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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    475

    Hafco Metal Master HM-52 CNC Conversion

    Firstly, I'd like to say hello to everyone on this awesome forum.

    Well here is the start of my CNC conversion of a Hafco Metal Master HM-52 Horozontal and Verticle Knee mill. It is a Tiawaneese machine which I purchased from the importer here in Australia. The machine itself is very similar in design to a Bridgeport machine only heaps cheaper. I have already done many manual jobs with it so far and it has passed every test with flying colours. Here is a photo of the HM-52. It cannot be seen in the photo but the HM-52 has 2 drive motors, one for each INT30 spindle, both are belt drive, automatic feed on the X axis, coolant pump, 1000mm X 240mm Table, 600mm Longitudinal Travel, 180mm Tranverse travel, vert spindle to table is 375mm, spindle stroke 125mm, spindle speeds from 90 to 2400rpm running mains power at 1.5kW. Machine stands 2060mm tall and weighs 800kg.
    All slide ways are dove tail's including the ram. The Vertical spindle has a fine feed and can tilt side to side and the ram can swing a full rotation...... oh and the table can also swivel.
    For the price of this thing it is amazing just how many configurations it can handle.
    More posts to come........
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Hafco Metal Master HM-52.jpg  

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    475
    My original plans were to purchase a ready built second hand CNC mill but when I came across the HM-52 I decided to build one myself. This post is a update of how my progress is going. I will start with a description of the attached photo's. The first one is the day I picked my mill up. It was bolted to a wooden pallet, compleatly enclosed in cling wrap and drowned in storage preservative. Total weight including tooling and extras came in at 1.1Ton.
    Here are my servo motors. I purchased them from "babinda01" here on the Zone. He tells me they are wheel chair motors. each motor is new and in excellent condition. They are 24volt with a max current rating of 20amps. I hope to use them to automate X,Y,Z and my indexing head "A". If you look closely at the motor on the left you will notice I have faced the writing off the end plate and also machined a shoulder and added an o-ring. The flat faced surface is where I will mount my optical encoders. I have modified the black plastic cover to go onto the oposite end of the motor and machined it to push up tight onto the o-ring. This should keep my encoders clean.
    Next photo is of my optical shaft encoders. I purchased them from US Digital and had them at my doorstep in Australia in 6 days. Very happy with that. The last photo is one of my drive pulleys. They are XL series belts and pulleys with a 4:1 reduction.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Unloading my machine 1.jpg   Servo Motors - one end machined o-ring fitted to modified end cap for optical encoder.jpg   US Digital optical encoders.jpg   Drive pulleys and belts.jpg  


  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    475
    Today I finished making the components to eliminate backlash in the nut on my X axis leadscrew. I started off by removing the power feed unit and had a bit of a look at what was there. I have done a lot of reaserch on ball screws and the thought of the cost of fitting out 3 axis's with them I gladly opted to go the old (and cheap) way out to eliminate the backlash with 2 preloaded nuts. I left the original nut securely attached to the machine and started making my own. The original nut is in great condition and secured very well. All I had to do was make another nut and use it to pull away from the original nut.
    The first photo has the X axis power feed unit removed and the material sitting on the table to make the adjuster.
    The next photo is milling out the mount.
    Photo 3 is the finished mount.
    In the next 2 photo's I had to mill a small flat into the cross slide casting of the machine to fit the anti backlash nut. To do this I removed the X axis lead screw, removed the X axis limit stops and pulled the table back out of the way exposing the slide ways below. I then pivoted the ram to 20deg and raised the knee all the way up and took the vert spindle down to meet it. By screwing the ram and the Y axis I easily milled the flat.
    Using my lathe, I machined a 4mm pitch nut from brass and attached it to the mounting plate.
    The last photo is of the monting plate held into position. Tomorrow I will mark out the holes on the machine and drill and tap them. Then I have to bolt it all on, adjust it up and then start on the bearing mount to eliminate the axial movement (backlash) in the hand wheel assembly.

    Chich
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails X axis power feed unit removed and steel blank cut for anti-backlash nut.jpg   Milling backlash nut mount.jpg   Finished backlash mount.jpg   Swing ram out over cross slide to mill a small flat.jpg  

    Milled small flat into cross slide.jpg   Finished backlash mount with Nut mounted to it.jpg   Mount held in position.jpg  

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Posts
    20

    Great post!!

