I Got myself a "New to me" mill

Wells-Index are indeed excellent mills and CONSIDERABLY more rigid than Bridgeports

Gunner

Fred Thompson and Condi Rice in '08!!!

Very reasonable. However..it may not be necessary. B&S9 tooling is avaiable and for not much money. And frankly..you really dont need a s*it load of mill tooling for most uses.

Gunner

Fred Thompson and Condi Rice in '08!!!

Cringe...as a service tech who has pulled a goodly number of Freqrol vfds which immolated themeselves...I frankly prefer the GPD315 (V7) or the nice old PC-3 (badged by a number of companies)

Gunner

Fred Thompson and Condi Rice in '08!!!

Hmm - why did they fail? I've got two A-200 somethings running tools in the basement and two more of lesser HP rating for whatever turns up in future.

Mike

"Brent" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@e65g2000hsc.googlegroups.com:

I have used

Cosmic rays, sunspots, phases of the moon, UFOs...no idea. If they live past 5 yrs old..they seem to last forever, in an industrial invironment. It was all the pre 5yr replacing that was a killer

I once hooked a 220vt PC-3 to a line the electrician assured me was 220. It was 440. Blew the 300vt Movs across l1-l3..and put the drive into alarm. Powered it back up on the proper voltage (prayer...) and its been running for 6 yrs now.

My Gorton millmaster is running on a PC3 that took a direct lighting strike to the input line. Blew out an entire shop of Fanucs, etc etc. Blew up the motherboard and controller cards in the Omniturn it was in. Smoked the lathe control. Blew out the shop refridge. Exploded the compressor in it.

It only took out the 0-10 analog voltage input. I run the mill with the potentiometer input.

Tough drives..really tough.

Gunner

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. Lazarus Long

SNIP

Hey Brent,

Index, and Wells-Index, are good machines, so you got a good deal.

One of the really valuable features of these decent sized mills is the ability to do an instant reverse, and you cannot do that if you put a single-phase motor on in place of the original three phase. Rotary Phase Converters (RPC) are super simple to put together, and then you have all the useful options available to you.

Take care. Happy Easter.

Brian Lawson, Bothwell, Ontario.

Hmm. Never ran the thing myself, but it seemed reasonably good quality from a reputable manufacturer. I found the manual well written and easy to understand (hard to find these days). One thing that the manual said that I believe but I bet a lot of people forget is that the vfd must be connected to something large and metal as a heatsink. Mine was originally bolted to the side of the b'port. I could see how someone who runs the thing sitting on a table or shelf could easily fry it.

Do they have a good flea market at NAMES?

Thanks,

Wes

Guess I'll just have to trust to luck then. One of them was a surplus unit bought at NAMES 5 years ago or so and it's been running fine since then. The other was a used drive from Ebay that faults once in a while, but likely it just needs a parameter adjustment or two.

It pays to trust your own measurements as opposed to what someone else thinks - especially on something that will kill you long before it makes you stronger. Arc flash can really ruin your day! It's a good idea to check the voltage before power is removed just to be sure your meter is working anyway and to verify that you are using the correct disconnect device before it is locked out.

Teco and Hitachi seem to be good brands too, from what users say.

Mike

I'd strongly suggest the re-bore to R-8. I had it done on my Index 645 and have no regrets. It opens up a heck of a lot of lesser priced accessories. One small down side, when Wells-Index re-bores from BS9 to R8 they do not add the alignment pin. This is a small inconvenience.

Hey Wes,

No flea market as such, but there will be a number of vendors of products, or rather items, that you might think would be found in a flea-market. And ASK!! They may not have all the inventory on display, or with big crowds you just can't get a counter-front position to see it all.

Take care. Happy Easter.

Brian Lawson, Bothwell, Ontario.

On Sun, 08 Apr 2007 10:32:13 -0400, snipped-for-privacy@lycos.com wrote: Do they have a good flea market at NAMES?

Hey Wes,

See my reply under "NAMES flea-market?..

Hardly sitting on a table top

Gunner

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. Lazarus Long

This was a brand new fresh install. The lathe was right out of the shipping container. The electrical box and disconnect was marked 220 3ph clearly. The inhouse electrician assured me. Shrug.. Now I follow St. Reagans advice..."Trust but Verify"

They are indeed. I had an older Hitachi on my big drill press and only removed it because the "squeeling" was making me nuts. I replaced it...with a PC3

Gunner

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. Lazarus Long

That pin would likely have to be put in with an EDM..dem spinders..day is really really hard eh?

Gunner

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. Lazarus Long

Does wells regrind them so the old tooling still fits too? (I remember seeing a post last week on a burke number 4 that said that the ( B&S no9 and R8 tapers can overlap?)

am i wrong or would it be no harder to install the R8 tooling than the No9 B&S since the B&S doesnt have the pin anyhow

No idea if they will interchange. Ive never tried to stick a #9 in a R8 spindle. Ill do that though.

Gunner

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. Lazarus Long

(snip)

Gunner, that should only work if it was originally a B&S #9 that has been reground to R8. On a reground spindle, there is a patch in the middle where the B&S is larger than the R8, so it doesn't get touched. The R8 is larger in front and back, so that is where material is removed from the #9 spindle. On a reground one if there is enough of the original taper left you could, in theory, use #9 tooling. But on an original R8 spindle, the B&S #9 should stick out and only touch where the R8 changes angles. Todd