Thursday, May 24, 2018

Fuse Problem

The controller box for the CNC mill has stopped controlling the Y axis.  Sherline suggested that the first step was replacing the fuse for the Y controller.  (This is a plausible explanation; if I connect the Y cable to the Z motor, Z won't move either.)  Here you can see both the Y controller fuse socket and the X socket (with fuse plugged in).

The replacement fuse, a bit bent in the leads:

The fuse that came out of the socket:

The problem is that plugging the spare fuse into that socket is very difficult.  The leads bend so easily that getting them deep enough to connect requires a very strong 1" tall person to hold the ends and press down on both sides, and I cannot find any 1" tall assistants.  I really do not want to send the box to Sherline to replace a fuse.  Suggestions?

4 comments:

  1. my first reaction is to try and hold both leads with needle nose pliers, while holding them perpendicular to the direction of insertion.

    after that i'd be tempted to find very tiny drill bits and ream those holes larger.

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  2. You could solder the fuse to the board.

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  3. StormCchaser: You know the joke about nothing scarier than a software engineer with a soldering iron? It's true. I will try Jay's solution, using tweezers. I do not have needle nose pliers that fine.

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  4. Heh. The other scary critter is an electrical engineer with a soldering iron.

    I'm both, so I'm really dangerous.

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