    Wow! This is a great post! I am very eager to watch your progress. I think your machine is almost identical to one which I am considering. It is also an Asian machine (not sure if it is Chinese or Taiwanese) and sold through Grizzly: http://www.grizzly.com/products/G3616 and Shop Fox: http://www.woodstockint.com/Products/M1008 I did several searches and could not find any descriptions of CNC conversions on this site, so I am very interested in your progress. Please keep the detailed photos and excellent descriptions coming!

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    475

    Talking

    Thanks for your kind reply jkujawa. Yes the 2 machines in your post are very similar to my HM-52. The configuration of this type of mill is always stretching ones imagination into different setup positions. If you have time to look at http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showth...t=23872&page=2 I have added some photo's of some toothed pulleys I have milled on my HM-52. (You will have to go through the pages)

    Today I drilled and taped M10x1.5 into the machine for the mounting plate screws. Then the brass nut I made was screwed onto the shaft and then the mounting plate bolted into position. Next step was to adjust it all up and give it a go.

    The travel was quite stiff and I noticed the original power feed unit had trouble down the -X end more than the +X end. I set the power feed unit to rapid and ran the table backwards and forwards many times keeping fresh hyraulic oil up to the lead screw and nut to keep it lubricated and also to flush away any contaminants created while the new nut was run into the lead screw. I still have a hand wheel on the screw so I was able to turn it by hand to take some of the load off the puwer feed unit. I now have X axis running fairly smooth BUT NOW with only 0.03mm of backlash......... Sweet!!!!!! I will continue to run it backwards and forward and then probably have to make a very small adjustment in some time. I believe I can very easly reduce the 0.03mm down even more.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails X axis anti backlash nut and mounting plate 1.jpg   X axis anti backlash nut and mounting plate 2.jpg  

  6. #6
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Posts
    1469
    Chich2 I am following your thread with interest. I have a HM-50

    Keen to see how you tackle the Z and with what results.

    Thanks for taking the time to share.

    Hope your getting more rain up there than we are.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    475
    Greolt,
    Yes it is raining as I write this reply. Up to 7 meters of annual rainfall means that it never stops raining. That together with cyclone Lary that hit us this year means there is plenty of time for CNC conversions and I got a good computer out of the dump to run the machine with.....

    I havent decided yet if I am going mount the motors on X and Y or keep on the back lash quest and eliminate it from Y. Time to hit the drawing board.

    Oh! Did I mention it rains a lot here?

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    475

    My mini Machine Shop

    My brother inlaw has been so kind to lend me the corner of his shed to set up a small Hobby machine shop. The floor of the machine shop is 3 sheets of 1.6mm gal steel sheet welded together with 100mm edge bent up the entire way round. This is my chip tray and is fully sealed up with the mig welder to prevent collant or chips going every where. I also put up 2 curtain rails with cheap plastic curtain around the shop to prevent spraying anything all over the shed. Around the back wall is lino or vynal floor covering hung up to again prevent making a mess. (Cool patern too) You can see my mill and also my lathe which is a Hafco Metal Master AL-340A. I got some paint colour matched to my mill and painted a 4X2 inch timber kick rail around the gal tray and also the top of the work bench.

    Special thanks goes out to Mango who transported my Mill home in his ute, Curly who unloaded and positioned my mill with his backhoe, Russell aka epineh here at the zone for putting up my lighting (it's amazing what you can make when you can SEE!) Mum..... (Because you should always thank ya mum). Babinda01 here at the zone for the Tech CNC stuff and My brother inlaw for all the floor space I stole in his Shed! Cheers Rob!!!
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails My Hobby Machine Shop.jpg  

  9. #9
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Posts
    2420
    Nice work on your mill so far man, and I gotta say that you have some REALLY nice lighting installed, are those tri-phos tubes in the fluoro's by any chance ?

    Whoever put those in for you must be really talented (and probably good looking as well :stickpoke )

    Russell.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Posts
    20
    Coming along very nicely! Nice backlash nut assy. Looks like you have plenty of room to adjust to keep it tight. When you finish I will be interested to know the total time and $ spent.

    Keep them coming!

    Thanks!!

  11. #11
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Posts
    2420
    Hey Chich, you might like to know that your power supply for your servo's is sitting on your bench, you now have a supply that can deliver 90 amps @ 24Vdc for a duty cycle of one hour, I though you might like some redundancy with that so you have two, so 90 amps for two hours or 180 amps for one hour, though realistically you won't need that much, so your duty cycle will probably whatever you want, PM me if you want any more info.

