I was looking for a mill and Wes gave me details of a bridgy that would have been great. I was tempted by a 1981 Matsuura, talked to someone that had one and read several comments on old ones on cnc zone, sound pretty good bit's of kit. I didn't buy the 1981 machine, I didn't really want 27 year old electronics that were not to common. I got lots of stuff from Matsuura and placed a model in my solidworks garage, it fitted in OK. The weight is 2600KG.

I spotted another one for sale, ex university, so pretty clean and well looked after, came with tooling and manuals. I got the 'thing' for a quarter the price of the 1981 machine. oh yes the one I got is a 1985 and is a different model, MC500V2 rather than a V and it came with 20 toolholders and manuals.

Bloody thing is bigger. seems to be about a foot all around for the same travel and weighs 3700KG. I had it dropped out side my garage and I just sat and looked at it, thinking what the fuck have I done, I decided even if I had to scrap it I couldn't live with it, I have only just got rid of a lathe and it's the first time I have seen the floor for years..

I phoned around cnc repair places, only to be told they are really reliable and they didn't want it for spares;-) So I thought I might as well strip it and flog the motors and stuff. I started pulling all the sheet metal off it, genearly pulling it apart without cutting any wires. Then I got pissed off, after spentding hours pulling a few wires through, so I took the plunge and chopped some wires. I then stood back and realised It will getting small enough to fit.. One of the problems with it's size was having it located so I could have access to the cabinets.

Thing is I have stripped one cabinet out, cut all the wires on a terminal block with about 400 wires on it;-) pity as I would have liked to try the controler.
I am now looking at a retrofit..

Thinking of trying the original drives and a cnc brain..

Anyone looked into the cnc brain?

my axis motors are:
Z. 1.1kw, 112V and 11.5A, 1000rpm
Y&X. 850W 94V and 11.0A, 1000rpm

The rapids are of the order of 600in/min

Why did you pick rutex drives[dom] The granite drives sound good, gecko
is probably a bit low voltage. Larken drives are in use on Hurcos similar size to my Matsuura. UHU, well...

The rutex drives seemed to be the best thing on offer at the time. 50a continious, up to 200v.

What are these granite drives you speak of ?

At the mo rutex is probably going to get me money.
The granite drives sound OK, www.granite.fi
Larken look OK, www.larken.com


I should look thru your refit again. You didn't use a controller. I was thinking I needed a controller?

My spindle drive is a bit of a pain. It's an AC motor with an inverter, but it's 240V three phase[OK it's 200V 3ph] The machine came with a 3ph transformer in a box about 2 foot square with wheels on and I can't lift it...
I am going to have to look at replacing the inverter and maybe motor. still I will try and get it usable first.

I have finaly got the electrical cabinets off it, the cabinets hid all sorts of things. The cabinets are double skined and everything that has heatsinks is bolted in with the heatsinks in the hidden part of the cabinet, there are banks of fans to provide airflow thru the hidden bit's. I also found loads of big resistors in the air passages.. And here was me thinking I could rewire it;-) The cabinets also had heaters and thermostats!

I am looking at flat screens at the moment;-). I think I am going to have to set a dead line to try and work to.

I was going to take some photo's of it but I have these piles of green/blue sheetmetal everywhere and my place now looks like even more of a scrap yard than ever.. I will find a pic of what it looked like two weeks ago.

Doesn't look like that any more..
It's so hard to move the thing......

Neither of those links you gave me work. Last time I spoke to rutex they were suffering from some serious supply issues so you might want to check with them that all those problems have been resolved before parting with any money.


I'm not exactly sure what you mean by a controller. With the rutex and many other setups, using software such as mach3 the pc becomes the controller and connects directly to the drives though the parrallel port.

240v 3ph is no problem at all. You can get a nice small lightweight inverter drive for a few hundred quid (depending on hp) which will take 240 single ph in and output 240 3ph. If you already have 3ph on site then 3ph to 3ph inverters are just as easy to get. These could be controled by an 0-10v analouge input which can be generated by a speed control board from cnc4pc -www.cnc4pc.com and mach 3.


Deadlines are good, so are deep pockets! I had neither and look how long its ended up taking me ... good luck!

It should have been
www.granitedevices.fi
www.larkencnc.com

There are a few controlers available. They basically buffer the signals so it doesn't matter what windows gets up to. The cnc brain can run double feedback so if you want you can run a set of glass scales aswell as the encoders, not that I intend on doing so. The CNC brain comes with it's own software and a SDK, I think there is a mach3 plugin though. It's not to cheap though. I was looking for controlers because I wondered how well the PC could run three axis all moving quite quickly.

My pockets are pretty shallow. I won't say what I was hoping the maximum cost would be, it wasn't realistic. I am flogging stuff to pay for it at the moment. I did consider trying the UHU drives, basically to keep the cost down, but to get it done in a resonable time frame ready made drives is the answer. I do habe the all the original drives and stuff but apart from the size of them they all have other drawbacks. most annoying thing is the power supply all use three phase so I can't use them[I want the axis single phase] nick the transformers and capacitors.

