Emco VFD/Spindle Servo Driver

[mdhubilla]

Hi everyone!
Cheers!

We were able to retrofit our Emco PC Mill 55 and Turn 55 thanks to this forum.

Now I am switching to retrofit our Emco PC Mill 125 and Turn 125. I was able to utilizes the original axis drivers and components like power supply.

I am at end yet again with the original emco VFD/spindle servo drive of Mill 125 and turn 125. I just need to control its speed and direction. Anyone have the wiring diagram and I/O of the spindle motor drive?

Thanks a lot.

[mdhubilla]

As for now, I replaced the spindle head of the mill 125 by the mill 55 spindle head and using a generic 1hp vfd.

[mdhubilla]

Still have plenty of machines to retrofit early next year. These machines are used for training

[martyscncgarage]

If you were able to reuse the existing axis drives and motors with Acorn GREAT!
If the spindle motor is a typical 3 phase motor, YES, your best bet is to replace the drive with a sensorless vector drive. Use a quality unit. Where in the world are you located? Once you you get one machine done, and well documented with a schematic, the rest should go more smoothly.

Good luck!
Marty

[mdhubilla]

Hi Marty,

Yup I was able to reuse (saves lot of money) the original axis drives and motors. Also thanks for your help before specially in the tool changer for lathe 55.. I am from the philippines.. We have around 112 of these machine lathe and mill scattered to six of our regions. All machines are now for retrofitting mainly because of the obsolete win 98 computers attached to the machines.

Thanks to this forum we were able to successfully retrofitted around 10 percent of our machines and the rest would be bext early next year. Just last month we've trained trainers from different regions for them to retrofit their owned machines.

Glad I did choosed centroid over UCCNC

Thank you!

[martyscncgarage]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing the pictures and I'm glad you are giving new life to those machines so the kids can learn on them!

[martyscncgarage]

Are any of the students interested in helping refit the machines to learn the control/electrical side of things?

[mdhubilla]

Hi Marty, as of now some students are helping the trainers assigned in retrofitting as part of their training in mechatronics course. This year I am planning to offer a Basic CNC maintenance course and start with Centroid Acorn as the controller. We do not have this course in our country so I think many would benefit in this training program from DIY builders to Manufacturing industry. Currently I am on curriculum development stage.

By the way, have you ever tried retrofitting an emco 345 lathe or emco 450 lathe? we also have those machines and they are candidates for retrofitting. These machines have turn mill function (3 axis lathe) and utilizes two spindle drives. My target is just to utilize it as a two axis lathe, a normal CNC lathe I would say. I wonder if you have similar projects previously and if you were able to reuse the axis motors.

regards,
Marlon

[martyscncgarage]

Hi Marty, as of now some students are helping the trainers assigned in retrofitting as part of their training in mechatronics course. This year I am planning to offer a Basic CNC maintenance course and start with Centroid Acorn as the controller. We do not have this course in our country so I think many would benefit in this training program from DIY builders to Manufacturing industry. Currently I am on curriculum development stage.

By the way, have you ever tried retrofitting an emco 345 lathe or emco 450 lathe? we also have those machines and they are candidates for retrofitting. These machines have turn mill function (3 axis lathe) and utilizes two spindle drives. My target is just to utilize it as a two axis lathe, a normal CNC lathe I would say. I wonder if you have similar projects previously and if you were able to reuse the axis motors.

regards,
Marlon

I agree with you.
Either they become technicians and can service the machines, or they learn to retrofit machines. OR if they have their own machines they learn how to take care of them themselves.

I have not. No reason you can't get it going with the main spindle. I would think the sub spindle could be made to work but I do not have the experience to be able to answer that question accurately.
The issue with these Emco's usually is the spindle motor. Are they standard 3 phase motors or are they still DC motors? Take pictures of the labels on the motors and of the spindle drives. Then maybe we can have Centroid comment or CNCSNW.

Marty