Help me find a Tormach stepper for cheaper

[Dan Dubeau]

The X axis stepper on my Tormach went bad recently*. New one from Tormach is $329us +shipping. Used one on ebay is about $350 cdn shipped. My google fu isn't turning up any lower cost replacements out of aliexpress or elsewhere. Does anyone have a source where I might find one for a bit cheaper? Maybe I'm just not looking for the right thing, or in the right places? Maybe a cheaper substitute replacement just does not exist? Are these a Tormach special? or are they common, and I just don't know how/where to look.

Tormach part# 32001
3 wire (3phase?)
Nema 34
770 oz.in
8.5a 1.6mH

Are all I can find for specs. Pics from ebay ad, but same as my motor.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Dan Dubeau]

* Old motor started to really stutter badly one day out of the blue. It would make the sounds like it was moving, but not move the table. I dissasembled to check the drive coupler, and it "was" good, but the mounting box was full of corrosion from coolant intrusion. Table moved freely by hand as it should. I cleaned it all out, bench tested the motor and it seemed to work great, no stutter. I reassembled everything, and had it working, moving the table back and forth, so I figured maybe just the coupler got loose somehow, and I didn't notice it spinning the first time. I tried to snug it up a bit more and it snapped......argh. On top of that, I tried to fix the electrical conduit into the back of the stepper (previous owner cobble...), and it shorted out the motor.....argh.....

Left it for a few days, but found time for it today. I machined a new coupler, and swapped a few things (drives, input) to make sure it was the motor and not the drive. Not sure why it randomly worked again, but i'm pretty sure it was temporary anyway, even before I shorted it out by screwing the conduit fitting in too far. Now I know why the previous owner had it loose.......

https://i.imgur.com/oE6e3NW.mp4

Edit: I should add, that even after I shorted it out, once I removed the conduit fitting, it did start working again. It only started stuttering bad again AFTER I made a new coupler and reassembled everything today....

 

[Stuart Samuel]

Argh.

No suggestions, just sympathy.

 

[DavidR8]

Maybe give Automation Direct a call.

 

[Dan Dubeau]

Argh.

No suggestions, just sympathy.

Thanks.

Maybe give Automation Direct a call.

Thanks, I'll check them out.

 

[Dan Dubeau]

I spent a lot of time scouring the internet trying to find a suitable replacement. Found some similar ones that could probably have worked, but knowing nothing about tuning them, or altering stuff inside pathpilot I really wanted a turn key original for simplicity sake this time around. Add in the fact that I have a couple small paying jobs waiting to do, it was just time to bite the bullet..... Still being cheap though (and broke actually), I sent a few offers on that used one on EBAY, that were turned down and was almost going to pay full price for it until an event that makes my Wife laugh/cry (she says I can always find exactly what I want/need on market place/kijiji at any given moment), I found a complete set being sold by a guy in Quebec that had upgraded his machine to servos. A very reasonable price (less than one new one from Tormach) had them just show up today, a couple days later while I was out running errands, and I couldn't wait to test them out just now. It's still more than the used one from ebay, but not that much more, and now I have a spare, and a spare w/brake for the Z axis. Might turn one into a 4th axis eventually.

Old and new. Here you can see the results of the coolant intrusion into the mounting box. It pretty much completely ate the front of the motor, and I'm pretty sure ate away at the coupler too making it brittle. I will take some more effort to seal that up during reassembly....Leadscrew and everything else in there is functionally fine.

And a quick test....
https://i.imgur.com/JZ1TY43.mp4

A big relief off my shoulders for now. Next up is to fix/modify is the coolant tank system. It sucks, and has always sucked. But It will suck a bit less when I get a chance to play with it tomorrow, then I can hopefully cut stuff again ....

Also picked up a nice cheap solid jaw for my mill vice from the KBC clearance section today while I was in the neighborhood. No more feeling shame about posting pics with a hacked up vise jaw (not from me)......

 

[DavidR8]

Well scored!