Want to make my own fadal motor mounts, need dimensions
I need some motor mounts, and preferably fast. This means potentially big $. I'd like to simply machine my own on another one of my mills.
I'm having my belts slip off the v-grooves on the pulleys. my machine has the pozi drive setup with the two pulleys and the idler hydraulics that engage one belt or the other. I believe this slipping off of the pulleys is due to the old rubber mounts being spent.
Does anyone know the original dimensions of the motor mounts, so that I can make a drawing, and machine some in aluminum?
2 Attachment(s)
Bought some mounts, here's a drawing of them
for my future reference, and for those who need to make their own motor mounts for their fadal...
attached are igs, sldprt, and pdf drawings of the motor mounts. you need two, and they're the same.
You'll probably notice that the numbers aren't nice round numbers. I made measurements using 12" mitutoyo calipers based on my new motor mounts, as my old ones are rubber and are destroyed. I'm sure that these measurements were done right (e.g. measure hole diameter, then distance from sidewall of hole to next sidewall of next hole - no 'hold the caliper over a feature and assume its close').
it turns out though, that where I bought these mounts from only charges about $50 for the set. that means that buying these, which were made from aluminum extrusion then counterbored, drilled and tapped, and even anodized black!, were more or less cheaper than the cost of a 1/2-13 tap that you need to make the parts yourself. can't argue with these prices! other vendors charge way more though. Also if you'll just sleep at night better for making your own, or you don't have access to fast and cheap shipping (i.e. not in the usa) this drawing will help you.
Re: Want to make my own fadal motor mounts, need dimensions
also, for the record, the replacement motor mounts Did solve the problem of the v-pozi type belts not tracking right. The machine can do M3, M4 at any speed and the belts have no problem.
as a downside the vibrations from the motor are strongly coupled into the machine since I installed these aluminum motor mounts. I have not seen yet if it affects the surface finish, but it will. I just don't know if it will matter. we'll see. if it screws it up, I'll have to put on some more expensive rubber mounts with the knowledge that they fail about every 10 years of less.
Re: Want to make my own fadal motor mounts, need dimensions
Quote:
Originally Posted by
mflux_gamblej
also, for the record, the replacement motor mounts Did solve the problem of the v-pozi type belts not tracking right. The machine can do M3, M4 at any speed and the belts have no problem.
as a downside the vibrations from the motor are strongly coupled into the machine since I installed these aluminum motor mounts. I have not seen yet if it affects the surface finish, but it will. I just don't know if it will matter. we'll see. if it screws it up, I'll have to put on some more expensive rubber mounts with the knowledge that they fail about every 10 years of less.
I've been running the solid mounts for about a week now and there is a difference in surface finish due to the motor vibrations coupled into the machine. The machine also runs louder, especially at certain RPM ranges where the frequency must resonate better in the machine's metal. The rubber mounts are undoubtedly better, even though they sag and go bad after several years. The added coupled vibrations affect surface finish, and they cannot be good for every other component on the machine (think spindle replacement?). It is quite possible that my spindle motor, being that it is old and dirty, may not run as balanced and quiet as a new one, but none-the-less the rubber will improve the situation.
It's like many things in the engineering world, in this case the example is: someone at fadal went through a lot of trouble to design, and figure out how to make (and who was going to make them) some rubber motor mounts. Obviously they will have started off using rigid mounts, and saw that it was bad for surface finish, and bad in terms of noise and vibrations..
It's stupid to undo all that work and go back to solid mounts, unless you know that other effort was expended somewhere else in the design, like maybe an ultra balanced motor that simply doesn't vibrate. I don't think that's gonna happen for us fadal users.
The rubber mounts are much more expensive than the solid ones percentage wise, but well worth it in my opinion at about $170 for the set. I will be switching back to rubber mounts very soon.
