Recently Purchased C53 Router Need Help on Setup

[Alec Gordon]

I recently purchased a 1996 C53 machine at an auction with the idea that this was my crash course in CNC setup, maintenance, and production. I'm not a production shop by any means, but have always wanted CNC capability to bridge a gap between my day job (mechanical engineer, lots of CAD) and my side business of custom furniture. The machine is running windows 2000 with OS2 and needs some minor work. I recently got everything plugged in and the initial issues are starting to show up. I get a "Low Air Pressure" warning on startup. I replaced the pressure switch yesterday and am still getting the error. I can bypass the e-stop, but when I try to run a simple program that moves the gantry I get solenoids making noise but the motors are not moving. Is there an easy way to check connectivity between the motors and the controller? Its running Siemens belt driven servos and the drives all appear to be working correctly. Am I missing something in startup? I'm also not able to initialize the spindle if that helps. Like I said, this is my crash course in CNC and I'm the type that learns a lot from hands on tinkering so I enjoy that and knew full well what I was getting into before someone suggests I scrap the machine and spend the money on a full new system. Thanks for any help!

[Will Williamson]

Call Thermwood tech support 1800 221 3865