Member postings for mgnbuk

Manufacturer page for relay.

I wonder if the "36V" refers to the coil voltage if there are 3 x 12V batteries in series ? The illustrations in the link above show that the current versions of those relays have the coil voltage moulded in the case at about the place where the 36V is printed on yours. They don't list a 36V coil as standards, though, so that may be a special ? Can you measure the voltage on the two thinner wires (on the right on your first picture) when the relay is energised to check ?

I can't say I am suprised that a pin has come loose / pulled out of the relay in that installation - that relay is intended for PCB mounting, not dangling on cables. If the coil voltage can be confimed, then it should be possible to find a more suitable relay with eiither Faston or screw terminals - something like this, maybe.

Nigel B.

What voltage is the relay swicthing and where in the circuit is it ?

A quick google brought up versions of HLS-T90 - a single pole power relay, so your 5 contacts would be 3 x contact (common, NO & NC) and 2 coil (you don't mention the coil voltage), but the listings I found had contacts rated 28V DC.

Nigel B.

Hi Jason.

From a quick Google that appears to be a Charmilles part, which fits with your EDM machine history. The only references I find to it are from industrial parts suppliers (with no module specifications - just like-for-like replacements), and nothing from Charmilles. It is likely that the drive pre-dates digital documentation, so the best to hope for would be a .pdf scan of a paper manual and, if this is a Charmilles specific part, there may not have been manuals made available to users.

There do not appear to any armature connections on the front panel - are there any more connections to the rear of the case ? Guesstimating, +/- 10v to 0V could be the velocity command analogue signal from the controller, TG to 0V could be the motor velocity input from the tachogenerator (black & white wires from your motor). Over current & overvoltage maybe fault signal outputs to the machine control circuit. Which leaves the 36V - maybe input power, but strange to see it on the same connector as the +/-10V and TG inputs - and no connections for the motor armature ( red & blue wires on the motor).

I oculdn't say if your servo motor would work with that drive. It is unfortunate that the tacho wiring obscures the armature voltage rating & what may be the continuous torque rating on the motor data plate in your picture. Are there any rating plates on the drive module giving, say, input voltage & current or output voltage & current ? If the drive had a lower output voltage than the motor that would not be the end of the world - the motor maximum speed would be less than at rated voltage. But current is another matter - a lower current capability from the amplifier would lead to lower torque at the motor & loading the motor beyond the drive current rating may damage the drive.

Nigel B.

As Chris said, NuTool disappeared from the UK many years ago, though part of the company does seem to survive today in Poland

Companies House show the company dissolved in 2012, having last posted accounts at the end of 2010.

Their large Doncaster distribution centre was visible from the A1 southbound. IIRC their demise came about due to their being the supplier to B&Q of that store's "Performance Power" branded power tools - or rather an over-reliance on that customer & an inability to survive when B & Q moved to another supplier for the products they had supplied.

I have a NuTool branded 6" x 4" bandsaw which, apart from the makers name sticker, doesn't appear to be any different to other branded versions of the generic Far Eastern 6" x 4" bandsaws. If you can find another brande version of your belt sander from a supplier still trading yoiu may strike lucky. But the reality is that a NuTool branded items will most likely be 20 years old (or older ) & the chances of finding a spare part like an armature will be slim.

Least expensive option would most likely be to replace the tool with one from the middle isles of Aldi or Lidl when they have the item you want on offer - I have seen portable belt sanders there in the past. Power tools are pretty much disposable items these days.

Nigel B

Is it the particular metal body connectors used on that Chinese drive that you are not happy about Robert ?

All the Indramat, Siemens & Fanuc servomotors that use cable mounted connectors (rather than connecting boxes) I installed used metal body connectors.

Nigel B

We killed a couple of 6" Performance Power belt / disc sanders similar to the Clarke model available from Machine Mart at one of my employments. The "dust extraction" facility drew the dust through the motor to provide cooling - maybe OK on wood dust but steel swarf eventually damaged the motor insulation & blew a hole in the windings. Both machines failed the same way. I rescued the carcasses, intending to convert them to belt drive from an external motor, but have yet to get around to it - only been on the projects list for 20 years or so now.

I use one bought from Netto that has a TEFC motor that drives the belt / disc via vee belt that has proved to be Ok on metal. Similar machines are on eBay for around £70. Main shortcoming is relatively low power that limits cutting pressure, but that seems to be advantageous to consumables life

Nigel B

Took delivery of a rather large pallet from Warco this afternoon.

Palletways driver helpfully put it where I asked outside the garage doors. The cabinet was in partially assembled form in two separate boxes, shipped on top of the main machine crate & all black stretch-wrapped. together. All parts survived the journey through the pallet delivery network unscathed.

Inside the box is my new toy :

As I suspected, the weight quoted on the Warco website for the GH600 is way out. The crate says 270 kg gross / 240kg net & the 2 cabinets were 24kg and 27Kg net - the heavier cabinet having the shelves & backplates to form the stand. The plate on the machine says 225kg, so around 275 kg for the machine on the stand - and it felt like it !

