Workshop sooner?!

[mattfc]

You are totally correct!  I remember him saying something about conditioning and he said it's not cheap.
It all kinda went over my head because he was talking more in electrical terms and I was getting little lost.

Its easier to think of it in terms of water and pipes. JCB when they are running have a huge load of water running through the pipeline that you are attached to, and when they switch off machines - takes a second for the supply to drop, leading to a spike. A surge protector would shut your tap off. A conditioner would be like having a little pond, the pipeline would keep keep the pond topped up like a buffer, and you would take the water from the pond rather than pipeline, so a surge would just create a few extra splashes in you pond, but wouldn't have any effect on you supply from the pond.

The more power you need, the bigger pond - the more the cost. So if you do end up going down the power conditioning route it would be cheaper to have conditioned power just for the bist that need it.

 

[Stone Message]

That sounds just like a UPS with bigger backup batteries for a bigger pond !

Peter

 

[tbellemare]

This is purely conjecture but it sounds like your controller(s), (read computers), are causing the problem.

Not so many years ago, Microsoft and PC's in general got a bad name for how common it was to lock up and "blue screen". I had that problem a lot. I bought a UPS from APC and it completely stopped. I have two of them next to my desk right now that I can reach out and touch.

They regulate voltage, handle spikes, and give you time to elegantly shut down in the case of power outages because they have battery back up. They don't cost that much as can be seen here.

I was working with some engineers in Maranello in the late '90's and every afternoon there were thunderstorms that would knock out the power for a while. Some design work was lost each time and the down time was normally about 30 minutes. I got them to log the time for a week. It soon became obvious that putting a UPS on each workstation would pay for itself real fast. Those people didn't work for free and the frustration involved pretty much ruined progress for the rest of the day...

Tom

 

[jmbfestool]

You are totally correct!  I remember him saying something about conditioning and he said it's not cheap.
It all kinda went over my head because he was talking more in electrical terms and I was getting little lost.

Its easier to think of it in terms of water and pipes. JCB when they are running have a huge load of water running through the pipeline that you are attached to, and when they switch off machines - takes a second for the supply to drop, leading to a spike. A surge protector would shut your tap off. A conditioner would be like having a little pond, the pipeline would keep keep the pond topped up like a buffer, and you would take the water from the pond rather than pipeline, so a surge would just create a few extra splashes in you pond, but wouldn't have any effect on you supply from the pond.

The more power you need, the bigger pond - the more the cost. So if you do end up going down the power conditioning route it would be cheaper to have conditioned power just for the bist that need it.

It's just the CNC supply which affects the stepping motors.

It sends a random command. Once it told the CNC to come to the front slowly.  I left it to see what would happen it then went back to where it came from and carried on like nothing happend.

If it just did that it would be okay it's when it sends itself into its self or tool changer lol.

At the moment I'm managing the way I am stoping at 5 ish.

I do want it sorting though but I'll see if the power supply can do something first.

 

[jmbfestool]

[attachimg=1]

This is purely conjecture but it sounds like your controller(s), (read computers), are causing the problem.

Not so many years ago, Microsoft and PC's in general got a bad name for how common it was to lock up and "blue screen". I had that problem a lot. I bought a UPS from APC and it completely stopped. I have two of them next to my desk right now that I can reach out and touch.

They regulate voltage, handle spikes, and give you time to elegantly shut down in the case of power outages because they have battery back up. They don't cost that much as can be seen here.

I was working with some engineers in Maranello in the late '90's and every afternoon there were thunderstorms that would knock out the power for a while. Some design work was lost each time and the down time was normally about 30 minutes. I got them to log the time for a week. It soon became obvious that putting a UPS on each workstation would pay for itself real fast. Those people didn't work for free and the frustration involved pretty much ruined progress for the rest of the day...

Tom

I already have one for my PC.  Not been used for about 8 or more but still it's under the desk next to the IMac lol. 

Thing is my CNC does has got nothing to do with my computer because the file is sent to CNC and stored. So I can run the same program over and over and turn the PC off.

My CNC is three phase so I need more than just those little batteries I think.

 

[tbellemare]

I'm pretty certain your CNC has a computer or two on board as controllers. It/they may just look like a box but they are computers. If you can isolate their power and it should be fairly easy, you can put a UPS on it.

I have a cheesy CNC and it has a controller (computer). I don't see how else it could possibly work (Computer Numerical Control).

Tom

 

[mattfc]

CNC is 3 phase - but 3 phases are probably only used on the spindle and vacuum bed, the  NUMA controllers and steppers are probably single phase and just use 1 of the three phases - though would be a question for the your CNC mech. I suspect with the right know-how, even though 3 phases go into the CNC, the power distribution inside the CNC could be bypassed via a UPS.

I think its a little bit of bad form though of the CNC to behave like this - if it really did crack into the tool changer then something is wrong as should have limit switches/dead zones

 

[jmbfestool]

CNC is 3 phase - but 3 phases are probably only used on the spindle and vacuum bed, the  NUMA controllers and steppers are probably single phase and just use 1 of the three phases - though would be a question for the your CNC mech. I suspect with the right know-how, even though 3 phases go into the CNC, the power distribution inside the CNC could be bypassed via a UPS.

