Tormach Power Drawbar piston service

For some time my compressor has been intermittently kicking in without anything running to justify it. By chance I heard a slight hiss and then felt a small ‘breeze’ coming from the bottom of the Tormach drawbar compression cylinder stack. This device has three pistons stacked together to give enough downward pressure to open the drawbar gripping the TTS collet. The machine was installed in 2016 so the seals have done quite well to survive this long.

I did some web based research and found that Tormach offer a seal replacement kit so clearly this was something that was an expected service activity. I ordered the kit (which cost less than the courier charge). Here is an image of the kit.

My research also found a very old YouTube post by John Saunders at NYC CNC where he describes how to undertake the service activity. It looked like a job I could manage.

My PCNC440 model was slightly different to John’s in so far as removing the piston assembly out of the machine. On mine you have to just remove a single shoulder bolt and a pull out pin. However before doing this you need to put any of your TTS tools in the collet to relieve the pressure from the cylinder plunger head. Once this is done, turn off and bleed the air supply before removing the two air feeds. Mark them so you know which one goes to which port. Also mark the three piston sections with a Sharpie so you know which order and orientation they are in.

The piston stack has the three sections clamped together with four bolts inserted from the top of the stack. The bottom end mounting plate also has long screws that pass through spacer tubes but only fasten into the bottom piston section. Note that these spacer tubes might well have some large additional height setting washers so don’t lose them.

I suggest removing the bottom three screws first of all so you are left with just the three cylinders still held together by the top four bolts.

Now for a tricky part – you need to remove the large circlips that are fitted to the top and bottom ends of the piston stack. These are not easy to remove unless you have a decent tool to grip them. Basic handheld circlip pliers are unlikely to perform and you could end up search the workshop for flying circlips. For this reason you must wear some eye protection while removing the circlips. I bought in a pair of these pliers and they were superb for the job.

Once the circlips are removed you can remove the four top bolts holding the stack together and be able to split the three sections. Be careful how you do this so you see and understand what is where and the order of assembly.

The end plates that were held by the circlips are pushed outwards. All the other sections should freely slide out as appropriate.

With everything ready, start from one end of the assembly and do a logical swap out of the old seal and swap in the new one and re-assemble that section. Clean off any debris in the seal grooves and add new grease to the seals and their locating grooves. I used silicon grease.

The kit comes with 6 standard section O rings, 3 wider section rings and 3 central piston seals as shown in the image above. By swapping only one seal in and out at any one time you get a good control check that you haven’t missed anything.

My kit also had some small O rings that are not shown in the Tormach image of the kit contents. I can only assume that the kit is universal to a number of other piston types.

Update : Tormach has since confirmed that the extra small O rings are for the 770 and 1100 versions only.

The whole swap out activity took around 2 hours. This piston worked fine when re-installed back on the 440. “Phew!”

Editing irregular PCB shapes in FlatCam

How to create irregular outline cut paths and board cut outs

Following a request from a subscriber I have edited my FlatCam tutorial document to include a section on how to profile irregular board layouts and boards with cut out areas. The attached ZIP file contains the new version of the write up and a short video clip showing the board outline editing process.

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Experiences CNC machining Aluminium Composite Material (ACM)

I had a recent request to machine some panels in 3mm thick ACM.   This has a polyethylene core sandwiched and bonded between two thin sheets of aluminium.   The sizes of the various panels requested could not be easily accommodated on my Tormach PCNC440 CNC mill so I had to dust off my CNCEST 3040T baby router.   Five out of the six panels would fit inside the 3040 working footprint but the sixth required me to revert to a two setup movement of the workpiece in the Y axis.  My write up of this stepping process for oversize objects can be read here.

The CNCEST 3040 has a maximum spindle speed of 10k RPM and is controlled using Mach3 with all the frustrations that brings to the party plus manual tool changes etc etc.

