Light Machine Corp. Benchman XTr (retrofit)

FYI, Centerline was not the only high speed spindle we used. There was also a Precise spindle that went to 50K that was much less expensive both to purchase and repair. We were rolling this out when I left in 2006. it was however a 0.75 HP spindle vs Centerlines' 1HP. Mechanically they were interchangable, only required minor reprogramming of the speed control for proper operation. I do not know the Precise part number, but will look into it if anyone is interested.

My XT is from 1999 and has the TDM spindle. I thought they were closer to 2 HP. I also have a VMC 4000 that I was considering selling, but considering the limited tooling sizes I will have with ISO10 I might just hang on to the 4000 because of its larger and more common R8 spindle.

Wow,
You have one of the first XT machines we made.
It is probably made with hybridized VMC4000 PCBs unless it had an upgrade during its lifetime.
Good luck with it.
Don

Yep. The boards say "Series 4000." So when you say "Good luck," is that like "Good luck, because those things were real nightmares," or just a general salutation? I wonder if my problems getting the ATC to work properly are linked to the year of my machine. Did the ATC hardware change significantly after 1999? The only software I have access to if what Intelitek has on their site.

Good Luck is a general salutation. The initial XT machines were 4000 series PCBs with a lot of cuts and jumps on them to increase and adjust their functionality. Once they were working, they worked well. If there were issues, troubleshooting was a major issue due to the amount and complexity of the rework. One of my first tasks was to redesign the multiple board systems into a single board that was jumper selectable for the user options. I still have my documentation for the older systems (I believe it is complete) so if you need electrical assistance, I should be able to help. The ATC did not change during my tenure at Light Machines. It is simply controlled via RS232 with some relatively simple handshaking to the machine I/O. Please describe your ATC issues and I will try to help.

The pneumatics won't work right. Using the ATC interface I could sometimes get the platter to go down, but then the UP button did nothing. The platter would move inwards toward the spindle head (smacking into it if if wasn't high enough) but would not move back to its normal position. I did get the drawbar to work, both via the ATC interface in the software and with the front panel button, but now neither works. The only thing that works is platter indexing; it will rotate to proper tool number, but since the pneumatics don't work it just goes into error mode since the tool wasn't changed properly. I know all the pneumatic solenoids are working fine because I can trigger them with 24 VDC. I had to disassemble the ATC to get the XT into my garage and I might have reconnected air lines incorrectly, but I'm confident I have that straightened out now. But I've reset the ATC quite a few times now and I'm afraid I fouled everything up. Because now I can't get anything to do anything (with the exception of indexing the platter). Very frustrating.