I did see a 240 single phase to three phase 5kw inverter on ebay. I think you can just derate a 3ph to 3ph. My 3phase is generated by a rotary. I haven't really dived into the head yet, there seeems to be a resolver on the motor but I can't see anything on the spindle, it must have something to postion the spindle for toolchanges and rigid tapping was an option[you just needed the parameter setting for options].


The 2020 rutex drives are not a problem to get, they are in stock at the moment.

I hope it doesn't take anywhere near as long as yours has taken, get out in that workshop and get something done;-)

I have a job now, well two infact so I have some money coming in so soon I will be able to afford to carry on with the project. Of course now i'm working nearly every waking hour I have virtually no time to work on the machine

Oh the irony!

I need to get the spindle motor out of the machine and looked at by professionals, that is the biggest hold up atm.

All I have done so far, 1/4 way in to the time I reconed I could refit it in, is clean it..

Today I did have a look at the lubricator, it has a 200volt three phase motor. I decided to cut a new worm to go on a DC motor, to replace the three phase motor. Then I spotted an old microwave oven capacitor, 1.2uF. I stuck the cap across one set of windings and put 240 across the other two and lo and behold, etc. Yes one quick and dirty phase converter.
I ran the pump for three cycles, almost an hour and it seems to work fine.

I bought a 19" tft monitor and some other parts. I am going to try and use the original pendant as the pc case, with the monitor attached to it. I am looking for a dell server keyboard with a built in trackpad..

What have others done about the wires going to the axis, limit switches, oil pipes and axis motor cables. I mean about arranging the conduits so the cables have nice free travle, mine originally ran in big catipillar conduit's. But the things really got in the way.

I had a look at the liit switches, 4 on x and y and 6 on Z, I take it the extra two on the Z are for the toolchanger?
What do the limit switches do?
I have 1 switch cam to hit one switch for each end of an axis and 2 on the same switch, the latter are hit before the former. There is also an adjustable position switch cam, this is something to do with home position.

On each axis there is + and - overtravel switches, and one switch for, as you correctly say, finding the home position. The shared switch is the estop position, so should the machine not stop on its ovetravel switch, this is its failsafe. The Z axis has an extra switch to confirm it is in the tool index position.

Haven't really got a lot done.

Re-mounted the pendant, it's now on an articulating arm so it can be pushed out of the way. mounted it 4 inches to low though.

Put a 19inch TFT screen in the pendant. It was very cheap, the screen, I really wanted one a bit smaller.
Mounted a mother board and psu in the pendant. just got a Quadro PCI-e graphics card for it, well it's going to be running solidworks and five quid for a FX1700 is pretty cheap;-)

Spent today making the panels for the front of the pendant, put a load of the switches on it. I am not sure how I will go about using them but decided the slew and encoder woudl be usefull. then added a few USB sockets and so on...

Wonder what's the best way to mark the switches?

I would use dual layer laminate plastic ... go for the brushed steel/ali effect and then engrave the first 0.2mm revealing another colour below. Suregrave sells a big range of the stuff. www.suregrave.com

Well a month has gone by and what a lot I have done, bought all the bits and wired it and and and. nooooo. I put the pc together and the motherboard died, luckily it turns out the 5quid eyay board is still under warranty[invoice, receipt!!!]

Today I realised I better do somethimng rather than sit around and drink coffee. I sorted out the limit switch wiring and had a look at the cable trunking articulated conduit[whatever it's called].. anyone want to swap a bit of 175mm wide for a bit of smaller stuff..

I haven't bought anything drive wise. I put off the controller cos I can't decide what to buy. I would have bought the drives but they seem to be slow in finishing them[the finnish blokes;-)]. Most annoying thing is, well several things, a smoothstepper was for sale in the UK, I mailed him about it a few times and didn't get a reply, a month or so later he said since no one responded he wacked it on egay and flogged it. The exchange rate change means I am going to pay lots more dosh for my parts...
There is a set of rutex drives for sale for $300, maybe I should buy them..

How are your braking resistors wired in?
I found two in one of the air passages of the enclosure I threw away, I must have missed the third; well I thought that, then the bloke making the drives said you use one per power supply? I will be running one power supply.

I wish I was making as much progress as you. What with full time employment and dark nights and lack of funds progress here is very slow indeed.

If i remember rightly i have a braking resistor in series with the positive output of the servo drive and the motor. One resistor per drive+motor combo

i don't seem to have done a lot. It's been freezing outside, well thats my excuse.
I have made and painted the cable carriers, the cables from the axis run in the cable chain type bendy ducting type thingies and then into large box which runs around the machine to a new one Metre x 24 inch x a cubit enclosure.