The stand assembled easily and, with Mrs B's assistance & a fair bit of effort, it is now on the stand but not in final position ( need to sort some feet). Engine hoists are hateful things, particularly on less-than-smooth concrete. Not helped by the machine crate being placed on top of a standard pallet, restricting access to the hoist - but we managed in the end without damage to either of us or the machine. I am rather feeling it now, though !

I have made a start on removing the rust preventative coating, which is similar to the Shell Ensis fluid used at the company I started my apprenticeship at.. Enough applied to be protective, but not excessive & it comes off easily with GT85 & paper towels. I was a bit suprised to find marking blue on the paper towels from the underside of the bed shears - proper fitting on a Chinese lathe ? Surely not ! Cross slide ways on the saddle look to have been scraped as well, and not the usuall half-hearted "oil retention" random scallops type of scraping.

So far the machine is looking good, though there are a few sharp edges on the compound slide that will have to be addressed. Not had it running yet, as the slings are still in place.

It is a much more substantial machine than I was expecting - makes the Super 7 look small given that they have a similar footprint..

Nigel B.

If it works for Hotpoint it will work for me.

The polyvee belts used on tumble dryers are not the same construction as "standard" belts - they use a slightly elastic tension member to make the belts "stretchy"

The reason I know this is that a company I worked for modified the "belt building" machines used to make the belts (by a company in Wigan) to have a closed loop tensioning arrangement to wind on the tensioning cord, which had to be applied at a specific tension to get the correct stretch required. Normal belts used a non-stretch cord.

The stretchability may have been to enable the removal of a separate tensioning mechanism ( engineering by accountants ! ) & the installed tension was high. Tumble dryer installations used grooves cut directly into the motor shaft (around 12mm or so diameter IIRC) & a large diameter plain face "pulley" on the rear of the drum, giving a very large gear reduction.

Polyvee belts in general require a lot of tension to work correctly & wear fast if under tensioned - the amount of wear required on the flanks of the vees isn't much before the belt just ends up driving (more likely slipping) on the points when they hit the bottom of the grooves.

Can't say I am a fan of polyvees though, to be fair, the installations I designed them into were normally "challenging" and where a traditional vee belt solution would not fit the space available.

Nigel B.

The black cap with the labyrinth seal grooves appears to have an area to connect with a drain hole in the headstock - the parts list picture of the gasket shows a notch at the bottom that would clear such a drain hole.

So,first question - is there drain hole below the bearing seat to drain accumulated oil from the rear bearing back into the headstock ?

Second question - if there is a hole, is it clear ?

On the front spindle bearing cap on some larger lathes I have seen the labyrinth seal have multiple chambers, with the outer chambers drilled to allow coolant to flow outwards back to the coolant tray & the rear chambers drilled though into the headstock to drain the oil back into the sump.

Nigel B.

should you find any runout issues which are not so easily dealt with using the direct screw on types.

Amen to that.

I bought a Soba branded one piece Myford nose mounting ER collet chuck from one of the Harrogate ME shows several years ago, but left it a long time before getting around to trying it on the machine - too long to try for an exchange or refund when it turned out bad. It didn't screw fully onto the Myford spindle nose and was pot hard - took ages to lap it to fit using a soft 2MT Myford nose adapter to carry the compound.

Then, when it did (eventually) screw on up to the spindle shoulder, I found that it had excessive runout in the ER taper. I can't recall exactly how much runout, but it was several thou, which rather defeats the idea of a collet system. I may get around to regrinding the taper socket in situ at some point to try to make it useable, but a 2 part design like the RDG Tools item would have been a lot easier all round.

After a couple of bad experiences with Soba stuff, I positively avoid it now & always try exhibition purchases for fit & accuracy as soon it gets back home.

Nigel B.

Plenty of options here Machine mounts

Alternative sources here. and here. - also from Warco

Nigel B.

I don't make custard very often - hate cleaning saucepan

Make it in a Pyrex jug in the microwave - no pan to clean.

Nigel B.

I maesured the shank on head I bought & it appears to be 1 1/2" x 18TPI.

The thread on the shank is rather short, but the 16TPI gauge is nowhere near a fit, 1.5mm is closer, but still not a snug fit like 18TPI. O/D is 1.495" with calipers.

Nigel B.

Was that the set in the yellow box from the seller in Pontefract, Chris ?

If so, I took advantage of the attractive offer price as well but, other than a quick check on the box contents on arrival yesterday, I have not looked further. I will have a look later & see if I can measure from my example with any confidence.

Nigel B.

Have you tried adjusting the moving jaw gib strip ?

Under the top edge of the sliding jaw is a copper or brass gib strip that is adjusted with 2 very small slot head grub screws that require a small jewellers screwdriver to adjust. Lightly snugging the screws will lock the sliding jaw, then very small backing off adjustments will provide a light, shake free, drag.

