My thoughts go out to the residents of Joplin, Mo.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Hazard Pay...
I was in Topeka, Kansas over the weekend on a business for my day job. On Saturday, some nasty storms rolled through, so we thought it would be a good idea to try our hand at storm chasing. I never could imgane the power that these things have.
My thoughts go out to the residents of Joplin, Mo.
My thoughts go out to the residents of Joplin, Mo.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Fixed....
#406 is back up and working. Yeah! It turned out to be the power supply.
The power supply, (technically, just a step down transformer) takes 125V input and steps it down to 5v and 12v. All of the driver boards and essentially the brains of the machine run on 12v. What was happening was that when the machine was turned on, the screen would turn on but not display anything. Nothing happened when I pushed the start button to jog the axis motors either. When I opened up the control panel, none of the lights where flashing on the control boards. So while searching on cnczone.com, apparently I was not the only one having issues with no power to the control boards. Several of the posts gave very detailed information regarding the process of diagnosing the power supply problem. Thanks cnczone!
I called up MEGA CNC in North Royalton, Ohio to inquire about a replacement. MEGA is the area FADAL certified replacment parts dealer. I have dealt with them before about a year ago. They are extremely helpful and usually have the parts in stock. According to their service tech, my machine is so old that they do not offer an exact replacement. They had power supplies out of newer style machines that would work, but they required an additional starter button to be wired in. This is the "green button" located by the main power disconnect. They offered to help anyway they can as well as provide the necassary wiring diagrams.
After talking to MEGA, I noticed a phone number on the front of the old power supply for Tri-Mag. So, I called. I talked to Lourie and explained my issue. She new exactly what I was talking about and had their factory build me the exact replacement. I got it yesterday and promptly installed. All said and done, it took me about 15 minutes to install and ended up being 1/3 the price of the "not so diret fit" option.
Now, back to making chips....
The power supply, (technically, just a step down transformer) takes 125V input and steps it down to 5v and 12v. All of the driver boards and essentially the brains of the machine run on 12v. What was happening was that when the machine was turned on, the screen would turn on but not display anything. Nothing happened when I pushed the start button to jog the axis motors either. When I opened up the control panel, none of the lights where flashing on the control boards. So while searching on cnczone.com, apparently I was not the only one having issues with no power to the control boards. Several of the posts gave very detailed information regarding the process of diagnosing the power supply problem. Thanks cnczone!
I called up MEGA CNC in North Royalton, Ohio to inquire about a replacement. MEGA is the area FADAL certified replacment parts dealer. I have dealt with them before about a year ago. They are extremely helpful and usually have the parts in stock. According to their service tech, my machine is so old that they do not offer an exact replacement. They had power supplies out of newer style machines that would work, but they required an additional starter button to be wired in. This is the "green button" located by the main power disconnect. They offered to help anyway they can as well as provide the necassary wiring diagrams.
After talking to MEGA, I noticed a phone number on the front of the old power supply for Tri-Mag. So, I called. I talked to Lourie and explained my issue. She new exactly what I was talking about and had their factory build me the exact replacement. I got it yesterday and promptly installed. All said and done, it took me about 15 minutes to install and ended up being 1/3 the price of the "not so diret fit" option.
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| Old on the left, new on the right... |
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Why???
It seems like everytime I puruse though craigslist, I end up buying something....
Hopefully, my nephews will find it enjoyable.
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| like I need another project... |
Hopefully, my nephews will find it enjoyable.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
235/261 to T-5 Adapter...
Now that I can move the '40, I am going to start working on some of the other projects that I want do. One of the being an adapter for an S-10 T-5 transmission behind a 235/261 chevy inline.
Most people, including myself, have had to modify the stock transmission to get it to bolt onto a '48-'62 235 chevy truck bell housing. This modification includes cutting a 1/2" off the bearing retainer and sometimes cutting a 1/2" off of the pilot bearing. I was fine with doing this until I tried to install the transmission into the '40. After cutting the bearing retainer, I found that the splines on the input shaft were not cut back far enough to allow the clutch disc to slide. The clutch was bottoming out on the splines. So, I ended up making an 1/8" spacer to get it to work.
What if I didn't have to cut anything to get it to work? Wouldn't that be better? I think so...so this is what I came up with.
Most people, including myself, have had to modify the stock transmission to get it to bolt onto a '48-'62 235 chevy truck bell housing. This modification includes cutting a 1/2" off the bearing retainer and sometimes cutting a 1/2" off of the pilot bearing. I was fine with doing this until I tried to install the transmission into the '40. After cutting the bearing retainer, I found that the splines on the input shaft were not cut back far enough to allow the clutch disc to slide. The clutch was bottoming out on the splines. So, I ended up making an 1/8" spacer to get it to work.
What if I didn't have to cut anything to get it to work? Wouldn't that be better? I think so...so this is what I came up with.
Last night I fired the mill up to machine a template out of wood, but the controls and the screen never came on. Guess this is going to have to wait until I get that fixed. Damn old worn out equipment...
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