On 2010-11-10, Ignoramus32694 wrote:
On 2010-11-10, DoN. Nichols wrote:
On 2010-11-09, Ignoramus32694 wrote:
A friend of mine is eyeing a Lagun FTV-2S mill with Anilam Crusader II
control.
This mill looks very similar to a Series I Bridgeport with all 3 axis
controlled by servos. Also has manual handles on all axes, in addition
to servos (nice).
I wanted to know what you think about those machines.
Hmm ... the one image which you posted the link to is a bit low
resolution, but the controller looks familiar to me.
Differences from the Taiwanese Bridgeport clone with an Anilam
conversion:
1) The handwheels were plastic deep dishes with spring-loaded
folding cranks which would not bash your leg or whatever was
within reach if an unexpected rapid move came up.
This one seems to have handles permanently affixed to the dishes.
I noticed.
Perhaps they do not engage to the screws, unless pushed.
I doubt it. Does it have dials with the handles? If so, they
need to stay in sync with the leadscrews, and a push-to-engage works
against that.
Also, V ways and not box ways.
Hmm ... Mine are dovetail ways for sure on the Y-axis and the
vertical ways for the knee. Not really sure about the X-axis, as they
are hidden enough to make it difficult to remember.
2) The Bridgeport clone conversion had taken the quill stop rod
and coupled a ball screw to that for quill feed. (The real
Bridgeport "Series I" I have uses a hollow ball screw around the
quill, so the feed force is concentric with the spindle. I
can't really see what is being done here.
This is how my Bridgeport Series II is, hollow screw around the
spindle.
Good -- concentric pushing then.
This one, seems to have a screw outside of the quill.
So it can over time produce wear of the quill in its bearings,
since it is always producing a side thrust.
[ ... ]
4) I don't see the tape system for holding the program files (a
small box which sits on top of the cabinet), but you can use a
computer connected to the RS-232 port to accomplish the same
thing -- and quicker. You'll need to find the magic code to
switch save/load output/input to the RS-232 from the interface
for the tape drive.
Could be a problem , too.
Not a serious problem. I found the codes for the switch in a
web site devoted to old Anilam machines.
Check out:
http://faculty.etsu.edu/hemphill/entc3710/ani-mill/index.htm
Chapter 14 tells you how to do the transfers including the magic
codes. It does assume that the serial port is connected to a switchbox
to select between cassette tape (a tiny one) punched paper tape, and PC.
(I guess two for the punched paper tape -- one for the tape punch, and
one for the tape reader. :-) Or maybe it is for selecting different
machines to connect to one PC. :-) I think that they must still be using
one at the school in question.
It includes the pinout of the RS-232 cable as needed for the
Anilam.
Other sections tell you a lot about other programming features.
I would suggest downloading and saving all the pages for future use.
You can read up on the programming there too.
[ ... ]
6) The Crusader II has a sort of conversational programming
mode -- which translates to actual G-code inside the machine
as you can determine by examining the file produced by saving a
program to a computer.
Hm, interesting. The control looks very ancient, which is possibly a
good thing since it does not have a CRT.
:-)
Yes -- is it most likely 20 years old or a bit more. Not a
problem for the hardware in a well maintained machine, but certainly so
for the computer. (Well ... it is likely old enough to be from before
the pirated electrolyte formula, so the capacitors may still be good.
But if the membrane switch panel front has gone bad, it is
certainly time to haul out EMC instead of trying to make it work. There
are a lot of switches on that panel.
Good Luck,
DoN.
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