NEW ACRA 1640TE

Greg,

I wonder if thats the reason I'm not sleeping lately. hahah I should sleep like a baby come Saturday.

Paco
 
The machine is ready to be moved to its permanent location. The magnetic pickup bracket took about an hour to design and make. What took the longest was routing/securing the DRO cables. The Y axis cable was way longer and required looping. I used zip tie clips and 3M two sided tape to secure to the backsplash.

The Hall sensor uses a magnet to trigger the internal switch. These are quite accurate and commonly used for tachometer applications.
The balance collar on the spindle will have a magnet (polarity sensitive) imbedded to trigger the reading.
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Schematic.
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The bracket is mounted using the same stud that secures the fiberglass end cover. Thread sealant was used as the threaded hole goes through into the wet section (above the oil level) of the headstock. The sensor is set to about .040" gap.
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The angled ear the sensor attaches to was TIG welded and blended for a single piece look.
Just to the right of the sensor you can see the the small magnet. Red loc-tite will be applied to once the correct magnet arrives (5/16" x .125").
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With the backsplash back on the cables where routed and secured. The carriage travel was constantly checked and adjustments made prior to securing the plastic tie holders. 3M double sided tape was used to secure the plastic clips.
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Along the rear shows how long the Y axis cable was requiring looping.
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All the cables where secured above the chip tray allowing for sliding in/out without pinching the cables. On the 1440, I had this issue and so I decided to address it on the new machine.
Back on shift today so the machine will be moved tomorrow and wired for power. I will post photos of the leveling, power setup and finally test cuts. If the machine performs to the tolerance sheet, It should be impressive.

Thanks for visiting and be carful out there .

Paco
 
Acra is owned by Tom Dou a naturalized American Citizen, he came here from Taiwan. He is a great guy and knowledgeable on all machine tools. He was a partner in Goodway Machine Years ago. One of the first lathe builders who made fine machines 30+ years ago. Tom travels to Taiwan to tour the factories that build his machines. I have met Tom several times, met his daughter who is a lawyer and born in the USA, a fine family... Tom is a smart man who loves our country. I used to buy and sell his machines plus used to sell him machines he would export to Asia. He does have a few machines built in China too, but I suspect they are high quality .

I do have to say, I also had issues with the trucking companies his staff used. So I would suggest you tell them you want a quality trucker or you hire your own. If you use a LTL trucker to tell them no chains, just nylon straps and tarp the load. I started to use a company up here who travels the USA and they have new and modern equipment. http://longhaultrucking.com/ They don't tarp they use Conestoga trailers that have roll back sides. They are usually a bit more expensive, but you get what you pay for.
 
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Nice attention to detail Paco. Lets see some oil on that machine.

Greg
 
Outstanding work on the mods Paco I like the way you think things thru, a long time ago I used to use those stick on cable ties and found that after time with oil/heat on them they would fail ,maybe there better now, just a heads up.
I worked out there ( in Tucson ) at the big computer Co. in the 80s and spent most of my free time on mt lemon,just woundering if sumerhaven ever recovered from the fire I heard about.
 
Outstanding work on the mods Paco I like the way you think things thru, a long time ago I used to use those stick on cable ties and found that after time with oil/heat on them they would fail ,maybe there better now, just a heads up.
I worked out there ( in Tucson ) at the big computer Co. in the 80s and spent most of my free time on mt lemon,just woundering if sumerhaven ever recovered from the fire I heard about.

I pulled off the original cheap foam tape and prepped with lacquer thinner and used 3M double sided tape. The same stuff used to secure exterior molding and badges on vehicles. I will keep a clos eye on them tho.
MT Lemmon (Summer haven) is now littered with million dollar cabins (insurance claims) but the landscape still bears the scar from that devastating fire. Thanks for the kind words dlane.
Paco
 
Well fellas, after a long day we simply ran out of time. I had to move back other equipment after locating the lathe. I still need to level her out before I can make chips but we hit a couple of minor snags. The tach pickup need to be modified. It seems the balance collar is slightly magnetized although I'm inclined to think the multiple threaded holes around the circumference 12 total (for balancing ) have something to do with the erratic pickup. The second issue is yet to be confirmed, but we suspect a bad 3 pole breaker (3Ph) that feeds the Dc power supply and the 240vac 3 ph flood pump where we pulled 110 to supply power for the hardwired DRO. The lathe was running great with everything working as it should with the exception of the tach but foam strips and electrical tape allowed us to make it work for now (insulator). Then without warning, everything went dark except the VFD. The 24vdc led's, the 110vacDRO and the rest of the control system relies on 24vdc. The 3 pole breaker that supplies juice to the said components is a Siemens so not junk but things happen. I will conform bad breaker tomorrow and get the machine level. Wait for new part and start test cuts ASAP. Mark was able to auto tune the VFD to the motor via laptop prior to the power loss.

The wall enclosure. Top left: AC Choke, three pole 240v 3ph breaker (possible problem), through cover disconnect, VFD, fuse blocks and DC power supply. The brake resistor can be seen behind the fuse blocks and breaker. The cooling fan also runs from the dc power supply.
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How she looked running, impressively quiet at 1200 RPM.
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How she sits DIW. She looks right at home. :)
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When I think of the amount of work that went into this and all the replacement components a couple of snags are minor nuisances.
Mark really knows his stuff, he's super helpful and generous.
Stay tuned guys, I'm now without a working lathe so It will be top priority to get her operational ASAP, then we can begin the performance evaluation.

Take care,

Paco
 
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