Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Help on Retrofitting LeBlond

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Subject: Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Help on Retrofitting LeBlond


> brittevalivie@... wrote:
>
> > Anyone out there in the vicinity of central Oklahoma who might be
> > interested in taking a look at a Leblond lathe? I am interested in
> > possibly retrofitting it to a PC based control,but I have no
> > experience in such things. I had planned to use the machine in my
> > start-up business before the control(GE-1050HLB)went down.I'm not
> > sure if I need the hobbiest type retrofit as this is a big lathe and
> > I plan to be doing lots of threading and heavy work on it.I had
> > posted earlier and have been trying to get the original control up,
> > but it looks hopeless.Just hoping someone might be near me who could
> > either retrfit it for me or point me in the right direction.
>

Hello All,

I hope all you folks 'south' of me are having a
quiet Thanksgiving.

We still support 2 LeBlond 12/12 TapeTurns at our
facility, and I must admit that the Immodium vending machine takes a big hit
whenever one of them goes down ! ;-) Seriously though, they will go months
without a problem ....

I would like to toss in a couple of points.

If there is a control related failure ( isolated to
the NC such as it simply won't boot ) there is a good chance your problem is
in the power
supply section. ( located at the bottom of the cab. ) Generally it ends up
being a power transistor or two. The 1050 has a power-up sequence that is
not
easily fooled by scabbing in a power supply of a different brand etc. so you
are often forced to try and isolate the problem.
If the control will boot, but something is amiss
elsewhere, don't rule out broken wiring, or a flaky remote/local selector
switch or even feedhold
selector switch on the pendant. The are little or no proximity switches on
these machines and at least the ones we support use rocker style units that
get corroded
from years of using water-based coolant. These will cause interesting
problems with your I/O voltage. Also check for contact resistance in the
card-cage. (reseat
the boards)


If you do opt to retrofit, don't be hasty to scrap
the resolver assemblies. Apparently Teledyne-Gurly ? make a drop-in
replacement encoder that
has the same mechanical footprint of the original resolver used. These
assembly are unique in that alot of them have anti-backlash gears and on
some there is even
a small motor that helps take up backlash. But do be careful uncoupling them
from the ballscrew. It is very easy to damage the reduction gears.


There is no doubt that any 1050 control can be
rather thirsty in the energy department, but there is still alot of support
availible. They are
capable of some respectable performance even though they are now in excess
of 20 years old.



Good Luck, Wally