Setup and Continuing Saga of the Charter Oak 12Z

[arizonavideo]

To install the drive I set the motor pulley up on the bench and mount the motor plate and the right stand off to the motor plate and just set the drive on the head and then drop the motor on. The left motor stand off can be on the top plate or motor plate. It is easy to slide off so you have to watch it.

You have to have the stand off with the lock handle on first because the little bolt that holds the handle on must be tightened up before it it mounted to the top plate.

To remove all the gears I just lowered the head all the way. It is a bit easier if you remove the quill so you don't have to lift over it.

 

[zr8cnc]

thanks for the information Dave. I will be in contact with you about ordering a kit.

To install the drive I set the motor pulley up on the bench and mount the motor plate and the right stand off to the motor plate and just set the drive on the head and then drop the motor on. The left motor stand off can be on the top plate or motor plate. It is easy to slide off so you have to watch it.

You have to have the stand off with the lock handle on first because the little bolt that holds the handle on must be tightened up before it it mounted to the top plate.

To remove all the gears I just lowered the head all the way. It is a bit easier if you remove the quill so you don't have to lift over it.

 

[wrmiller]

To install the drive I set the motor pulley up on the bench and mount the motor plate and the right stand off to the motor plate and just set the drive on the head and then drop the motor on. The left motor stand off can be on the top plate or motor plate. It is easy to slide off so you have to watch it.

You have to have the stand off with the lock handle on first because the little bolt that holds the handle on must be tightened up before it it mounted to the top plate.

To remove all the gears I just lowered the head all the way. It is a bit easier if you remove the quill so you don't have to lift over it.

Thanks Dave! (Now he tells me all his secrets... ):lmao:

 

[wrmiller]

I knew I was missing something...

I forgot to change the VFD params after installing the belt drive! Doh! Paul at CO wrote to tell me that now that I've gotten rid of those gears and the associated parasitic losses, to go ahead and increase three params, all dealing with max motor freq. to 70hz. But he also cautioned that the bearings installed with the 3hp motor will run at 5000 rpm all day, but can only handle short bursts to 6000 rpm. I will be surprised if I ever need anything over 5k. This thing is really moving at that rpm. Very impressive. And spooky. As I've said before, this thing is almost too quiet. Now I need to make a chart of motor frequency and spindle rpm. I bought one of those cheap non-contact rpm meters on Ebay just for this purpose.

Then I'm going to try and get my digital scale mounted for the quill this weekend.

In another thread here, we were discussing rotary tables and someone (Mike or Will?) was saying that they couldn't use their 6" on their bigger machine because the handwheel hits the front of the table when attempting to mount it. So tonight I just happened to remember talking about this and pulled my little 6" (it doesn't look little on my PM25) rotary table and put it on El Hefe's table to see if it fits. Well, if I hadn't mounted my X-axis scale on the front of the table, it would have fit fine while bolted to the middle slot. But, it will work fine bolted to the table's front slot (I can get 2" or more past the front of the table) so it will work fine.



It does look a little small on this larger table though. :lmao:

 

[GA Gyro]

I may need to get some of those yellow t-slot guards... using the shop vac to get chips out of the T slots is a PITA... and I am not talking about a tasty morsel for a snack... :rofl:

Or is that PETA... getting late... ZZZZZ

 

[wrmiller]

'night John... :lmao:

Those guards were one of the smartest things I've done.

 

[darkzero]

Yup, thanks to GaryK, I've never had my T-slots so clean! Just wish I listened to him when he was asking me to go in on them with him, may he rest in peace.

Yeah that was me & that was the only way I could use the 6" RT on my 9" table too, on the front slot. On my 6" it was actually the handwheel dial that hit the table first in adition to not being able to swing out the handwheel to disengage the worm. My 6" also did not line up with the slots when mounted vertically. Even if the slots did line up, same issue, handwheel would hit the edge first.

I really didn't want to go through the hassle of getting another RT but it worked out absolutely perfect for me, well better than that. Matt hooked me up with the 8" RT for free, yup that's $0 shipped! I offered to send him the 6" & he told me to sell it. I ended up selling it locally for the same price I paid for it on ebay. Another reason why I am loyal to him, he's the best!

The 8" really does look right at home on my table but then again I don't think the 6" looks that puny on your larger table.

 

[zr8cnc]

Does anyone know the brand and part number for the spindle bearings that CO installs? I just feel that I have read of people putting in bearings that meet the higher rpms

 

[wrmiller]

Does anyone know the brand and part number for the spindle bearings that CO installs? I just feel that I have read of people putting in bearings that meet the higher rpms

Contact arizonavideo (the belt drive guy) a few posts above this. I saw a vid of him clocking 9000 rpm on an older IH mill. Yikes!

He will know what bearings you want.

 

[zr8cnc]

Thanks I will! Not that I will run at anywhere near that rpm range but it would be nice to know that I am running at 60% of the rpm range and not 90%

Contact arizonavideo (the belt drive guy) a few posts above this. I saw a vid of him clocking 9000 rpm on an older IH mill. Yikes!

He will know what bearings you want.