Denford Software & Machines

Hi Opentoideas,

Tried to reply to your PM but think I must have a glitch as Outbox is stacked
PM your phone or email and i will get in touch

...Sweep

I had to look up how sending PM works on this BBS software and found out the item stays shown as in the outbox until the recipient reads it.

Replied Sweep

Been away a few days and expected email notifications so hadnt looked in

So next on my list is although i have some delrin rod to play with i want to clean and regrease the spindle and ATC as i doubt they have seen any fresh grease in at least a decade and any thats in is by now at best dried out and crusty.

While i wanted to test everything worked a thorough service makes sense before i start putting it to work.

Someone did do a strip and service on an ATC, There were 2 types, I think the earlier version had a single pawl, the later had 2 pawls. I seem to recall a worn pawl was resulting in inconsistency's in turret alignment.
Worth documenting and posting up when you do it.

Pete

Fairly sure mine is the older single type and there is a great stripdown guide on here.

Unless anything unusual comes from it i only plan on pulling the drive motor and tool holding block to gain access to clean and regrease.

I dont plan on a full stripdown but you know what they say about plans lasting past first contact....

I had to replace the gearbox on the drive motor on mine. Not sure if you have seen how they work, rotate at I think 24v, once on the correct tool the motor reverses at 12 v and holds against the pawl with the motor stalled on half voltage. In my mind stressing the gears. Think they moved to steppers in the end.

Didnt go too far into the tool changer but enough to clean out the swarf and regrease it so it runs a lot better

and we have chips!

I have created my first 2 programs.

first one is to take a face cut to clean the face and the second is to true the diameter of the bar.

Lesson from this is I need to use the second one to obtain my X datum as my best manual setting only got me close but having run this trueing program can measure and set my X datum from the result.

I also think I need more cutter inserts as just using the ones it came with but they dont seem too sharp.

dont know much about sharing video but here is a link that may work.....

https://photos.app.goo.gl/kDkr4rLSxsBuP2bs8

face cut of 0.5mm

oh and for reference the ATC teardown thread is this one :

viewtopic.php?t=5333

however I do have one slight correction. he says you don't need to remove the heatsink to remove the motor and gearbox..... you do

its held with 2 small grub screws in the solid band at 12 O'clock and 3 O'clock facing the ATC. if you look in the photo of it disassembled you can see the top grub screw and corresponding witness mark on the top of the motor. you need to remove the heatsink to get at the screws holding the motor.

he does say he cant remember doing it but it does need to come off.

so machine DOS software has me thinking there should be a newer version than the one I have.

looking at the Denford site page for vintage software the one I am using is :

StarTurn very old DOS software (prior to big perspex guard type)

now this description suggests that there is a different version FROM the big perspex guard type but its the only starturn software I can see....

does anyone know if there is another? the G code available in this version is different to many of the DOS G code manuals eg G70 G71 being metric/imperial measurement vs finishing cycle and stock removal cycle.

G84 being the canned cycle but I cant find it in what must be newer G code manuals.

I think this may be where the lathe cam designer may be the missing link with this older software but its not in Denfords page either so it may be some of these things are just lost in the mists of time.

I really dont want to convert this as its not all good converting it but I get the feeling I may have to at some point

Added another program today.

As the X,Z datum info is in the PC rather than the lathe I was getting fed up having to re datum X every time I go back and forth....

Since this is the center line of the lathe and never changes this was a frustration so I have created a park routine that I run when switching off to park the tool at X:0 Z50

This lets me datum X on first power up hopefully keeping it near enough. In theory it shouldnt move when powered off so this saves a bit of hassle.

I still have to set Z datum to the workpiece but time will tell how well this holds to X0