smallcnclathes! I watch your stuff, I've learned a lot from you about what these little machines can do. I've pasted an answer to a similar question below, it explains the 'manual' conversion, you might be able to answer some of the questions I ask in it. I don't suppose you've got a spare tail stock or tool turret I could purchase? Also do you know of anywhere I can find service manuals for the machine? It's a bit of a story. Super short version: dead electronics and I really needed a lathe so I added handwheels in a reversible/non permanent way, with plans to re-CNC it later. Long version: The guy I bought it off shipped it to me strapped to a pallet with straps over the plastic covers.... so it arrived with all the plastic covers completely destroyed - I have bits of them taped together to direct chips to fly in fewer directions but that's about it. It had dead electronics (which is why I got it cheap) and I intended to either fix them or replace them (I have a background in custom CNC machines) however I got stuck trying to find a driver for the spindle, it's a 180V DC motor with an encoder on the spindle shaft, I've not been able to find anyone that makes a brushed DC servo drive capable of that voltage. If you know of any send me a link :) The X and Z motors are also brushed DC servos....but extremely weird ones, they each have two entirely separate windings sharing the same shaft, sorta like a high speed and low speed winding (if there's a name for that sort of motor let me know, I've not seen any modern examples). In the end I figured I could just ignore the high speed windings and I found brushed DC servo drives that will run the low speed windings. Adding to the complexity in retrofitting is the space constraints for both the spindle motor and the X/Z motors, ie normal NEMA style steppers or servos with a square shape wont fit. So the little lathe sat there neglected for a while until I really needed a lathe to fix something. The quickest way to get it up and running was to knock up my own power supply for the spindle (original transformer + rectifier and capacitors, ultra simple) and to put hand wheels on the ball screws and make it a manual machine temporarily (that was a few years ago now.... as all "temporary" things tend to be). The way I did it is completely reversible and was done in a way that minimises modification to the machine: the ends of the ball screws were drilled and a piece of shafting was loctited in the end, which pokes through a small hole drilled in the covers, and then a little bushing plate was attached so that the ball screw isn't taking handwheel forces. The existing motors and belts etc are still in it, I actually use the encoder outputs of the motors for my DRO. When I re-CNC it there'll just be a few small holes in the covers that I can plug and it will be as it was. I have plans to buy a proper toolroom manual lathe later this year then the poor little hercus (little beast of a machine though) will be restored, until now it's my only lathe.
@@makebreakrepair Hi, no knowledge of turret or tailstock for sale. I replaced the standard Hercus spindle card with a driver from Minarik, it is brilliant, forward, reverse and maintains spindle speed as load comes on. If you have the time, I think a few videos on your Hercus may be worthwhile as it is an unusual wee beastie.
@@makebreakrepair Mine is a NRG05-D240AC-PCM, I think the pcm is an isolator board add on. Expensive new, but sometimes appear on ebay at around the $200 mark. I think that is about what I paid for mine
Umm, have retrofitted that lathe to be manual?
smallcnclathes! I watch your stuff, I've learned a lot from you about what these little machines can do. I've pasted an answer to a similar question below, it explains the 'manual' conversion, you might be able to answer some of the questions I ask in it. I don't suppose you've got a spare tail stock or tool turret I could purchase? Also do you know of anywhere I can find service manuals for the machine?
It's a bit of a story. Super short version: dead electronics and I really needed a lathe so I added handwheels in a reversible/non permanent way, with plans to re-CNC it later. Long version:
The guy I bought it off shipped it to me strapped to a pallet with straps over the plastic covers.... so it arrived with all the plastic covers completely destroyed - I have bits of them taped together to direct chips to fly in fewer directions but that's about it.
It had dead electronics (which is why I got it cheap) and I intended to either fix them or replace them (I have a background in custom CNC machines) however I got stuck trying to find a driver for the spindle, it's a 180V DC motor with an encoder on the spindle shaft, I've not been able to find anyone that makes a brushed DC servo drive capable of that voltage.
If you know of any send me a link :)
The X and Z motors are also brushed DC servos....but extremely weird ones, they each have two entirely separate windings sharing the same shaft, sorta like a high speed and low speed winding (if there's a name for that sort of motor let me know, I've not seen any modern examples). In the end I figured I could just ignore the high speed windings and I found brushed DC servo drives that will run the low speed windings.
Adding to the complexity in retrofitting is the space constraints for both the spindle motor and the X/Z motors, ie normal NEMA style steppers or servos with a square shape wont fit.
So the little lathe sat there neglected for a while until I really needed a lathe to fix something. The quickest way to get it up and running was to knock up my own power supply for the spindle (original transformer + rectifier and capacitors, ultra simple) and to put hand wheels on the ball screws and make it a manual machine temporarily (that was a few years ago now.... as all "temporary" things tend to be).
The way I did it is completely reversible and was done in a way that minimises modification to the machine: the ends of the ball screws were drilled and a piece of shafting was loctited in the end, which pokes through a small hole drilled in the covers, and then a little bushing plate was attached so that the ball screw isn't taking handwheel forces.
The existing motors and belts etc are still in it, I actually use the encoder outputs of the motors for my DRO.
When I re-CNC it there'll just be a few small holes in the covers that I can plug and it will be as it was.
I have plans to buy a proper toolroom manual lathe later this year then the poor little hercus (little beast of a machine though) will be restored, until now it's my only lathe.
@@makebreakrepair Hi, no knowledge of turret or tailstock for sale. I replaced the standard Hercus spindle card with a driver from Minarik, it is brilliant, forward, reverse and maintains spindle speed as load comes on. If you have the time, I think a few videos on your Hercus may be worthwhile as it is an unusual wee beastie.
Cheers smallcnclathes, do you have a model number for the minarik card? And if you come across a tail stock in your travels let me know :)
@@makebreakrepair Mine is a
NRG05-D240AC-PCM, I think the pcm is an isolator board add on. Expensive new, but sometimes appear on ebay at around the $200 mark. I think that is about what I paid for mine