I think its a little bit of bad form though of the CNC to behave like this - if it really did crack into the tool changer then something is wrong as should have limit switches/dead zones

Yeah it does have limit switches

But when the  spindle is plunged down the body hits the tool changer.  The spindle has to be fully up so it passes over the top of the tool changer and then shortly after there is a limit switch but it's to late if the spindle stayed down.

 

[jmbfestool]

I'm pretty certain your CNC has a computer or two on board as controllers. It/they may just look like a box but they are computers. If you can isolate their power and it should be fairly easy, you can put a UPS on it.

I have a cheesy CNC and it has a controller (computer). I don't see how else it could possibly work (Computer Numerical Control).

Tom

Ah yes I see what you are saying I'll talk to my tech guy and see what he says.

i don't think I'll attempt anything myself last time I tried to do something I cleaned/deleted all the parameters on the CNC making my CNC become totally useless.

Cost me to get it all back on

 

[jmbfestool]

I have a friend who had real problems with mobile phone reception at his house and after much back-and-forth with the service provider, they gave him a "personal" transceiver to put in his house. Effectively, he had a cell tower in his living room.

Good luck!

Tom                                                                                                                                                                                        Does he wear a tinfoil hat? MARK

Did you repost your comment? I'm sure it came before a couple of other posts

 

[tbellemare]

Mark's question showed up weird in the bottom right on my screen. It was about a foil hat?

Tom

 

[jmbfestool]

Any more info of the briquette machine ?  price, make, any vids of it working

Well I did make a video and I wrote and essay how much I liked the briquette machine.

I was going to post it the fallowing day but then the machine decided to destroyed its self.

Wasn't very impressed at all.

I decided to look at the machine in more detail to see if it was my fault.

I came to the conclusion it's under engineered.  It's a good machine but they haven't built it strong enough and/or haven't added appropriate cut out switches to stop the machine crushing its self.

I asked a friend who owns a small factory which builds machines (annoyingly first thing he said to me should have asked me to build one for you) any way he had a look and agreed it wasn't made to last and told me to take it apart and he will redesign it.

We both agreed if we repaired it it would happen again.  So might as well make it so it lasts.

You might be thinking while reading this why don't you take it back its not even a week old well I did contact the company and apparently it's my fault.

This is the reply I received when I took a picture of what happend.....

"Thank you for the information.

No, you don't have to be standing constantly next to the machine.
Once the machine is set up properly (i.e. the briquettes are coming out at a sufficient length after 15-20 minutes (machine running from cold)), the only thing that needs to be done is to feed the hopper with material.

There is an exception if a different material is supplied (i.e. hardwood instead of softwood, sawdust as opposed to shavings, etc.), then the machine temperature and pressure are to be re-adjusted.

The clamp must not be tightened too much as this will create extra pressure and a blockage that the piston may not be able to push through. lf this happens, the machine gets blocked and the piston may be derailed.

If this happened, a replacement piston head will be necessary or the piston head surface needs to be grinded smooth in order to be used again.

I hope this helps.

Kind Regards"

 

[Alan m]

what happened jmb

 

[jmbfestool]

what happened jmb

Here is a picture of the mechanism I took off
[attachimg=1]

What happens is the plate where the hydraulic ram is fixed onto flexes.

Now when the ram is fully extended you get hydraulic pressure builds up and a valve switches over once it reaches its max pressure the piston retracts and same thing happens again and that's how it goes back and forth.  Just enough  force goes into pushing the shavings/dust through.

No high force is ever applied to the rest of the structure the hydraulic ram takes the max force for the valve to switch when the piston reaches its limits.

The problem is when shavings/dust gets blocked and the hydraulic ram can't force the shavings/dust through.  Then the force gets put onto the plate.

If this happens even once the ram slightly bens up after a couple times the ram goes to much out of alignment.  The pipe it runs along is a half pipe and then becomes fully round.  Once the hydraulic ram is out instead of going into the pipe it hits the top edge of the pipe. You can see in the picture is crumpled over slightly.

This then bends the plate more and bends the pipe and causes damage to the piston head.

All this can happen within 10mins so basically you must stand by the machine all the time .

This is not practical at all.

Some modifications will allow the machine to jam up all day long not causing any damage at all.

 

[jmbfestool]

Here are some pictures of the piston head.

You can see it has created some horns were the head hit the top part of the pipe.

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

 

[mattfc]

dear me, another day another drama, not having much luck at the moment!

 

[woodguy7]

What did that machine cost ?

 

[tiralie]

Here are some pictures of the piston head.
You can see it has created some horns were the head hit the top part of the pipe.

I still don't understand why you can't take it back. It's no good.
Tim

 

[Deansocial]

Id send it back. Its not fit for purpose. Softwood density can change massively as can hardwood so it would constantly need resetting.

Get your money back

 

[Tinker]

Id send it back. Its not fit for purpose. Softwood density can change massively as can hardwood so it would constantly need resetting.

Get your money back

DITTO in spades.  DITTO with a big club would be even better.  That machine cost you a ton of bucks.  Whatever the cause of the problem, a fix is going to still leave you with a recurring problem.  I have no knowledge of how a CNC works, but I am pretty sure there is something wrong inside that will continue giving you grief even after you fix the obvious.  I really think some of the forcefulness of your solution with JCB is in order.  I remember your approach to your chisel problem as well.  I think it is time for you to go into high gear.
Tinker