ugh... stupid chinese mill part two

[psomero]

so i fixed the drawbar. ended up splicing a 7/16-20 grade 8 zinc plated bolt to the original piece.

unfortunately, there's something horribly wrong with some part of the drivetrain. i was putting along just fine drilling some holes in a piece of 4130 and when i went to start the machine back up after switching parts in the vice, nothing happened. i looked around and couldn't see anything visibly wrong, so i assumed it was just a blown fuse.

when my dad, the electrician who hooked the thing up in the first place, came home, he told me that i managed to blow both 12 amp fuses we had in the disconnect box. so we replace the damn fuses and go to start the thing up and it makes a HORRIBLE whining sound now. it's really scary. i had the thing on for about a quarter of a second before i shut it off, knowing something was extremely wrong.
i'm assuming it has something to do with either the motor or something dying inside of the gearbox. i decided to call up aaron moss (the GREAT guy who runs industrial hobbies and sold me the machine) and he told me i'd have a new motor headed my way sometime this week. i'm going to cry if stuff doesn't start going my way with this thing soon. there is definitely something horribly wrong to be causing such an awful sound. i tried shifting through all six gears and sticking it in between gears to see if it made the noise with "no load" on the motor, but nothing remedied it. it's filled with premium quality edit: ISO 68 machine oil as specified by the manufacturer, i wasn't being hard on anything at all and i honestly do not know what'd make something crap out on me. anybody got any sort of clue as to what the heck could be going on?

[This message has been edited by psomero (edited 03-08-2005).]

[Jim Luck]

You don't give enough information but, first, did your repair work cause the problem, did it jam the spindle?. Is the spindle lock disengaged?. Is the power downfeed disconnected?. Is it in gear and spinning freely by hand?. Take the drawbar out and try it again after answering all my questions!. If the problem continues, note it, and I'll check your answer later or tomorrow. Good-Luck ----

[psomero]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Jim Luck:
You don't give enough information but, first, did your repair work cause the problem, did it jam the spindle?. Is the spindle lock disengaged?. Is the power downfeed disconnected?. Is it in gear and spinning freely by hand?. Take the drawbar out and try it again after answering all my questions!. If the problem continues, note it, and I'll check your answer later or tomorrow. Good-Luck ----</font>

no, the repair work did not cause the problem. i was running it for atleast an hour with my patched drawbar before the thing acted up.

there is no spindle lock or power downfeed on this model machine.

moving the spindle by hand feels exactly how it felt before it started making noises. the higher the gear, the less resistance on the spindle's movement.

i tried it with the drawbar in, drawbar out, quill up, quill down, quill moving up and down while running, nothing worked at all. i checked every single adjustment i can possibly think of save taking the damn thing apart. the motor's coming off tomorrow afternoon and i'll see if it makes any noise itself with truly no load on it (read: spindle not connected to gears). if that ain't it, i guess i'm going to become familiar with the guts of the head quite soon...

[MickeyD]

I looked at the WT version of the gear head dovetail mill and got a little scared of the gearbox. Also, there have been a lot of problems reported on the Yahoo mill/drill group, mostly oil leaks, but a few have mentioned motor and gear problems. I get the feeling that the Chinese machine tool builders have a "little" way to go when it comes to gear heads on the smaller mills. I ended up getting a WT 6x26 to replasce my old RF-30 and other than the stand being a little shakey, I am very happy with it. I guess that they learned a lot about belts from having to tighten them so many times under the communist rule.

Mike
http://www.p1800s.com/mill/

[.RC.]

There is nothing complicated about the heads in those mills...I have had the cover off my mill drill and it looks a pretty simple gearbox..

[Jim Luck]

Sorry to hear the results. I hate to say it sounds like a major headache, but it is what it is!. Good-Luck -- Post the results so we can learn from your misfortune!!

[wierdscience]

Relax,breathe deep,take it one step at a time.

[egpace]

Hang in there, when you finally get it repaired you'll get a real sense accomplishment. You've already improved on it with the drawbar fix. just keep pluggin away.

I understand that a Chinese factory actually made an acceptable drawbar only once. To commemorate this accomplishment, the Chinese government imortalized the craftsman by placing his image on their currency...machining a drawbar of course.

[psomero]

hot damn, that motor sounds HORRIBLE. i pulled it off and gave it a whirl with no load. there is a dead bearing in it or something. good thing there'll be a new one on my doorstep, free of charge, in seven days...

[matador]

psomero,i thought you might not have the speed selector in completely.This sometimes causes a high pitched whine.but i guess you would know.glad to see your supplier is coming up with a new motor though,mine has started to hesitate before coming up to speed.i think this might be a capacitor going west.other than that,i think it's still not a bad little machine for the money

------------------
Hans

[charlie coghill]

Psomero you might want to check the cooling fan in the motor it could be loose. The fan on my mill motor is out side of the motor under a cover that directs the air down over the motor.Charlie