Hey all,
Since my cracked spindle housing thread back in February, things have been going kind of okay for the past month...until now....AGAIN.
To get to the point, skip to the red text below.
I had Mike Moles at Spindles Plus rebuild the spindle for a great price, however, it took me a couple of months to pay for it with the little manual work I had at the time.
Then I had a private tech come out to adjust the C-axis pre-amp to get my threading and c position lined up again.
Good as new!
![Click image for larger version.
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While installing it, I figured it would be a good idea to clean out the spindle coolant reservoir before I put the new fluid in there.
What a damn mess that was.
To think I bought this as a "fully refurbished machine". My ass.
This is the main contributor to that spindle crack.
![Click image for larger version.
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After that I got about 1 solid week of run time before the spindle coolant pump locked up.
Took it apart and bearings were broken and seized.
I can only assume that prolonged exposure to the crap in that tank had something to do with that.
Mazak wanted $1000 for the pump.
I put new bearings in for $5 and voila, good to go.
![Click image for larger version.
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ID: 110538]()
After that fiasco, I got another month of run time before last week happened.
Timeline of new issues:
1. Threading cycle all of a sudden got out of sync after hundreds of perfect threads.
2. Started the next day, threads good for 3 parts, then out of sync again.
3. Same day, Alarm 15- System Malfunction (drive alarm 38, communication error), Alarm 204- Spindle Drive Malfunction (drive alarm 56?), and the weirdest was that the main spindle drive was just blinking like it wasn't on.
On the phone with Mazak and MEAU for a couple days pulling and cleaning plugs, wires, boards, etc. to no avail.
4. Had the MEAU tech come out today.
Started the machine and now we have an amplifier not equipped alarm.
He puts in a new spindle power supply unit and all is well for the rest of the time he is there, plus an hour after he is gone.
Boom, 1 hour later, Amplifier not equipped, System Malfunction, Spindle Drive Malfunction, and blinky spindle drive lights all at the same time.
Restart machine, it sits idle for about 10 minutes without me touching, then there it goes again.
Restart again, it sits for 20 seconds before the alarms.
I called him back and refused to pay $1400 for his service and parts when they didn't do a damn thing.
He is coming back tomorrow to give me my old power supply and take a look at the boards again, but I just don't think I'll be able to buy new boards at this point.
WHAT DO I DO NOW??!!!
I found some threads from Captdave and posts from CNCToolCat that show how to check the transistors and what not, which I will do tomorrow.
But what else?
Everyone keeps saying stick through it, the first year is rough and bumpy, but this is getting ridiculous now.
This machine has cost me more in repairs than I have even made on it yet.
I also just got another 900 piece job for it with $5000 worth of material sitting right next to it and nothing I can do about it.
I greatly appreciate your time and any help you can offer!!
Since my cracked spindle housing thread back in February, things have been going kind of okay for the past month...until now....AGAIN.
To get to the point, skip to the red text below.
I had Mike Moles at Spindles Plus rebuild the spindle for a great price, however, it took me a couple of months to pay for it with the little manual work I had at the time.
Then I had a private tech come out to adjust the C-axis pre-amp to get my threading and c position lined up again.
Good as new!
![Click image for larger version.
Name: IMG_20140427_171726_053[1].jpg
Views: 38
Size: 99.6 KB
ID: 110533](http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/attachments/f36/110533d1403734772t-sqt18-ms-issues-part-2-img_20140427_171726_053-1-.jpg)
While installing it, I figured it would be a good idea to clean out the spindle coolant reservoir before I put the new fluid in there.
What a damn mess that was.
To think I bought this as a "fully refurbished machine". My ass.
This is the main contributor to that spindle crack.
![Click image for larger version.
Name: IMG_20140429_183327_139[1].jpg
Views: 43
Size: 99.7 KB
ID: 110537](http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/attachments/f36/110537d1403734898t-sqt18-ms-issues-part-2-img_20140429_183327_139-1-.jpg)
After that I got about 1 solid week of run time before the spindle coolant pump locked up.
Took it apart and bearings were broken and seized.
I can only assume that prolonged exposure to the crap in that tank had something to do with that.
Mazak wanted $1000 for the pump.
I put new bearings in for $5 and voila, good to go.
![Click image for larger version.
Name: IMG_20140517_171152_959[1].jpg
Views: 39
Size: 100.6 KB
ID: 110538](http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/attachments/f36/110538d1403735085t-sqt18-ms-issues-part-2-img_20140517_171152_959-1-.jpg)
After that fiasco, I got another month of run time before last week happened.
Timeline of new issues:
1. Threading cycle all of a sudden got out of sync after hundreds of perfect threads.
2. Started the next day, threads good for 3 parts, then out of sync again.
3. Same day, Alarm 15- System Malfunction (drive alarm 38, communication error), Alarm 204- Spindle Drive Malfunction (drive alarm 56?), and the weirdest was that the main spindle drive was just blinking like it wasn't on.
On the phone with Mazak and MEAU for a couple days pulling and cleaning plugs, wires, boards, etc. to no avail.
4. Had the MEAU tech come out today.
Started the machine and now we have an amplifier not equipped alarm.
He puts in a new spindle power supply unit and all is well for the rest of the time he is there, plus an hour after he is gone.
Boom, 1 hour later, Amplifier not equipped, System Malfunction, Spindle Drive Malfunction, and blinky spindle drive lights all at the same time.
Restart machine, it sits idle for about 10 minutes without me touching, then there it goes again.
Restart again, it sits for 20 seconds before the alarms.
I called him back and refused to pay $1400 for his service and parts when they didn't do a damn thing.
He is coming back tomorrow to give me my old power supply and take a look at the boards again, but I just don't think I'll be able to buy new boards at this point.
WHAT DO I DO NOW??!!!
I found some threads from Captdave and posts from CNCToolCat that show how to check the transistors and what not, which I will do tomorrow.
But what else?
Everyone keeps saying stick through it, the first year is rough and bumpy, but this is getting ridiculous now.
This machine has cost me more in repairs than I have even made on it yet.
I also just got another 900 piece job for it with $5000 worth of material sitting right next to it and nothing I can do about it.
I greatly appreciate your time and any help you can offer!!