I received DXF drawings of the panels and these were imported into Fusion where they were simply extruded to 3mm before processing in Fusion Manufacturing.  Each CAM operation was exported as a separate function into Mach3 regardless of tool changes.  This gave me step by step control.

I used a 12mm thick MDF sacrificial (spoil) backing board to mount the panels.  As all the panels were of the same general dimensions this made mounting the panels a repeatable process using a fixed matrix of woodscrews into the MDF.  The 12mm depth of the mounting board made the tooling pin reference holes for the Y move much more rigidly fixed and as a result more repeatable to use.

The main problem encountered was that the ACM does not readily adapt to machining with conventional end mill cutters.   I tried using my stock 2 flute parts and these would skim on the top aluminium surface while the plastic underneath deformed to the Z axis increasing pressure.   Once sufficient pressure was exerted the tool would finally bite into the aluminium and punch through into the plastic with a noticeable ‘clunk’.  This played all sorts of havoc with the Z axis height referencing and also lead at one stage to the Z axis stepper coupling working lose.

The solution was to go to a single flute spiral cutter style. These were purchased from APT Tools (UK supplier).  Hot knife through butter comes to mind with the result of this change.

Single flute spiral end mill from APT Tooling UK
The single flute spiral end mill from APT Tooling UK

For straightforward hole cutting I used standard PCB carbide drill bits from Drill Services (UK supplier).  These are nice to use as all have a standard 1/8″ shank which makes tool changing a little bit easier.

Once all these frustrations were overcome the process became much more repeatable albeit with one or two curved balls due to Mach3 lock ups.  Have you ever enjoyed trying to manually re-reference a half finished job ? …..

The finished largest panel that required a two step movement in Y axis
The finished largest panel that required a two step movement in Y axis

More accumulated knowledge gained and lots of black plastic swarf (chips) to clean up before it could migrate everywhere into the house.

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Haimer Taster and vacuum table retrospective thoughts

Today while in the workshop running a CNC metalwork job and then following this with running a quick PCB artwork, the following came to mind.

These days since I bought the ITTP Hallmark probe I rarely use my Haimer Taster to do my referencing.  It still has its uses but less and less so.   A good example is when remounting the CNC vice on the tooling table. I use the Haimer to give me a running check on the vice jaw axis tracking.  Beyond that the ITTP in conjunction with PathPilot probing routines meet all my referencing needs to a level of accuracy that suits.

The other thing that stuck me is how automated my process for milling printed circuit board prototypes has become.   Fusion 360 Electrical module becomes more familiar to me with each passing project. It exports my PCB designs as Gerber files to import into FlatCAM.   After a few clicks in FlatCAM I have a GCode file for drilling and routing.   The PCB blank is gripped on my small vacuum table ready for milling and the ITTP probe references the spindle.   My recent use of kitchen anti-slip material as the sacrificial layer between PCB and vacuum table top surface has made the grip on the vacuum table so much easier to achieve.  The overall PCB process, whether single or double sided, has become quick, easy and repeatable.   Once the board is milled I can get a reasonable looking tinned finish using a hand soldering iron and copious amounts of flux.

Techniques almost subconsciously evolve and sometimes you need to step back and see how far you have come along the road.  The alternative view might be that this ‘lazy man’ has just become even more lazy.

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How to square up a scrap piece of stock ready for machining

Can’t Remember How to Square Up Material Stock ready for CNC ?

I sometimes have to dig deep in the odds and ends heap of rough bits of materials to use on a project.  This results in having to square up the find so it can be easily programmed into Fusion CAM.   I always have to scratch my head on the process which is well documented by Tom Lipton and This Old Tony among others.  What I needed was something to pin on the wall to remind me. 

The result of this frustration is a write up and a graphic which you may find useful.  Here is a screenshot and the link below it provides both this document and the write up in a ZIP file.

Squaring Stock 

Hope that helps and if it isn’t well explained let me know and if it was useful also let me know.

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