Todays Project - What did you do today?

[DaveH]

Congrats   Very nice  
 
DaveH

[stevec]

Great job Arvid!  Well planned and timed. Don't cha just love a little early winter?
Thank goodness you don't live in Buffalo!

[Highpower]

(11-19-2014, 11:11 AM)arvidj Wrote: I stopped by the neighbors to see if I could borrow his 1-ton truck when the time came and he said "Sure, what are you going to use it for?". When I explained it was to get the skid steer he said "Why don't you just borrow a skid steer?". My response was "I didn't know you had one." and "I don't, but my son has one. I'll call him, tell him I need it and then go get it and have it here when you need it."

A great offer in my opinion ...

----------<snip>-------------

More good news followed. When I asked the neighbor how much I owed him for the skid steer rental he said it was not an issue. I had been blowing out his driveway for the last 15 years ... see one of my other links about the transformation of the car into a tractor with a snow blower ... so he just asked me to continue doing that this year. I would have blown the snow even if he had not had access to the skid steer so it all worked out nicely. 

Arvid, can we trade neighbors?  I'll give you three of mine for your one! Pleeeeeease??? 

Congratulations on the new lathe! 

Oh, and..... 

   

[schor]

Always great when you get help from a neighbour, in your case it seems the 'you get what you give' is in play.

How did you get it into the basement? What basement access do you have?

[arvidj]

Ken ...

I think that eventually all of my tooling will work.

The new one came with a QCTP that takes 200\BXA holders which is what I had on the G4003. I also have a Phase II QCTP in the drawer ... was to go on the G4003 but never got a round-to-it so maybe I can actually put it on the new lathe.

The new one has an MT4 tail stock but I think I have an MT4 - MT3 adapter so all of the G4003 MT3 stuff should work.

The spindle is MT6 I think. I have not been able to get the chuck off and some of the documentation says MT-5 and other documentation says MT-6. The reason it makes a difference is that I have an MT-5 to 5C collet closer that I took off the G4003 and planned on putting it on the PM.

Hopefully I will be able to make most of what I have work.

Willie ...

Yes, I am fortunate to have great neighbors. There were a few years when their kids were going thru the teen years when it was a challenge [parties when mom and dad were not home, leaning how to back the car up when drunk, the best yards to vomit and pass-out in, etc.] but all in all I couldn't ask for a better neighborhood.

Steve ...

When the house was built they put the framing in the wall for the ubiquitous walk in basement sliding glass door. I did not have them install the door so the external siding just covered the spot. About two years ago Bev decided it was time to reside the house so I took that opportunity to install a heavy duty 40 inch wide steel insulated door with outside hinges. This allows the door to swing 'wide open' and is obviously wider than a standard 30\31 inch door. This was a great addition as in the past I either had to dis-assemble\carry down basement stairs\re-assemble stuff or try to fit it thru the horizontally sliding windows.    

Phase 2 update ...

I tried to take the chuck off after the lathe had warmed up for a day. I eventually got the Camlock to turn but it took a one foot long 3/8 extension to fit in the Camlock and then a 18 inch long breaker bar on the extension to get them to move. I am certain they did not use the small T-handled wrench that was included with the lathe to tighten them!

After turning the Camlock's I was still no able to get the chuck off. I did try a Harbor Freight Orange Plastic Hammer ... one of my favorite tools ... but could not get it to budge. I called PM this morning and they said I was using the correct tool but not using it appropriately ... as in "hit it harder". We'll try that tonight.

And I am using John's "put something on the bed when you change chucks" method.

I also put a plug on the end of the cord and plugged it in. Everything lights up and I can hear a contactor clicking in the electrical box but the motor does not run. I've checked all of the safety switches and as I mentioned a contactor clicks so a call to PM was made. They agreed that "it should work" and that they "tried it before they shipped it". Their suggestion was to check the motor wiring to see if something came loose, try pulling up on the foot break in case that switch was out of adjustment, and if necessary call back tomorrow.

So that becomes Phase 2.1 ... getting it to run.

