PM932 CNC Build

[jbolt]

The VFD upgrade is done and working well. It will take a while to get used to machining at three times the speed I was before. I machined the the new power drawbar mounts and I was a bit tense watching new programs run at the higher machining speeds.



The new power drawbar system is finished. A 4" 3-stack multi-stage air cylinder pushing a stack of 2700 lb bellville washers at a 100 psi. I have the tension set on the bellvilles to where the TTS tool holder will just release. I'm hoping this will solve or at least improve some of the pullout issues I was having. I purchased a foot switch to use on the floor but decided I didn;t like all the extra air line so I mounted the foot switch to the side of the head. I will make a better hand lever later and remove the foot pedal.



Also finished is the DIY fogbuster. Now I have both flood and mist.

 

[jbolt]

A little video of the spindle mods in action. I have been trying different machining strategies to see how far I can push the machine. The cutter is a 3/8" 2-flute carbide at 6000 RPM. The first outer contour cut is full depth at 0.5", 17 in/min, and the second circle cut is the same speed and feed but stepped 0.09". No signs of tool pullout on the TTS.

 

[GaryL]

The mill is once again operational.

The Y-axis motor and drive have been replaced. The head was knocked out of tram by 0.080" which surprised me.

I was able to reconfigure my control box that houses the drives , BOB and controller so all the components can be individually removed without having to disassemble half the box.

I installed a new PMDX-126 BOB, PMDX-107 spinde control card and an Eithernet Smooth Stepper (ESS) in place of the old generic BOB and UC100 controller. This was much more complicated to setup. The PMDX suffers in places from too much information in the manual and a little too cut up for my liking but I managed to fiddle my way through it. The ESS suffers from too little documentation. Hurray for online forums and Google! Anyway I really like how the ESS nests on top of the PMDX-126 as a daughter board. Very tidy setup. I am having an odd issue where if a limit switch is triggered the keyboard jog function no longer works unless the system is power cycled. Additionally, if I plugin the xbox controller the keyboard jog and fly-out jog become inactive? Fortunately the xbox controller works fine which is what I normally use for jogging anyway.

I installed the new coolant shields. The shield around the table is really slick and does a great job of directing coolant off the table without it getting into everything. The rubber way cover is also working out nicely. One end connects to the cross slide and the other end to the Z dovetail. To keep the rubber sheet from bunching behind the table I added an intermediate support that is suspended from the column. It's a little Rube Goldberg-ish but so far it is working well.

Next is to machine the motor mount for the belt drive conversion.

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Hello Jay, I am in the middle of converting my PM 45M cnc mill from the Chinese board to a PMDX-126, PMDX-107, and an ESS. I was wondering if you might have some words of wisdom that might save me some time setting it up.

 

[jbolt]

Hi Gary,

Cool, I really like this setup!

Are you using a VFD for motor/spindle control? That was my biggest hurdle.

If you have any specific questions on the wiring I'll do my best. I found the manual confusing since I didn't understand a lot of the terminology he uses and the examples assume you have a clue.

Jay

 

[GaryL]

I'm glad that this combination worked out well for you. Their is a lot to learn about properly connecting these components to the mill and then setting up mach3 to work with the hardware. My mill came with a VFD and it was already setup, it seems at least so far that the connections to the 107 are not too difficult, but I still have to set up Mach3 and test it. I am currently in the process of connecting the home and limit switches to the BOB. If I get too bogged down I will be happy to ask for help. Prior to this undertaking, my only mill project was to change the X and Y home and limit switches and there some good videos for it.

 

[jbolt]

Is your mill one of the CNC versions from PM? Did it have just a basic BOB? I've never seen the inner workings of their controller. Did you post any photos?

 

[jbolt]

Used the CNC router to make some new cover panels for the mill head and control box. The black is not my first choice of color but it is what I had on hand for another project.

 

[Oc Customs]

Im doing a similar build i have a new enco 405-0593 mill. My question to you is where did you buy the pulleys and belt from for the vfd. Im going to try and use a 3kw water cooled spindle for driving my pulley and gearing it down to 8k rpm from 24k. This should also up my power from 4hp(advertised rating to 12hp) theoretically. i prefer some decent size pulleys for maximum contact area.

 

[jbolt]

Im doing a similar build i have a new enco 405-0593 mill. My question to you is where did you buy the pulleys and belt from for the vfd. Im going to try and use a 3kw water cooled spindle for driving my pulley and gearing it down to 8k rpm from 24k. This should also up my power from 4hp(advertised rating to 12hp) theoretically. i prefer some decent size pulleys for maximum contact area.

I made the pulleys and purchased the Poly-v belt from McMaster Carr. The poly-v has a 40 deg groove so I ground a single point cutting tool from HSS.

How will the drive pulley attach to the spindle?

Be sure to start a build thread and post pictures.

 

[Oc Customs]

I am going to a the pulley on a separate .5in shaft and bearing holder block and then use the .5 collet and tighten it down as much as i can. They are er20 collet so hopefully they will have a decent bite on the shaft. this way The belt tension wont be directly on the vfd spindle bearings. atleast that is my thoughts.

Once i get some progress i will post a thread and pics on it.
Im going to convert it to cnc first then build the vfd and pulleys.

Did you use the 2005 ballscrew for x ans y axis too?

Anything i missing or concerns that you see. i called about the spindle bearings in these machines and they are rated at 75oo rpm and burst to 12k for the lower, the upper bearings are 12k rpm.