When my former collegues brought me digital calipers (inexpensive Insize brand) that were "misreading", a good clean, lightl stoneing off any nicks or bumps and re-adjusting the gib screws almost always brought them back to normal levels of accuracy & repeatability.

Nigel B.

I have removed the taper bearing outer races from 2 BMW motorcycle headstocks largely in the way you suggested that you did this previously - by making multiple cuts into the race with a Dremel thin cutting disc (well several of these discs - they don't last long ! ) being careful not to cut into the frame. Then, with the outer race suitably weakend, a couple of blows with a drift & substantial hard hammer cracked the race into sections allowing removal. Not a fun job !

There is a special BMW tool to get hold of the minimal available lip that protrudes into the bore of the headstock - but I didn't (and still don't ) have access to one of those.

MZ TS250/1s are so much easier - just a couple of 6006 ball races with a spacer tube between them, a similar arrangement to wheel bearings.

Nigel B.

Fitting an appropriate shim to bear on the previously unused rear shear on the bed does'nt appreciably alter the overall postion of the saddle on the bed. It should just return the saddlle to nominaly the same position it occupied with the original guide face in an unworn state - the shim just fills the clearance that was there originally..

I used a piece of gauge plate to sort my non-PXF S7- IIRC it was 1/16" x 1/2" by the full length of the saddlle (though it has been many years since the conversion was done & I would have to check to be certain) & I Loctited it in place. The machine was subsequently retrofitted the screwcutting gearbox and I had no issues getting things to align.

HTH

Nigel B.

As an alternative view, I had an inexpensive Brother monochrome printer that didn't last much longer than it's initial low capacity "starter" toner cartridge, but long enough to be out of warranty. It started leaving lines across the page & needed another replaceable part (cant't recall the part name now, but the toner cartridge fitted into this part that had a "corona wire" IIRC) that cost more than the printer did initially to replace. Similar situation at work, where the expensive (both to buy and for consumables) Brother colour laser that was bought to replace a Brother printer/scanner//fax died irrepalrably after a couple of years - the inkjet had done 5 years & the laser was replaced with a another Brother inkjet that is still going strong after more than 5 years.

My Brother laser got recycled & replaced with a Canon inkjet, which don'r suffer from the blocked nozzle situation that afflicts Epson printers if they don't get used often enough, due to using different print head technology. Downside is that the replacement cartridges cost more, as the print head is incoprorated into the cartridge. Upside to that is that in the rare event of a print head clogging irretrievably, a replacement cartridge fixes it at a much lower cost than replacing the printer. I can leave the Canon unused for weeks at a time & it just works when required.

For the limited amount of printing I do the Canon inkjet has proved to be the least expensive, most reliable solution for me over the last several years.

NIgel B.

I mounted my shaper on studs Rawlbolted into the the less-than-perfectly-flat concrete garage floor - can't recall if they were 10 or 12mm studs. When it had been leveled (nuts & washers on the studs, shaper set on these then locked in place with another set of nuts & washers) I grouted it in - so it isn't going anywhere !

The Myford & FB2 clone mill are just bolted to the floor.

Nigel B.

I don't see the need to increase the size of the rads ??

Beacuse heat pump systems operate at lower water temperatures than gas/oil boilers to get anywhere near the quoted COP valuues quoted ?

My gas powered wet CH runs the rads at 70 C. The rads were apparently sized by the house builder 34 years ago to provide the required room temps at that temperature - and they don't have a lot in hand ! So attempting to run them at the lower temps used by heat pumps (40-45 C ) won't adequately heat the house. Plus the system installed uses 10mm microbore piping which, according to accounts I have read, isn't great for use with a heat pump.

So it would appear that to get adequate heating with a heat pump solution, I will have to replace all the rads and the piping - pretty well gut the house to put that in & I may not have sufficient wall space to get big enough rads in. I suppose I could rip up the floors to install underfloor heating, though. A £5K "incentive" isn't really much of one in this case.

And that is before the issue of heart pump reliability comes in - my direct and indirect knowledge of the reliabilty of these things is not positive. Of 3 systems installed in offices at work, one failed under warranty & one has stopped generating heat out of warranty (not repaired). All freeze the oustide unit in cold, damp weather (typical Autumn / Winter conditions in the Vale of York) - the built-in reverse cycling to heat the outside unit to prevent it becoming a solid block of ice proving inadequate. I had to buy a fan heater to supplement the heat pumps in cold damp waether in the main office . My former employer had a house built in an area without mains gas & this was specified from the outset to use an air source heat pump - lots of insulation & underfloor heating etc. for such a system to work efficiently. When it worked it was, apparently, effective and cheap to run. But the heat pump failed after a couple of years (out of warranty) and repair cost almost as much as a new unit - wiping out any savings. This happened twice to my former employer & once to the new owner of the property after he sold it. When the sytem failed again on the new owner, he had it replaced with a gas boiler operated from an LPG tank in the garden.

I had a wood burning fire installed this Spring (latest spec. suitable for use in smoke controlled areas), so I can heat at least one room independant of gas or electricty.

Nigel B.