I hope I am not miss-using this thread with this,
Arvid

[EdK]

(11-20-2014, 12:47 PM)arvidj Wrote: ...
I hope I am not miss-using this thread with this,
Arvid

No worries Arvid. Just start a thread in the "Lathes" section when you feel you're ready to start documenting your experiences with the new lathe.

How's the manual that came with the lathe? Is there a wiring diagram that you could post?

Ed

[arvidj]

Ed,

The manual is better than what I saw on the Enco site for similar lathes but it still has a long way to go to reach Grizzly standards.


I briefly looked at the wiring diagram last night. It had lines on it that went from component to component but other than the two circles being M1 and M2 [motors I assume] nothing else was labeled. There were a string of normally open switches across the top of the diagram, several of which are probably safety switches and other might be front panel control switches. Labels on the components would have helped a lot but I am assuming the authors felt that would detract from the "treasure hunt" aspect of the game. There seems to be small dots near each connection on a component but that is all they are ... dots. To actually form a digit indicating the wire number would have required more toner and they were saving every place they could. 

I will give the manufacturer credit in that the control box seems to be well laid out and all of the wires appear to be numbered. The frustration is the diagram. See previous "conservation of toner" comment. With a little bit of time and patience and any one of the many Harbor Freight "Free with Purchase" digital volt ohm meters I have lying around I should be able to make some sense out of it.

[EdK]

(11-20-2014, 05:28 PM)arvidj Wrote: Ed,

The manual is better than what I saw on the Enco site for similar lathes but it still has a long way to go to reach Grizzly standards.


I briefly looked at the wiring diagram last night. It had lines on it that went from component to component but other than the two circles being M1 and M2 [motors I assume] nothing else was labeled. There were a string of normally open switches across the top of the diagram, several of which are probably safety switches and other might be front panel control switches. Labels on the components would have helped a lot but I am assuming the authors felt that would detract from the "treasure hunt" aspect of the game. There seems to be small dots near each connection on a component but that is all they are ... dots. To actually form a digit indicating the wire number would have required more toner and they were saving every place they could. 

I will give the manufacturer credit in that the control box seems to be well laid out and all of the wires appear to be numbered. The frustration is the diagram. See previous "conservation of toner" comment. With a little bit of time and patience and any one of the many Harbor Freight "Free with Purchase" digital volt ohm meters I have lying around I should be able to make some sense out of it.

Arvid,

Let me know if you get desperate and I'll take a trip to your house and give you a hand.

Ed

[Mayhem]

Hi Arvid - nice score on the lathe and I'm sure you will figure out the motor issue soon.

[arvidj]

Phase 2.1.1 ...

As requested I took the back of the control box and looked for loose wires. The good news ... I found one ... be bad news ... it had nothing to do with the motor issue.

I noticed a little bit of copper showing on what was suppose to be a crimped connector that would provide power to the DRO. The copper showing and my not actually seeing a crimp in the connector was enough make me curious. I gave the wire a gentile tug and it came right out of the connector.

   

I then took the connector out of the box for inspection. Sorry for the poor macro focus but I think it is good enough to see that the insulation had been crimped but they had missed the all important barrel of the connector completely.

   

I'll crimp new connectors on the DRO power cable this weekend. This will not solve the "why doesn't the motor run" issue but at least it addresses what would have been a nightmare "Why is my DRO intermittent?" challenge.

While I was in the control box I did press on the 'manual activation' black buttons on the back of the motor contactors. When pressing one of them the motor ran forward and when pressing the other the motor ran backwards. This is good, suggests that the high voltage circuit is working correctly, and the fault is in the low voltage control and safety circuit.

Given that neither the Jog button nor the Forward\Reverse Spindle Control Lever cause anything good to happen I suspect that the circuit that comes before those items associated with the Foot Brake Switch, the Spindle Shield switch or the Emergency Stop switch is messed up. That or I am failing to activate or turn on some undocumented "master" switch or safety device.

Certainly things to investigate Friday night and over the weekend.

Arvid