[Lostoffroad]

I bought this machine used at an auction this past sept. I was told it had a bad spindle but was in running condition. The lot came with a new/rebuilt spindle as part of the deal. I proceeded to change the spindle out only to find that imo the old spindle was fine and the problem was actually in the spindle motor. I pulled the motor out to find the upper bearing torched and fused to the stator of the motor. I was able to track down a lower bearing but the upper i have not been able to find yet. Fives group said they dont show parts for the motor and that i need to send it out to have rebuilt. Also the resolver on the top of the motor had 2of the wires cut/broke when i initially started looking into it. I do know the auction company supposedly had a tech look at the machine, pulled it apart but didnt have time to fix it so it was put back together. Unless i can figure a way to fix it it 1100 for one from fives group. Is there anyway to retro a newer encoder on this thing since parts are hard to find? On another note my motor pn does not work even though its a vickers name plate and the pn for the resolver that i have doesnt exist either. Pretty frustrated at this point since im a small shop and put for me a descent amount of money up to get a cnc finally and still not have it running. Any help would be appreciated

[Lostoffroad]

Another question would be is there suppose to be any type of seal for the motor bearings? When i pulled the spindle motor apart i didnt see any seals in the housing that would protect/ seal the besrings. Also how are they lubed? With what? And without seals i dont see how they would survive very long.

[pete from TN]

Lost,
Man I feel ya. I have a similar machine and have gone thru a lot to get it running including a retrofit of the control. My spindle bearings are also fine but the spindle motor bearings are making noise. My machine had the Emerson Control techniques CT FNC control on it. The spindle motor is a 12k RPM motor. What control is your machine using and what spindle motor do you have? I am working on installing an encoder to the spindle motor so I can have orientation and feedback for rigid tapping. I can share what I am doing with mine but I doubt that will help you with yours since your control probably needs the resolver feedback. Peace




Pete

[Lostoffroad]

Pete, mine a 12k motor also but is setup for 6k in the settings. I have the acramatic 2100 control with the blue/white face vickers servo drives. Does your motor have any type of a seal on bottom or top of the bearings? The housing has a couple grooves bored in it where it looks like you could put an o-ring but nothing was there and no wear marks on the stator.
I wish mine would run. Ive powered it up but as soon as i hit the green button it gives me a couple alarms and no machine power. Whats funny is im pretty sure at least one alarm shouldnt be going off since according to Fives group my machine is not wired for some type of feedback

[pete from TN]

Lost,
No my motor is actually setup with several shrouds atop that house the vents for the cooling fan that sits in the top shroud. the resolver mount has a cover that has a jacket for the resolver wires to go thru and this whole assembly covers the top bearing completely so when I removed that cover it was clean underneath unlike outside the cover which was covered in black crap.

My motor is 12k as well with 6k spindle.

Pete

[Lostoffroad]

Ok so it sounds like your is the same. Mne had all the shrouds too it was clean inside but im curious as to how they are oiled? Do you lightly pack them in grease or just drip some synthetic oil on tue bearings when you put it together?

[pete from TN]

No Idea yet man I have not tackled that problem as they are not THAT noisy just yet. I will be doing it at some point here soon tho.

No surprise the motor bearings go with that CRAZY RPM they run that big motor at. a 6k mill spindle is not terribly fast but that motor is singing pretty good at full tilt. I suppose you get some damn good torque that way with a 2-1 reduction. I have not milled a helluva lot of heavy steels with mine yet but the steels I did do it had no problems with. I am trying to find part numbers for the spindle motor bearings both top and bottom and a friend here named Lee in UK has a similar problem and my have already swapped them out I dunno. Maybe he will chime in here... He was looking for the part numbers too... Peace

Pete

[slowlearner]

Lostoffroad,
We have a member on this forum by the name of Mike Kilroy. His company can get the bearings for your motor. That is who I purchased from when mine needed replacement.
Welcome to the forum!

[mike_Kilroy]

Thanks slowlearner. I have been on the road for a few days and didn't see this until now. Yesterday was play hooky day and spent In Indianapolis drooling over the 600+ booths at the national NRA convention.... but alas, time to get back to reality once again.

Lostoffroad, where are you located? And we probably can help you various fashions. I just noticed Thursday while looking for a Z axis motor in the warehouse that we have 3 of those spindle motors on the shelf here that our guys found somewhere (I assume yours is the 2031 motor)....

Just some comments on your various questions:

- no, you do not want to change the RESOLVER in the back of your spindle motor to an encoder; our VFS5 drive will not accept an encoder, only resolver. The resolver used is not obsolete (we normally stock them)....
- There is no oil mist or lube; spindle has very expensive high speed lifetime lubed bearings that are lightly packed with special grease when installed.
- IIRC there is not a shaft seal on the spindle, but I could be wrong
- motor can go 12,000 rpm all day long under load (remember, the bearings are not the normal $50 ones - that when used seem to last about 2 months instead of the 10+ years your did)
- belt off motor to spindle is 2:1 ratio; hence your 6krpm & 12krpm 'discrepancy
- Your powerup faults will have to be addressed 1 at a time until all are made to go away. Sounds like more than just a spindle motor issue going on with that machine.

Feel free to email me with exact motor part no and list of questions what we can help with. (email in signature line below).