2017 POTD Thread Archive

I'll be curious to hear you impression of machining that casting.
Robert
 
My forge is a 5gal metal bucket with approximately 2.5" of home brew refractory.
My crucible is a 4" piece of pipe approximately 6" long with a bottom welded on.
The pistons just fit in the pipe, and I pulled the rod back out when the AL melted.
The casting had a bit of porosity, as I don't have a de-gasing agent yet, but it cut beautifully. I will post some pictures when I can.

Sent from my SM-S320VL using Tapatalk
 
More on my non-working G-0619 mill. I called Grizzly and the guy was very pleasant and helpful. He suggested it may have just blown a fuse. He told me where it was and when I checked it, sure enough, the little one on the board was blown.

It is a small glass 20A fuse, not easy to find. I didn't find a 20A but I did find a 10A and gave it a try. What could go wrong, right?

I replaced the bad fuse, and when I turned on the mill power switch, it crackled and scary sparks flashed in the back.
I hate when they do that. There were no chips or anything in it. That part is sealed up pretty tight.

I turned it off and unplugged it PDQ and took a look. The fuse wasn't blown and I could see no char damage but I did smell some plastic smoke. After checking everything over, I gave it another try. This time it didn't spark or crackle and the LCD lit up as though everything was fine. But, when I pushed the start button, it just paused and then displayed a ERR message. That seems to be its only trick, now.

So, now on to plan B.
I'll call the Grizzly guy again tomorrow and probably have to order a new Motor PC Board with inverter – $294 plus $23 shipping. I forgot to ask how long it would take or if they had one in stock.
 
Ouch, that kind of stuff will ruin your day. Sorry to hear Paco.
 
Franko,

Apparently something is drawing a lot of current even on stand by. I see the machine has a DC motor so that means
there is probably a bridge rectifier or similar in the machine. A good place to start would be to test the rectifier diodes with an
ohm meter. I have no idea how the speed is controlled but that could be a place to look as well. That's the trouble
with the new stuff, too much that can fail. I have a Shark DC powered vacuum and it quit and has a circuit board in it. Rather
that try to replace the board, I disabled it and wired a switch to turn on the vacuum motor and brush roller motor and it works as
good as it ever did. I'm not saying you should do that but just pointing out that all this high tech stuff is prone to fail. In a few
years, all this new VFD stuff will become problematic as it ages(electrolytic capacitors especially). Solid state devices can rendered
junk with just ONE voltage spike over their ratings.

Anyway, I hope yours is an easy fix and not too expensive. Good luck.
 
Planed obsolescence/failure , getting an engineering degree nowadays one has to take this class x3
And it costs more to design it to fail than last forever :mad:
 
Thanks, Cathead, but I wouldn't know a bridge rectifier if I saw one.

As I said earlier, the fact that the controls on this mill are digital gave me concern from the beginning. Same on my PM-1228 lathe. Worse case (plan C) scenario is that I'll have to replace it all with an available speed controller (VFD?) and manual switches and potentiometer — not undoable.

I'm probably going to go with the Motor PC board replacement, which will restore all the cool functions that I liked about this mill.
 
The Grizzly guys gave me a few tests with a multimeter to check voltage. The results indicated a blown PC board.

New motor control PC board is ordered. They have it in stock and it ships this afternoon. I'll have it in a few days. In the mean time, if I need to mill something, I'll have to use my little HF mini mill. I mostly use that as a precise drill press, but it will make mill cuts if they are small.
 
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