MachTach Kit information

Boswell said:
I have the same Weller soldering station and have been doing thru-hole soldering and some Surface mount for most of my life. Anyway I have my iron set to 700 degF most of the time and almost never use a component heatsink. If your timid then a heatsink might be a good idea but anyone with experience in melting metal to join parts in almost any form should have not real problem with electronic scale soldering.

As for the MachTach. It looks like a great addition to the tools. I think I am going to have to get one or two (or four ...)
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Yes, it does look like a good addition... I think since I have one lathe and one mill... maybe two MachTech's for now... :)

I am thinking to make a new control box for the mill (left side of the head)... large enough to hold the MT display.
Not sure where to mount it on the lathe yet... OTOH the lathe is not here yet. When it is here and operational... I am sure where to mount a tack will be obvious.
 
One of the nice features of the MachTach kit is that you can 'split' the circuit board in half and then stack the two pieces up. This versatility allows you to create something that is only one-half the height of the original circuit board at the cost of a small amount of depth. Really a great idea.
 
coolidge said:
I think you are making a bunch of assumptions, I solder IC's and tiny components under a magnifying glass all with the same adjustable to 50 watt station and pencil tip. Nothing wrong with a quality 25 watt iron, I'm saying avoid those $9 cheap 15 watt irons. Here's my station its nothing fancy http://www.mscdirect.com/product/details/83725192
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I don't see how I was making any "assumptions" I was merely going by what you had posted. How was I to know you only meant 15w as being the definition "low watt"? I agree, a controlled station is nice, in fact I have the analogue version of the one in your link. I was trying to best advise someone who may not have the fastest soldering technique down, is only assembling a kit or two and doesn't want to invest $$ in equipment. I go by my extensive electronics soldering experience.
 
GA said:
Yes, it does look like a good addition... I think since I have one lathe and one mill... maybe two MachTech's for now... :)

I am thinking to make a new control box for the mill (left side of the head)... large enough to hold the MT display.
Not sure where to mount it on the lathe yet... OTOH the lathe is not here yet. When it is here and operational... I am sure where to mount a tack will be obvious.
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I I am sure with the size of your lathe you would be able to mount the board inside the machine panel. They have some pictures showing an install on a larger Grizzly lathe. You would also be able to power the panel as well.
 
brav65 said:
I I am sure with the size of your lathe you would be able to mount the board inside the machine panel. They have some pictures showing an install on a larger Grizzly lathe. You would also be able to power the panel as well.
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On the front with the elec controls is the logical place... however that means one has to step back to look at the numbers.

I asked Matt to not mount the head of the DRO on the lathe when he ships it (he is gonna mount the slides). That way I can put the head where it is easy to look at when 'hovering' over the work... :wavinghi:
At this point I am thinking to get a box for the MT and hang it from the bottom of the DRO... may rethink that when the lathe is here.

THX for your input.
 
I replaced the single phase motor on my lathe about 2 years ago with a VFD and a 3 phase motor and I added a pendant style control box with a MachTach inside the box. The input for the MachTach is the optical sensor included in the kit. I wrapped a layer of black tape around the left end of the main spindle, put on 8 sections of the supplied reflective tape and then a wrap of transparent tape to keep everything tight. It has worked fine since installation. The VFD did inject enough noise into the AC line so that I needed to use the filter that you can get from Henry Arnold. It's easy to determine if you have a noise problem by running the MachTach from a battery. If it works from the battery but not from your line connected supply, then get the filter. The direct readout in Surface Feet per Minute is very convenient. BTW, the box came from Home Depot for about $15.

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I finished and installed my MachTach...Nice kit. Built it all with a 35 year old, 20 watt soldering iron that has built a ton of Heath-Kits and Dynaco Stereo kits.

This board has extremely small lands and the components are really packed in tight. But with a bit of practice, its quite easy.

I wrote a whole article with a video of it working here:

www.rvbprecision.com
 
Hi Roy:

I couldn't find the page on the MachTach on your website.

rbertalotto said:
I finished and installed my MachTach...Nice kit. Built it all with a 35 year old, 20 watt soldering iron that has built a ton of Heath-Kits and Dynaco Stereo kits.

This board has extremely small lands and the components are really packed in tight. But with a bit of practice, its quite easy.

I wrote a whole article with a video of it working here:

www.rvbprecision.com
Click to expand...
 
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