I need to do something about the panel, I can't remember what the buttons were for;-)


I started drawing the wiring diagram with Eplan, well tried, in december and gave up. I started again as I decided it had to be done. Anyone got any knowledge of Eplan?

I bought the transformer for the servo drives.
I haven't bought the drives or controler as the exchange rate has made them 50% more expensive..

that looks sweet!

Another month and the exchange rate is continuing to fall!

I have done even less this month than the last!
I decided to clean all my oil lines, preoil the axi and flush the old oil** out.

I found meter check valves, showa PSS1 and 2 valves all over the place, 6 on the head, 5 on the table, 10 under the table and one in each line at the back of the machine. Checked a few and they all flowed a different amount, some not at all. Found some new ones on ebay, $27 each!!!!
Found a way to take them apart and cleaned them all, I flushed the little fiter part of them through with filtered petrol till a consistant flow was achieved and sustained. Asked Matsuura, for an oil line diagram and they said the valves are service items, i should replace them all. OH well they seem to work.
Preoiling, I was going to knock up a pump or a syringe but tried a squirty oil can, great idea;-)


followed doms idea of cordless driver battery to move an axis, they move really well using a drill battery.

Gotto replace all the way wipers and clean the pump, clean the pump again as I cleaned it, but I put it under the piller drill! Then that will be the oil system done. I am putting of the electronics;-)

I still haven't made a start on the eplan drawing.

** anyone want to buy slideway oil by the litre, I bought 25L of rocol ultraglide,it's the equivalent of tonna68?

I've just returned from a 2 months of traveling in NZ and now i'm back home with no job, little money but a lot of time on my hands so I've vowed to finish my bridgeport before getting a job (The idea being that once my bridgeport is running I wont even need a job as I'll be able to start my own business! )

It feels like I havent done any work on my machine for nearly a year, and that probably isnt far off the mark. I feel very detatched from the whole process. Im going to spend a day reading through diagrams and my posts on here to get all the info back into my head so I can carry on from where I left off.

From what I remember I was virtually finished with the control side of things and was virtually at the point of doing the PID tuning on the axes but then I got distracted trying to get the spindle motor speed control operational through mach3 at which point a discovered the spindle motor was faulty despite paying £1k to have it refubished by a local company which wants to accept no responsibility for it.

I dont trust them as far as I can throw them so I would have to take it somewhere else and it seems that everywhere else wants to charge me about £150 just to take it appart and have a look inside before they even do any work on it. So my plan now is to buy a 4hp singlephase motor with no speed control an just have on/off through a relay switched by mach3. Yes its a bit crude but I figure with a 4000rpm spindle I'll be running it at max speed most of the time anyway (can always adapt my feed rates to match). Then if I need a more powerful motor or variable speed then I can use money earnt by operation of the machine to pay for the upgrades. Because at the moment I can buy a brand new motor for the price of getting someone to try and diagnose the fault with the other one.

Graffian, What are these meter check valves you speak of? I have heard other people mention them before, what exactly do they do/what are they for?

The meter check valves control[meter] the flow of oil. I would guess the pump supplies to much oil and the meter valves make sure everywhere gets a squirt. My lathe has blocks, bolted in places hard to get at, that are bristling with the things, but being 54 years old[next month] they were made to be taken apart and cleaned. You find the valves get crudded up and the showa ones in the picture have some sort of filter built into the lower centre piece in the picture. They are crudded up even though there is an oil filter between the pump and the lubrication system.
If you look up Bijur oilers you will find all this stuff, my system is showa as it's from the land of the rising sun.

I would check your oil system as, if it's anything like mine, everything is oiled and dry bearings, ballnuts and ways are not a good idea. I am guessing the interacts have a pump and not just the single shot thing like my old ajax.

After charging you that much for fooling with the spindle motor I think they should either get it runnning for you or give you the doshback.

NZ, you could have bought my drives while you were there. it's actually cheaper to buy the drives off a distributor in NZ than off the maker in Finland!

Yeah mine has a minature gear pump which runs continuiously while the spindle is running, its a very low flow rate so i'm not sure if mine will have the meter valve things. I will have a look though.

I would guess it has the meter valves, otherwise the oil might not get all the way round?

I haven't looked at mine since march, tell a lie i have my bike crank ballencing center bolted to it;-:
I figured i better get looking for bit's.
I bought the caps a few months ago, 15kuf, are they big or what. I had to buy the box of 6 but it was another ebay bargain[shipping cost more than the caps]
I was lucky with the transformer, got a 2kva 65 volt, if it gets hot I will get another for the z axis, probably just a 1kva. Yes another ebay bargain.


I have a draw full of contactors and other parts from the original wiring but they were all bolted to the cabinet and are 110V. I bought a 24V din rail PSU and a bundle of really nice little 24V din rail contactors. I also bought a few solid state contactors and some timers. all mount on din rail so it should make it all easier. yes the pattern continues, another load of ebay tat;-)