Hi all,

Some progress at last !!

Orac had been dead for about 9 months since I bought it, but recently with a bit of concentrated effort Im making progress....

1) Control Panel built
2) Frame / bench fitted with a 6mm steel top
3) Orac fitted with a new Z motor
4) The spindle motor was repositioned from behind the chuck to a more orthodox loaction of behind the headstock.
5) PC loaded with a clean install of Mach

Rapids are 2,000mm per min which is fast enough for a little machine.
Some work still to do with the position of the keyboard / monitor...this will be mounted at the tailstock end.
I'll fit coolant (main reason for moving tye spindle motor) and use the space under the maching vacated by the old controls for a small tank and pump
AND - get the tool changer working. There is some good info on the forum which will get me started.

I run a quick test, cutting a half sphere on the end of a 25mm dia ali bar - great to see it working at last.


Here is a photo of Orac > http://img124.imageshack.us/img124/2382/img6143.jpg
and a photo of the controls >http://img124.imageshack.us/img124/7117/img6144.jpg

ATB
Derek

Very tidy
Hood

Hello Derek

Got one just like yours it is a very good lathe

Marcel

Another Orac here, just completed. Machine had been gathering dust in a local school for over 20 years (unused). I fitted CNC4PC  C11G and C10 breakout boards. (2nd board needed for the handwheel encoders).  Gecko 201 drives and Mitsubishi inverter for the spindle. Handwheel encoders,contactors and relays recycled from scrapped full size CNC router. All running well.

Looking good
Your drills are a bit on the large side though

Hood

Yes I think MT5 taper is pushing it a bit for the Orac, not too large for the Dean Smith & Grace though ! There is also a Bridgeport Romi CNC lathe in the shop which unusually is PC based (but with closed loop control and DC servos). These machines have a some very user friendly functions. One of the most useful ,which would be great in Mach, is the ability to quickly define "stops". For example, say you wanted to cut a groove a certain width and depth you could quickly set stops for min diameter and min and max Z. Then machine the groove using the handwheels like a manual lathe, but the axis movement will not go past the "stops" you have defined. i.e. When you reach those limits you can just keep turning the handwheels and nothing happens. It's not even necessary to look at the DRO's. I don't know how difficult this would be to introduce into the Mach software but it would be very useful for machines fitted with handwheels. Another feature is taper turning where you define a taper angle and just turn the Z handwheel, the X axis moves automatically to give you the taper you want. Same for radius.

You could do both via user macros or formulas I think, in fact the first could be done by entering values into the softlimits boxes but not sure if there are OEM codes for these boxes, if there are then you could have them on the main page instead of going into the settings menus.
Hood

Hi all,

Some progress at last !!

Orac had been dead for about 9 months since I bought it, but recently with a bit of concentrated effort Im making progress....

1) Control Panel built
2) Frame / bench fitted with a 6mm steel top
3) Orac fitted with a new Z motor
4) The spindle motor was repositioned from behind the chuck to a more orthodox loaction of behind the headstock.
5) PC loaded with a clean install of Mach

Rapids are 2,000mm per min which is fast enough for a little machine.
Some work still to do with the position of the keyboard / monitor...this will be mounted at the tailstock end.
I'll fit coolant (main reason for moving tye spindle motor) and use the space under the maching vacated by the old controls for a small tank and pump
AND - get the tool changer working. There is some good info on the forum which will get me started.

I run a quick test, cutting a half sphere on the end of a 25mm dia ali bar - great to see it working at last.


Here is a photo of Orac > http://img124.imageshack.us/img124/2382/img6143.jpg
and a photo of the controls >http://img124.imageshack.us/img124/7117/img6144.jpg

ATB
Derek

Dear derekbpcnc

Can I get wiring diagram for your CNC conversion? And I want to know what type of motor and brand are you using? (Servo or Stepper). I also want to know Electrical Power wiring diagram (Connection for breakers, relays, Fuse, drive button, E-stop and etc) if it is possible. Thank....

High Tech Key

Very nice and neat - Well done