Re: [Emc-users] Cincinnati Toolmaster

[dave <den...@ch...>]

On Tue, 2010-04-27 at 12:03 -0700, Kirk Wallace wrote:
> I rescued a Cincinnati Toolmaster 1 series mill on its way to the
> recycler. It looks very similar to this one:
> http://www.lathes.co.uk/toolmaster/img1.jpg 
> http://www.lathes.co.uk/toolmaster/index.html 
> 
> ,except I don't have a Y axis motor drive, a plain ram, and no head. It
> has been out in the rain for a while but it seems to be cleaning up
> okay. The Y axis is smooth. The X axis gets hard to move on the ends. I
> guess it is a bit worn, but it has been around since the mid 50's (best
> guess), so I should expect it to be a bit worn (like me). There is _no_
> space in the shop for it, so I am having a little trouble deciding what
> to do with it. It is slightly smaller than the Shizuoka, but slightly
> bigger than the Bridgeport. After the Shizuoka, the Bridgeport seems a
> little crude. The Cinci is beat, but better made. One of my Bridgeport
> projects was to replace the head with a fixed 30 taper spindle and use
> the knee for Z, but I now am thinking I could restore the Bridgeport to
> its original configuration and sell it, then do the CNC and fixed 40
> taper spindle on the Cinci. If anyone has information or parts that may
> change my plan, please let me know. Pictures of my machine coming soon.
> 
> [Off Topic] I also got a Lincoln Pro-Cut 55 plasma without a torch (PCT
> 80). The owner said it didn't work, but that is all I know. It seems a
> replacement torch costs more than a whole working used unit. There are
> some cheap "two pin" torches on eBay. I wonder if they can be hacked
> onto the Pro-Cut? Can any testing be done without a torch? Any plasma
> help would be appreciated.
> 

Hi Kirk, 

I have the Contourmaster version of that machine with the 215 to 5650
rpm drive. It was a Boeing machine, then went to a trade school where it
acquired CNC via a Russian engineer. I bought it at auction for a good
price since everyone was afraid of it. 

It came with a set of 40 taper toolholders and an ER20 collet adapter. 
If yours uses the cinci truncated 40 taper holders I hope you have them.
Mine uses a large bronze nut to hold the toolholders into the taper. 
I made different thrust ring so I could also use ER40 collets. 
On the other hand if you have to build a spindle then you can make
choices. Doing a non-tiltable spindle would be my choice ( a bit
stiffer). 

I did implement the W in place of a Z and was not real happy with the
result. I used a gear-head servo motor of limited power which may be the
reason for my unhappiness. Moving the mass of X and Y to get Z seems
like a poor way to do it. I'm implementing a Z on that machine now and
it looks like < 50 W of servo motor will do it. My W has a glass scale
on to so I can do repeatable setups. 

Good luck. It should be an interesting project. :-)

Dave