New Rebuild on Sherline Chucker Lathe & New build on 5400 mill

[martyscncgarage]

I would throw away that Harbor Freight meter.
It can get you in trouble.

[Richards]

The 20K resistance setting is too high. A motor will only have a few ohms resistance. Try again using the meter's lowest resistance setting. If you have any low resistance resistors, measure one of them to test your meter. I keep a few 10 ohm resistors in stock so that I can do a quick check of my Home Depot meters.

Fluke meters are reliable. I carried two of them whenever I was asked to troubleshoot process control equipment. A few years ago, one of the flukes finally gave up on a Saturday afternoon. The other one had a bad display that garbled the reading, so I bought a cheap Klein meter from Home Depot. It works fine for the kind of stuff that I do now with process control.

[BillB]

1/2 amp probably is not enough to move the motor. Was the meter turned on when you tried to measure the resistance? Have you checked the battery in the meter?

Meter is working fine I’ve been using it for days and yes it was on.

[martyscncgarage]

1/2 amp probably is not enough to move the motor. Was the meter turned on when you tried to measure the resistance? Have you checked the battery in the meter?

Meter is working fine I’ve been using it for days and yes it was on.

Just know we warned you. You are trying to do diagnostics with essentially a "Free" meter.
I would never depend on it at all for anything useful especially when I am working on a CNC control.
I have seen them fail and I know one that catastrophically failed.

Marty

[BillB]

Ill add to the story and will take the advise and look for a new meter. If anyone wants to provide a link for a simple one that would be helpful

Yesterday I to a test by swapping the motor and controls to determine IF the motor is bad. Again all components on both machines and controls are the same.

I connect the lathe control to the mill motor, the motor it dose not spin up. What I expected because at this point im thinking its dead.

I connect the mill control to the lathe motor, and to my surprise it dose not spin up either. BUT MY HEAD IS, LOL WTF! Which leads me to the possible conclusion EVERTHING on the mill spindle control is bad, BUT how could it be when as said I have voltage coming into and out of the boards.

I've checked all wires, cords, plugs are plugged in several times. I have not checked continuity on the ac cords but how likely would that be that one is bad?

What do you guys think?

[BillB]

1/2 amp probably is not enough to move the motor. Was the meter turned on when you tried to measure the resistance? Have you checked the battery in the meter?

Meter is working fine I’ve been using it for days and yes it was on.

Just know we warned you. You are trying to do diagnostics with essentially a "Free" meter.
I would never depend on it at all for anything useful especially when I am working on a CNC control.
I have seen them fail and I know one that catastrophically failed.

Marty

See my post above I was probably typing it when you were posting this. gunna look for new meter

[martyscncgarage]

Search for Fluke 101 on Amazon, less than $50 and better than that Harbor Freight unit.

[martyscncgarage]

I'm lost as to what you are doing between both machines.
Is there AC voltage to the DC spindle drive? That drive is what actually feeds the spindle motor.
I think you mentioned it was a KB unit from Sherline? That's where I would be concentrating my efforts if the spindle analog voltage out from Acorn and out from the KBSI-240D are nearly the same. Tells me the spindle drive might be at fault.

Please take a picture of the spindle drive, close up high resolution picture and see if there is a Tag on the end of the drive identifying the make/model number

I know this electrical/electronic stuff is challenging for you.

[BillB]

I'm lost as to what you are doing between both machines.
Is there AC voltage to the DC spindle drive? That drive is what actually feeds the spindle motor.
I think you mentioned it was a KB unit from Sherline? That's where I would be concentrating my efforts if the spindle analog voltage out from Acorn and out from the KBSI-240D are nearly the same. Tells me the spindle drive might be at fault.

Please take a picture of the spindle drive, close up high resolution picture and see if there is a Tag on the end of the drive identifying the make/model number

I know this electrical/electronic stuff is challenging for you.

Yes it is the OEM speed control board and as said this is a brand new. (new stock) not old stuff from eBay unit. Here are pics. I have not poked around to check AC voltage because Im not sure what leads to place on what thermals. I see L1 and L2 are the incoming AC correct? What color lead from the meter do I put on L1 and what color on L2? I just want to be sure OR dose it matter?

AS for my test yesterday I was simply trying to use both controls to test/run the mill motor.

[BillB]

I'm lost as to what you are doing between both machines.
Is there AC voltage to the DC spindle drive? That drive is what actually feeds the spindle motor.
I think you mentioned it was a KB unit from Sherline? That's where I would be concentrating my efforts if the spindle analog voltage out from Acorn and out from the KBSI-240D are nearly the same. Tells me the spindle drive might be at fault.

Please take a picture of the spindle drive, close up high resolution picture and see if there is a Tag on the end of the drive identifying the make/model number

I know this electrical/electronic stuff is challenging for you.

Yes it is the OEM speed control board and as said this is a brand new. (new stock) not old stuff from eBay unit. Here are pics. I have not poked around to check AC voltage because Im not sure what leads to place on what thermals. I see L1 and L2 are the incoming AC correct? What color lead from the meter do I put on L1 and what color on L2? I just want to be sure OR dose it matter?

AS for my test yesterday I was simply trying to use both controls to test/run the mill motor.