Golden information on the electronics. Not my strong suit, yet. I have already purchased a spare set of tubes for my 1965 machine. All 3 are in my safe.
The filament supply is very important in most vacuum tube circuits. The silicon controlled rectifier which is the modern equivalent to the thyratron doesn't have that problem. Still, old doesn't necessarily mean bad but could mean expensive.
The silicon rectifiers were tried by Hendy and others but the nature of high starting loads of lathes those failed quickly and were abandoned. Other solid-state DC drives were tried with some success. The current factory drive is AC inverter 7.5 hp it is very good 3phase input. The filament voltage is 2.5 volts AC and it is critical on this drive. The vacuum tubes have proven very durable, but the system is complicated and requires constant maintenance, It has 5hp but not at lower speeds.
Golden information on the electronics. Not my strong suit, yet. I have already purchased a spare set of tubes for my 1965 machine. All 3 are in my safe.
It has been observed, that owners of these machines tend to act strangely. Hiding vacuum tubes in safes and such.
@@deedeeindustrialsuperprecision seeing as you own one of these machines, I’ll consider myself in good company.
I hope those tubes don’t go out too often. Thanks again for sharing!
the tubes can last decades
The filament supply is very important in most vacuum tube circuits. The silicon controlled rectifier which is the modern equivalent to the thyratron doesn't have that problem. Still, old doesn't necessarily mean bad but could mean expensive.
The silicon rectifiers were tried by Hendy and others but the nature of high starting loads of lathes those failed quickly and were abandoned. Other solid-state DC drives were tried with some success. The current factory drive is AC inverter 7.5 hp it is very good 3phase input.
The filament voltage is 2.5 volts AC and it is critical on this drive. The vacuum tubes have proven very durable, but the system is complicated and requires constant maintenance, It has 5hp but not at lower speeds.