Who designed the Triac?

Triac whizz · Post by **Triac whizz** » Sun 23 Jul , 2006 13:18 pm

Is or was the Triac completely designed in the Uk or was a far eastern casting used as the basis?

The reason I ask is cos the spindle will kiss the table and still have about 80mm (off the top of my head) of travel.

So... I found some 60mm blocks and raised the column.. tell me how to upload piccys and I'll show you.

The cables are just about long enough and of course the ATC is not affected and best of all you can put longer tools in the changer! or machine bigger lumps

Can you tell me the colours of the machine are they RAL codes?

Post by **Denford Admin** » Sun 23 Jul , 2006 23:57 pm

Hi,

Send any pics to technical@denford.co.uk

I'm pretty sure its all been designed in the UK but I believe some castings have at one time been made in the East - one for the old timers this.

re the paint - its something I can look up later

PS - It'd be interesting to know what your making on the machine

Post by **Denford Admin** » Mon 24 Jul , 2006 17:00 pm

Here are Triac Whizz's modifications to his machine:

Before putting the blocks in:

After putting the blocks in:

View of tool position now (nearly at end of travel)

Triac whizz · Post by **Triac whizz** » Mon 07 Aug , 2006 20:13 pm

Any news on the colour codes yet?

Post by **Denford Admin** » Mon 07 Aug , 2006 23:13 pm

I've asked around about the RAL colour codes and its seems as though there aren't any ! The green is a Denford special mixed by our paint supplier

I'll investigate further and at least get the suppliers details

Triac whizz · Post by **Triac whizz** » Tue 08 Aug , 2006 6:38 am

A special colour mixed by your supplier, hmm well thats what they tell you

I bet it's left overs

Anyway as you can see mines the older blue/sea green, but really it's the colour of white I need to find out - these Fanucs arn't very watertight! nor swarftight (is that a word?)

Don't tell me you need to know what day it was made....

Post by **Denford Admin** » Wed 09 Aug , 2006 14:36 pm

Re the paint - have a look here:

https://denfordata.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=918#918

Mr Magoo · Post by **Mr Magoo** » Fri 11 Aug , 2006 22:41 pm

Does anyone remember the original Triac - with a 3 phase induction motor and smaller spindle nose

A completely different (smaller) head casting which gave a similar working Z travel to Triac Whizzes modified machine

We changed over to a DC motor to get a better speed/torque curve and to allow us to fit the drawbar assembly (ac motor was short and fat, dc motor is long and thin) but it meant a redesign of the head casting and changing the spindle to accept BT30 tooling

In the process we lost a bit of Z travel but thought it a good trade-off.

Never did get around to increasing the length of the column though......

cleefurd · Post by **cleefurd** » Tue 12 Sep , 2006 22:54 pm

Mr Magoo asked if anyone remembered the older shorter spindles... well mine is short enough that none of it protrudes below the casting. It is an R8 type. I would love to know how to switch to the bt30 spindle, and yes mine has the 3 phase stubby motor. So which DC motor would be a suitable swap? I bought the whole machine recently and would like to upgrade it to modern drivers, controllers, etc, so long as the stock steppers will work (anyone know the specs on the stock steppers...uni or bipolar, volts, amps, ohms thru coils, torque????). I believe it was built in 1985, it is all green with no ATC. Looks as though it was hardly used. It had bottom control cabinet (black) and panel with cassette door, and white side-arm for monitor I assume.

Triac whizz · Post by **Triac whizz** » Wed 13 Sep , 2006 8:00 am

Why do you want change it for BT30? you have no tool change. A cheaper option (maybe) would be quick change https://www.coventrytoolholders.co.uk/pr ... ange.htm#1

Again why change the motor? I guess it's worked by a VFD (variable frequency drive) and uses a 0-10volt input for freqency control so that would be compatable with electronics available on the hobby market. Though you would probably need anew vfd to make it go faster, I believe 2500rpm is the top speed?

The motors will most certainly be suitable for use with geckos - is there not a label? try looking at the Z motor hopefullly that would have been covered when it was painted! I know it's a sod because if you wipe the paint of with thinners the printing comes off the label!

Does it work as it is?

cleefurd · Post by **cleefurd** » Wed 13 Sep , 2006 15:11 pm

Yes the quick change route is desirable, mainly seeking repeatable tool offets.
I had speculated that the voltage rating of the 1985 era motors might be problematic based on a post I previously read. I also have a Denford Orac that has the Z Axis motor unpainted under the cover, and appears identical to the Triac X and Y steppers, I will look at it once again to try and glean spec's.
According to the previous owner it (TRIAC) works as is, but I have no manuals, software, or experience running it, and am learning MasterCam-X and Solidworks as we speak. From what I understand it would help simplify things to modernize the drivers and control cards in such a way that the CAD/CAM I am learning could be tied into its use via PC, essentially eliminating all but the steppers if they are compatible with Gecko drives, although I am not sure which components I should favor for that route.

Triac whizz · Post by **Triac whizz** » Wed 13 Sep , 2006 18:18 pm

I'm guessing that the motor is just a standard off the shelf 3ph motor wired for 240 3ph supply, easily changable, take the cover off the joint box and there's normally a wiring diag. Though all you'll need is a modern frequency converter that runs off single phase.

Even if the voltage is "dodgy" It will probably be a standard frame size

I think I saw somewhere in here that the Orac had 4Amp motors running off 2A drives, it's not a problem with a gecko as you can set the currnet via a resistor - up to 7 Amps (no resistor)

Good luckwith Mastercam - it's supposed to be the leader but you can see its origins in DOS

I use Dolphin Partmaster nice n easy once you've grasped it - M/C done my head in rickeeee (eastenders

)

While these will create G code for you they won't run your machine, you need Mach3 for that (& other programs available) - but you knew that anyway...

toby1995 · Post by **toby1995** » Fri 05 Aug , 2016 12:42 pm

I've got the standard 1997 triac with 30INT spindle, how would i go about converting to BT30 for a future retrofitted tool changer project?. are there direct replacement spindles from the models above mine, or is it the exact same spindle apart from it just requiring all the gripping and releasing components? if there are any triac spindles lying about i would be very interested in a purchase, would save me a lot of work!

thanks

Denford Software & Machines

Denford Software & Machines

Who designed the Triac?

Who designed the Triac?

Older (I think ) Triac

Re: Who designed the Triac?