Member postings for Stuart Bridger

Having had a quick scan through the manual, chapter 6 has a series of commissioning tests. I would recommend following these, which should help isolate the issue.

Also worth checking the manual for how any interlocking is messaged on the display. My unit which is not the same make, will display INH or RDY. (Inhibited or Ready) based on the interlock inputs. Then when the run signal is applied, it displays the frequency.

Back to the original question, I would agree that it appears that the VFD is not getting a control signal to ramp up the speed. There are no errors reported, so reverting to front panel operation is a good move.

I also concur with not getting any contact cleaner anywhere near the unit. A complete lack of function is not going to fixed by a squirt.

Edited By Stuart Bridger on 28/03/2020 20:50:43

A few years back, we had a repair workshop at a firm I worked for. One the team was repairing a CRT monitor, which had a noisy pot that adjusted screen hold. You could get a bit of extra life with a squirt of contact cleaner, not applied when the monitor was powered up. When he rotated the pot to work the cleaner in, it arced and burst into flames. Nothing too dramatic, but he never did it again.

Wow, it must be over 30 years since I used that stuff for the exact same repair. From memory it worked well, I didn't need epoxy on top. Still have a little bottle rattling around in my took box, not sure if it still any good!

Another vote for Inverter Drive Supermarket. When I was converting my Chipmaster a few years back. Colin Gibson was very patient in answering my very basic questions and ensuring that I got the right spec product and associated components. This I was very grateful for and somewhat surprising for a commercial organisation who were only going to get a single order from me. On the back of this, the VFD (Emerson Commander) was installed, configured and worked first time. I will say that I did read the manual end to end before starting the install.

I have just been advised that a company local to me that usually makes F1 components is working on ventilator parts. Can't say any more due to confidentiality issues, but it is a reliable soruce

Edited By Stuart Bridger on 25/03/2020 10:16:50

I wouldn't get too hung up about the Spindle nose bush, they are as rare as rocking horse sh*t. On the rare occasion when you need to turn between centres, you can always chuck a bit of stock and turn a centre point on that.

Dave,

...and your mum used to put a vase of flowers on the TV and top it up with water.
I still remember the incident from when I was a child, all was Ok until she switched it on to see if it was still working.

As a 1963 Chipmaster owner, I can say it is a fine machine and echo what Nigel said above. Its capabilities far exceed mine! I have retained the variator and converted to VFD drive to be able run on single phase. Like a lot of British Motorbikes of the same era, it leaks oil like a sieve.. The Chipmaster uses the D1-3 chuck mount whereas the student uses I believe L series. I have had no issue buying D1-3 mount chucks/ backplates, but I can't comment on the availability of L Series.

The majority of threads on my 1963 Chipmaster are Unified, mostly UNC.

Andrew, can you please explain here. I would have thought that higher frequency, meaning higher spindle speed would need more current? Certainly when I converted my Chipmaster, it struggled at higher speeds until it was warmed up. Never as bad a tripping the VFD though.

I don't wan't to distract the main thread. Martin's suggestion above is key to answering this one.

I work for a software company with offices on the East and West coast of the US, Milan and Belgrade, plus a large number of home working staff. As of today, all offices are closed and we are all working from home, I am home based in the UK. For reasons of team morale we are being encouraged to have video enabled on all web conferencing. This obviously increases bandwidth demands. I haven't noticed any form of slowdown, or even thought about it.

I have just come off a call to a work colleague in the Milan area. Police cars are touring the streets with tannoys telling people not to leave their houses unless essential. Buying food means queueing two metres apart outside the supermarket with only one person allowed in at a time. Restautants and bars are closed. Not even funeral services are allowed.

Ref, the wad left in the barrel. I have had one instance of this in 25 years of shooting clays, shooting several thousand rounds per year. I was taught to ALWAYS check the barrels were clear before loading. In this cae it was the last pair of targets. The cartridge report didn't sound right and I missed the target! On checking te barrels, it was the clear that there was an obstruction. The wad was wedged pretty tight and took some shifting with a cleaning rod. This was potentially a highy dangerous, if I had loaded and fired another cartridge there could well have been a burst barrel. Good safety training and practice prevented this.

Edited By Stuart Bridger on 11/03/2020 16:40:44

I gave up with a HP cartridge based printer as it was getting through very expensive cartridges at a rate of knots. Also had issues with the print head. So about 6 months ago I switched to an Epson "tank" based system. A bit more expensive up front, but so far so good.

I would get another GP appointment and ask for a risk assessment. They take in a number of factors BP, diabetes, weight, height, chloresterol level, smoking habits, age, gender, etc. The output is a percentage chance of heart attack or stroke in the next n years. Then can re-run the assessment with and without tablets and you may find the difference is minimal. You can then come to a more qualified joint decision

How about using an old end mill, and just run it down the side of the slots. I don't expect the travel will allow you to get right to the ends, but it will break the back of the job.

The positive thing is that the OP's PCB is not too dense, with good size tracks and pads so could be a lot worse!

Whwn I worked in electronic repair, I had a VERY fine pair of stainless steel pointed tweezers, so fine I was always stabbing myself with them. But they were pefect for working the hole to free stuff up after desoldering

Edited By Stuart Bridger on 24/01/2020 15:30:42