    Oh yeah and ZERO ripple, I was talking to Andrew and he said you should aim for as little ripple as possible, so I thought that none was pretty good

    Russell.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Posts
    440
    Nice, stout looking machine..and some good machining too..keep up the pics and info on your conversion. How are the ways and gibbs oiled on your machine ? What software and servo amps are you using ?
    Thanks from a lot of us..

    Adobe (old as dirt )

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    475
    Russ,
    Your a Legend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well done mate!!!!!! Thank you verrrrrrrrry much! I owe you one........ Make that 2! I defintely think that will be the way to go for all the power supply needs.

    Adobe Machine,
    The Hafco HM-52 has grooves in the top of the load bearing surfaces of the dovetails. The sides of the dovetails (angled section) does not. The oil grooves are fed by a spring loaded ball bearing oil point that the operator injects oil through with an oil can. The oil grooves transport and distribute the oil to the entire length of the slide. Halfway allong, the groove breaks out to the gibb supplying it with oil.
    Software will probably be Mach3 from ARTSOFT and my servo drivers will be custom units from Babinda01 here at cnc zone.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    475

    Y-axis anti backlash nut

    I decided to stay on the anti backlash quest to take all the slop out of the lead screw nuts. After that I will make the bearing housings to eliminate any play from my lead screw thrust. Then my motor mounts.

    I wanted to take out the Y axis lead screw and nut to see how much room I had to play with and also check to see how the nut is mounted. I have removed the Y axis hand wheel, bearing mount and lead screw. To remove the lead nut I removed the gibb from the table and removed the table. It was very heavy but with some help from my brother inlaw we got it on the ground without too much trouble. Next I released the bolts on the table pivot and spun it around to remove the "T" slot blots. After that was to tap the center pivot pin out that the mount pivots on and then lift the mount off. After doing that I found the Y axis nut securing screw and removed it. A bit of a tap with a drift and out came the Y axis nut.

    The design for the Y axis will be different to the X axis nut I made as the Y axis nut is easly accsessed from under the knee. I will make 2 new nuts by machining 2 pieces of brass so that they can be bolted together. I will then bolt them together and machine the thread right through both of them. One will have the same mounting to the milling machine and the other one will be able to be shimmed away from the mounted nut and bolted hard against the mounted nut.

    P.S. Adobe Machine,
    You can see the oil grooves on the slides in some of the photo's.

    Chich
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Table Removed.jpg   Table removed and table mount swiveled.jpg   Table and table swivel removed to accsess Y axis lead screw nut fastner.jpg   Y axis Left Hand lead screw and nut.jpg  


  15. #15
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Posts
    2420
    PM sent with all the details, I think you will like what I have created mwahaha

    Russell.

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    475
    Good one Russ!!!! Once again you hve come up with the Tech-o gear!!!! I don't mind at all...... Sure is easy to see with all this LIGHT!!!!!

    Chich

  17. #17
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Posts
    2420
    No probs... have you finished yet ?

    Russell.

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Posts
    19

    hm50

    G'day Chinch

    I also bought a HM 50 (similar to hm52) machine about 2 years ago and after some modification i am very happy with it.
    I have been trolling the web for info on conversion to cnc for a while and bugger me if here you are! :-)
    I too was a little put off (read gobsmacked) by the cost of ball screws to fit out this machine, (around $3000), so i realy like your idea for just loading up the nut with another one, simple but effective.
    I am realy interested in your plans for tackling the z axis as i have been sitting here pondering this my self. That knee and table are mighty heavy and i would think you will need a good reduction box to drive from a small dc motor. Allthough the weight will be an advantage in that you might not need to fit a preload nut on the z axis..
    I had thoughts of utilising the quill feed allthough there is a lot of slop in the rack and pinion and the worm that will require total rebuild in this area. There is also some slop and loss of rigidity as the quill is extedned towards the lower limit of travel.

    Again i would love to hear your thoughts on this..

    Cheers
    Leeroy

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    475

    Z Axis debate

    Leeroy,
    Thanks for the post. Yes the Z-axis is a point of much discussion. I whould have liked to convert the knee to CNC on my machine as the HM-52 also has the horozontal spindle. This whould have allowed me full use of my horozontal spindle and have X as the table left and right, Y whould have been up and down on the knee, and Z whould have been what Y currently is now on the cross slide. CNC gear cutting whould have then been an easy option once I CNC'd my indexing head with the cutter held on the horozontal arbour. (Pictures can be seen of this when I manually cut some timing pulleys). http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showth...t=23872&page=2

    With motor controll set up this way then also lets you use the verticle spindle, which is the one you would use. X whold be the table left and right, Y would be the cross slide and Z would be the knee up and down.

