Old Shopbot needs TLC

[phil_o]

I retired fro a local high school almost 4 years ago. When I was there we purchased a new benchtop Shopbot. It's a PRT about 8 years old now. We used it a lot and it was very popular with the students. The teacher who took my place hasn't used it at all. He called me and asked if I would come in and help get him started.
I went in the other day and hooked up the computer and did a few X,Y, Z moves with the keyboard. It sounded like an old pickup truck with no oil in the crankcase. It is obvious that the rack and pinions need to be cleaned and lubed, lots of sawdust on the gears. The new teacher said he will take care of the clean and lube.
Also the keyboard keys didn't move the bot as it should everything was backwards. I looked in the manual and I'm hoping that I can delete the Shopbot.Ini file so that the default settings will get the keyboard commands working as they should.
Is there anything else that I should check that may need attention?

Thanks in advance,

Phil

[Brady Watson]

Phil,
The sound you hear is probably mid-band resonance. Set the MS to 2,1 and see if it goes away.

If you are running SB3, you can go to VU and sign the unit values that are running backwards with a (-) sign in front of them. If running DOS, I am not certain that you can sign UV. If that is the case, with control box OFF, Swap the black and green wires in the Wago connector at the motor or at the control box to reverse direction.

I would order a fresh set of pinions from ShopBot. Be sure to measure whether you have 3/8" Boston or 1/2" Browning rack, and count the teeth on the pinions, although they are probably 25T on the X&Y and 20T on the Z...Check to be sure.

-B