boss conversion a lot of work

[j king]

Boy this project is a pain every step. The steppers are so much smaller than originals it really creates alot of work. The mounts all have to be modified because the shafts are so much smaller and shorter.I guess I should have been taking pics and notes as to what I am doing.

I havent saw anyone else change out the original steppers before with something like the keling steppers that I bought.Hope it all comes together sooner than latter.

I got side tracked today as I was starting
on the X axis.I removed the ballscrew .It had a ruff area.I tore it apart and cleaned it all up.Took a couple tries to get it right but once I thought about how it was assembled it went good. Turns nice now so time to move on.Latter .Jim

[j king]

2 axis down. 1 to go.. weeeee

[John Stevenson]

Go for it Mr Gorskey...............:rolleyes:

.

[j king]

"Go for it Mr Gorskey..............."


Clueless on that one John. I did a google search.Referring to Neil Armstrong???

[Liger Zero]

What vintage Boss and what are you converting it to? Rumor has it a Boss might come up for sale shortly, and (get ready) I have room/electric for it now. :D

[j king]

boss 6 BP mill. It is mid 80's.

Changing it to run Mach 3 off of a PC. I thought there would be more interest in this. I guess nobody has changed the original steppers to the new smaller types.I will admit it is coming out good after a bunch of thinking. Cant wait to get it going.

[John Stevenson]

Yes Jim, you are right about the Neil Armstrong link :rolleyes:

It's not that there have not been many conversions, we have done about 8 or 9 but most try to save a bit of money on the build by using the existing steppers.
My big Beaver which is about the size of a Boss SII was built with these as standard and it's still on them.

Some day I may get round to changing them.
The MDI conversion which is going very , very slow is having the newer motors but work keeps getting in the way.

.

[j king]

The reason I am replacing these is because everyone says the originals are obsolete and will not perform as the newer square body motors.

Just seemed like the obvious thing to do for 300 more.

In for a penny in for a pound..

[jacampb2]

I am following this! I wish you were posting some pcis, but mostly I am anxious to see how happy you are with them, I still have not pulled the trigger on replacement motors for my mill, but I need to. I am half considering ordering today...

Later,
Jason

[j king]

Hi Jason.

If I knew somebody was interested I would have taken some build pics. I think I did a pretty good job for adapting the steppers.
I really do like a challenge like this.I can machine most anything but deciding on how I want to do it is the slow part for me. It takes several beers to get a good plan nailed down.Maybe thats the funnest part.(the beers) :0

I'll take some pics of what I cam up with.Just finished the Z mount. I like it! I think you will too.

The hard part will be figuring this CNC stuff out. Old guys have trouble picking this up. Well at least me. May be a while to see how it all works out in the end but I believe I have time off from work to figure it out.

[j king]

Here ya go Jacin.
a few pics of the mounts.
First is the size compairison of the original steppers to the new keling stepper.BIG difference. The shafts are smaller in diaa. and length. I dont want to have a huge overhang of the shaft so I moved all the steppers in to keep the overhang to very little.

I cut the mounting flange face off from the original location and moved the stepper in to align with the screw pulley. This worked out well I feel.I need to paint it of course. : )
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v24/ikimjing/cncpics023.jpg

This is the Y axis mount. I milled the housing out so the stepper passes thru. and mounts from the inside instead of the rear. Hope you can see in the pic.

The rear view.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v24/ikimjing/cncpics004.jpg

This is the Z mount. It isnt on the machine yet. I had it test fit but didnt get a pic. I mounted it upside down from the original.There was no way I was going to tear the head apart to machine the mount that is part of the head casting.This worked out great!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v24/ikimjing/cncpics024.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v24/ikimjing/cncpics025.jpg

[j king]

Front view


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v24/ikimjing/cncpics008.jpg

Jim

John S.

Here is how I fit up the drive pulleys. I bored the pulleys out to 1 inch and made a sleeve. I then put 2- 1/4x20 set screws on the stepper's factory flat. I am sure that will hold them.Plus a dab of locktite for good measure. : )

[cboucher]

i learned to machine on the Boss (and this was just 4 years ago!)... the shop i started in had 2 Boss 6s and 3 Boss 4s (i think)... they are pretty handy machines. I made thousands of parts on them :D definately post pics as you continue!

[Mcgyver]

Jim, I'm interested, but am a few steps behind. hot and heavy final negotiations on a Bport series 1 cnc with a Boss 5. Doesn't work. Blown fuse(s).

So I don't even really know what I'm up against - whether it makes any sense to work with the existing controller or not.

I'm not paying much so figured worst case was its a lot of iron and ball screws for not much money.

Can you tell what drove the original decision to scrap the existing controller - was it toast or just a crappy system to begin with?

[j king]

Mcgyver,

I am not an electrician and being as it was an old basically obsolete setup I wanted to avoid future problems trouble shooting and start new.The machine was in good shape.

It was recommended that I replace the original steppers.The new ones were fairly inexpensive and perform much better and use less power.