Spindle drive problem

Another problem happening late on Friday, so no call to Tormach 'till Monday.

While doing a contour finish cut on aluminum with a 1/8 2 fl carbide cutter set at 5100 RPM and feed of 14 and removing .01 material at .05 DOC, I heard the spindle motor change speed, and speed up maybe a couple 100 RPM for a few second then return to the original sound. I stopped, turned everything off, re-booted, restarted and tested the spindle by itself, with no axis movement and turning on the spindle from Mach3. I opened the cabinet and looked at the numbers on the drive display jumping around a bit as the speed changed around by itself, with no appreciable pattern. The Tormach manual suggest to test whether the spindle drive is correctly programmed, and the result should show exactly 170.00. Mine shows 170.2 , so it might need re-programming, and it suggests to call Tormach for a key.

Anybody familiar with the procedure and what the key is?

Its a USB dongle that plugs into the VFD.

The first thing I would do is check all wiring. Every time I have an odd problem, I can usually find a terminal that has come loose.

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Originally Posted by tbaker2500

The first thing I would do is check all wiring. Every time I have an odd problem, I can usually find a terminal that has come loose.

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+1

Problem solved with the help of Tormach tech support, clean lugs J1-1 and J1-2 at the control board, which are the connections to the speed control sensor.

Outstanding!

Post some pics of your contours please :)

Contours and exact problem you had.

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Originally Posted by BAMCNC.COM

Contours and exact problem you had.

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The problem with the spindle drive was not related to the part I was cutting, the speed variation had no pattern and would happen even if cutting air. All is well now. Here's a PDF of what I was making.
cheers

That's a nice looking part. How about some pics of a finished one.

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Originally Posted by Steve Seebold

That's a nice looking part. How about some pics of a finished one.

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Here you go...

That's it right off the machine? Looks like it took a tumble in some media. Great edges and finish.

Nice.