Wes bought a 25-year-old Milltronics ML15 CNC lathe at a improbable worth. However regardless of trying prefer it had by no means been used, it had various electrical gremlins that have been stopping it from working. Milltronics and the servo driver producer, Glentek, weren’t any assist. So, Wes did a reverse engineering deep dive to revive the previous machine.
You will get actually nice offers on previous machine instruments at auctions. These instruments are typically too heavy for hobbyists to move, too large for them to retailer, and too tough for them to energy with family circuits, in order that they don’t hassle. However they’re additionally too previous to nonetheless be in service and supported by the producers, so professionals don’t need to take the danger. Subsequently, there are offers for individuals who can accommodate the quirks and complications.
Wes is precisely that form of individual and he bought the Milltronics ML15 at a low worth at public sale. He believes it got here from a college that by no means used it, as a result of it doesn’t appear to have a single chip within the tray or chip within the paint. Nevertheless it wasn’t working and {the electrical} points proved to be fairly dang irritating.
The primary couple of points have been straightforward to unravel. One was fastened with a fast CMOS battery substitute. The opposite required a show change within the BIOS settings to get the proper decision for the display screen.
From there, the issues have been a lot more durable to deal with. The Z axis wasn’t transferring and the pc was exhibiting a fault code. By switching the X axis and Z axis, Wes decided that the servo driver board was dangerous. Glentek made that driver, however obfuscated the related damaged elements with their very own half numbers. Complete driver boards and people particular person elements have been all extremely costly.
Luckily, after an absurd quantity of effort put into reverse engineering, Wes was ready to determine which particular elements have been defective and discover fashionable replacements which might be each accessible and appropriate. After swapping these, the motive force board got here again to life.
The ultimate downside was with the encoder for measuring spindle pace. It was toast, however fortunately replacements are fairly straightforward to seek out. Wes did must machine a substitute shaft to get the substitute to suit, however that was a fast repair.
Now Wes has a pleasant CNC lathe that performs properly, which he bought for pennies on the greenback.
