Fanuc 18T on Hardinge Conquest T42 spindle alarms

We just received a Hardinge Conquest T42 with Fanuc 18T control. It was working at machinery seller's shop a couple weeks ago. Now doesn't want to play nice.

Getting several spindle errors. Alarm 24 on control which is SU-01 on the Fanuc spindle drive, and an Alarm 33. Looks like these are either power or communication issues between the drive and the motor. I also saw a Spindle Brake alarm at one point, but that seems to be intermittent.

Unfortunately riggers didn't support the machine properly during transport and the spindle encoder cable had some sheet metal sitting on it during transport *however* is has no visible damage what so ever.

We thought some connections might be loose on the spindle drive or motor but have not seen any change by unplugging, blowing connections, replugging.

Somehow got the Z and X axes to move at one point so I can only assume that the phases are in the right order. Hydraulics work properly too.

Any thoughts? LONG wait times to talk to a Hardinge techy in Mississauga. Will try Fanuc USA tomorrow but I'd assume the MTB would be more useful in this instance.

Thanks for any and all pointers.

Regards,

Robin

Although not a lathe but a Makino's FNC80 mill, the toolchanger would not function for many years. I knew this when I bought it at auction as I spoke with the operator who was assisting its disconnection (Hardinge in 1995)

I used it for about 2 years manually changing tools which was not a hassle as I was not mass production.

Anyway, one day I was standing next the machine looking at the changer (huge lump on side) and noticed it was not sitting down on a reference lip by about 1mm or 2 mm at one end. Hmmmm I thought so with much effort I released the 4 bolts holding this lot on and the thing clunked back down onto the ref lip. It was obviously not against the ref microswitch.

I punched in a few tool change lines on a test code and away she went............bloody lovely machine that was.

Check all micro switches and stops etc one could have been upset in the move.