    It would be very easy to have 2 different setups saved in your software so that when you start your controll computer you simply select the mode you want to machine in for the task and the computer runs the mill in that configuration.

    The million dollar question though, is often argued about wether you automate the verticle quill - or the knee. I have seen a lot of people do the knee and on the other hand a lot do the spindle. Both of which work great.
    Generally the people who CNC the knee have to put a huge motor drive on it to handle the weight and expensive drive electronics to achieve their result. Some add a Gas strutt, (like on the boot or bonnet of some cars - but bigger) to help oppose the weight of the knee. There is also the option of rigging up a Counterweight arrangement to help lift the knee. I'm sure there are also more options than these, and they all seem to work. There are always little problems with each of them like for instance the cost of a huge drive. The Gas strutt set up is fine untill you go and place a job on your machine and all of a sudden the the knee weighs much more and the drive works hard again to lift and lower it. Steel is heavy so even placing or removing a vice is going to make a difference. The counterweight option caters for the change in weight of the job as you can weigh the job before you put it on the machine and simply add and remove from the counter weight. Works well! The only change that will be encountered is the addition of mass to the load. In this I mean that excelleration and decelleration of the knee will change because you are now shifting almost doubble the total mass of the knee and job. The knee will be sluggy and rappid moves may suffer due to the drive ramping up and down.

    I am going to CNC the quill for now. It is a job that is easily in my reach and I have done several sketches of different configurations to come up with the one I'm going to use. The great thing about the quill is that it hardly changes in weight. The only change is a different tool or cutter. This is a big win for me as I can run all the same motors, drive pulleys, belts and control gear for all 4 axis of my machine and also cut down on spares needed to keep the machine running.

    My Quill like yours also has a lot of slop as it extends down out of the head. The rack and pinion is un adjustable and has the backlash I would expect from a rack and pinion of this type. I will be adding to this thread as I convert the quill as I am not happy with the amount of runout the quill has when it is extended out a long way. I have already purchased a lenth of Brass 100mm OD and 75mm ID to bush the quill and will be doing that once I have my X and Y axis complete.

    Remember there is no right or wrong way of doing the Z axis so please be inventfull and see what suits your set up.
    Excluding you Leeroy I dont want this thread to turn into a Z axis debate.

    I hope this has been of some help.

    Thanks,
    Chich.................not Chinch :rainfro:

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Posts
    19
    Chich

    Thanks for taking the time to post such a detailed reply. Time on the computer = less time in the workshop! :-)
    I got a little excited today and dismantled the spindle quill and downfeed mechanisim to see just what i was up against.. Everything is as i expected except that the bore for the quill is not continuous, but consists of two bands or bearing surfaces about 35mm long and about 130mm apart. The hollow section in between allows the pinion to engauge the rack.
    See attached photo.

    There is about 0.05mm clearence on the quill (90.00 bore and 89.95 quill).
    This will have to be bored and rebushed with a continuous Bronze bush and then make new cutouts for the pinion and clamp. With carefull boring and honing, should be able to reduce the clearence to 0.005-0.01mm.
    The other more expencive option is to have the quill hard chrome metal sprayed and reground to size. Allthough i think the heat from this process would probably warp the quill. But i think i will have the quill reground no mater which method i choose as it's a pretty rough grind job.

    Looking at the rack and pinion i don't think this could be made to work well enough for a z axis drive. The teeth don't realy mesh very well and it's got an awfull lumpy/jerky feel when the pinion is roled over the rack by hand. Perhaps this could be bedded in a little better with some grinding paste but i'm not hopefull..
    I think a better option for driving the quill is to mill a new 20mm slot in the front of the housing into the quill bore, drill and tap a matching spigot into the quill and make something similar to the bridgport quill conversion described in the bridgeport forum here. You would have to leave around 25mm of meat at the top and botom of the slot and this would limit the z axis to arround 80mm total travel(130-2*25). This should be enough for most jobs that i would do..

    I think i will follow your leed and make start on the x and y axis and do some more searching and head scratching on the z axis..

    As i'm trying to keep the cost as low as posable i'm leaning towards stepper motors rather than servo drives. Also because i can build the stepper driver electronics my self.
    But i would be interested to know how much you payed for your servo drives?


    Cheers

    Leeroy
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails hm52head.JPG  

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