:grin:

That is some serious hardware you have coming. Should make a really nice setup, you're not going to run out of feed power.:) Looking forward to seeing the finished product.:encourage:

Those would be very happy running a 10x50 mill or bigger. I'm installing new 750W servos on a customer's 120x60 MultiCam router next week. I'm expecting 500 IPM rapids and up to 200 IPM cutting.
 
:D Reminds me of another word, which sounds totally wrong when said correctly. I just can't remember what it is.

Thank you for the comments. You obviously know what you're doing and it gives me hope I'm headed in the right direction. I do realize that what I have purchased is likely overkill, especially for what I am doing right now. However, I done like being disappointed when I am the one in control and right now I am in control. :) Mostly.

I'm not entirely sure how it will go but I really would like to just go direct drive. What I don't know is if the motor will fit on the Y axis to do that. Mounting it out aways will help of course, it won't be right up against the base anyhow. Though I just checked the model jbolt sent over and if my mill is like his, which it seems to be very close actually, the motor I purchased is just slightly too high. I need to measure my mill to be sure of course.
 
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Today I researched couplings for the ball screws and servos. Man there is a lot of stuff out there. In the process, I realized I somehow ordered keyed shafts on the 750 watt servos and a smooth shaft on the 1.3kW motor. I finally decided it would be better to have them all be slotted in case I end up going that route. In talking with DMM, they didn't have any of the slotted 1.3kW motors in stock and offered to just send me the 1.8kW motor instead as they had them in stock with a keyed shaft. So now, I have their largest servo coming for my Z axis. Sheesh. :)

The VFD showed up today from PM. It's a Hitachi WJ200-015SF. I have to say, there is NO comparison between this and the VFD that came with my router. None. Tons of inputs on it, configurations, etc. Super well built, at least from what I can see.

I also put the head back on the 940, thinking I might have some time to play with the VFD and the mill. Unfortunately, I didn't. I also took it off and put it back on again tonight. Just trying to get things aligned. I have to use it to make the mounts etc. It's not difficult, just put some blocks under it and set it on the table, slide it out with the Y crank. Nothing new to you guys I'm sure.

I did decide to run some power over to it temporarily. :) I couldn't resist. That little motor for moving the head up and down does just fine. In fact, just to see what it would do, I leaned on the head pretty good. (the top of it) and the motor barely changed pitch. I put enough weight on there I wasn't really comfortable with the scenario... ;) Anyhow, it was surprisingly strong.

Seeing things light up and move was pretty awesome.
 
Guys,

What kind of times should I expect if I order ballscrews from linearbearings and have the ends machined to spec? Also, will they put keyways in them? I can ask him on the keyways, I was mostly curious about the time frames.

Thanks!

Jon
 
Of the three orders I have done it was 2-3 weeks from order to delivery.
 
One thing I forgot to mention, if there is a way to do it, set the torque / velocity limit on the motors very low to start out. Just enough to move things. You don't want the motors running away at full power. Also, if possible, get the motors under control before installing the drive belt or coupling. Once you are sure everything is under control and operating normally, then you can bring the torque back up to normal operating range.

These motors have enough power to do some physical damage to your machine if they run away. By running away I mean that the motor comes up to full speed and can not be controlled by the computer. This is pretty common when first setting up.:eek:
 
Awesome, thanks guys!

The servos and drivers showed up yesterday. Man the Z axis servo is a hunk of metal. Sheesh. I'll get some photos later when I have some time.

Before I went off for vacation I hooked up the VFD and was doing some messing around, almost machined something for the heck of it and didn't. Why? Well, my drawbar won't thread into anything I have straight. It will thread if the bar is out of the mill, but since it can't go in straight, I can't secure anything into the spindle. Neat. I sent an email to Matt and he is sending a new one. :)

So far, I haven't found much on the machine to complain about, though granted I haven't used it at all. The exceptions are:

1. The head leaks oil like a sieve. It's coming out of the spindle (around the quill actually), the quill is absolutely covered with it every time it goes up and down. And it's black, nasty stuff. (this was before even running it) It's also coming out of where the gear change knobs are pretty heavily. I was going to clean the head all out anyhow when I change the oil. Not entirely looking forward to that and hadn't planned on changing the seals along with it. It's gone from 3/4 full to 2/3 since I received it.

2. The drawbar, which I mentioned. On that note, I have never in my life seen more poorly made socket head cap screws. Many of them the head is actually off center. I'm just replacing them when I find them. Pretty weird though. Can't even get a screw right? Yikes.
 
Bummer on draw bar and oil leaks. Almost sounds like they forgot some seals or damaged them during assembly.

My 932 leaked out of the spindle (slow drip) . That turned out to be the seal at the top of the spindle. There was manufacturing grit between the seal and spindle and with use it machined a shallow groove. I did not tear down and clean the mill when I got it since I knew it would be coming apart for the conversion. Not an issue now with the belt drive conversion.
 
I'm not overly concerned about it. But, of course I'd like to fix it if I can. A rubber seal against something, even something that slides shouldn't leak much at all if it's sealing. Under use, I'd understand, due to temp changes in the oil, etc. It's fine, it'll all get worked out in the end. Mostly I'm posting things like that for the sake of thoroughness. I'm keeping a log of everything and may post it in the end. There is a lot of info on the net about these types of mills and yet, it seems like you never quite get the whole story... or, it's a complete horror story... Which this is certainly not thus far. :)
 
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