On Sat, 21 Aug 2010 19:07:08 -0500, Karl Townsend
wrote:


Im not a big fan of the turrets myself. A LOT of the machines I gut and
retrofit are being done, simply because the turrets themselves have come
un****ed and are not economically repairable. You can fix them yes
indeed..but next week, something else turns to ****.

Now on the other hand...in a hobby environment...you would not be
running 8-16 hours a day, 5-7 days a week, so it may take you 6 months
to a year before that something else happens. Or even longer if you
replaced most of the electronics and took it easier on the machines than
they do in production shops.

Say, have you ever seen the turret air motor replaced with a servo?
This would solve nearly all the issues and designing an adaptor to
hang the motor on the back side of the carriage would be no big deal.

Yeah...but you have to have associated electronics to impliment it.
Servo amps, and a computer. The Hardinge wasnt set up for a "4th axis"
or anyway to run and determine where that turret is, and if its properly
homed on each "stop". Since its position is held mechanically on
basicly..cogs and pins...shrug.

I have to run my air turret for 20 minutes at every startup to warm up
and loosen it. Even with that, I have it set to auto retry when it
don't seat. Of course, the kid used it to make about 10,000 parts when
he was laid off. Having this thing fail once every 50 tool changes was
a total PIA

Now, when i make a couple dozen parts - no big deal.

Karl

You really need to replace the microswitches with new ones to get it to
set up properly. Anything else is simply spinning your wheels. Seldom is
it a mechanical issue, its usually electric.

On the other hand..those microswitches show up new on Ebay fairly
regularly....cheap. If you can modifiy one thats "almost the same"..you
can do it fairly easily.and cheaply.

Gunner


I am the Sword of my Family
and the Shield of my Nation.
If sent, I will crush everything you have built,
burn everything you love,
and kill every one of you.
(Hebrew quote)