A FEW

W NOTES ON THE SPEED CONNTROL BO

OARDS USE ED IN THE
E
WM1880, FITTED
D TO MY DORE
D WES
STBURY M ILLING MA
ACHINE AN
ND USED IN
"REA
AL BULL" MINI-LATH
M ES.

The speed
s contrrol board in my lathe bears a stickker saying iit was made e by Best
Contrrols in Taiwa an, I think it is a clone of an old vversion of th
he KBIC-24
40 board
from KB
K Electron nics in the US
U which I fitted to myy Dore Wesstbury millin ng machine e.
Modeern KB boarrds have ma any surface e mount co mponents, whereas th he Best
Contrrols version uses tradittional comp ponents wit h leads.

If a co
omplete new w board is required, I'mm sure a KBIC-240 wo ould be a g
good
replaccement for the Best Co ontrols verssion in my llathe. The KKB Electron
nics website
e
gives a list of UK
K distributorrs - specify England, ra ather than UK, when ssearching.
Pricess seem to vary
v (in Auggust 2010) between
b £665 and £75 5, dependingg on the
supplier you cho oose.

But it may not bee necessary y to pay outt around £7

70 for a commplete new w board . Th he
usual parts to faiil on these controllers seem to bee the SCRss and power diodes
boltedd to the ups
stand at one e end of the
e heatsink. The manua al which caame with myy
KBIC controller in late 2009 9 contained a full (but o
out of date; it does no
ot relate to
the modern boarrd with surfa ace mount componen ts) circuit d diagram, components
list an
nd parts pla
acement dia agram. The manual on n KB’s
websiite http://wwww.kbelecttronics.com m/manuals/kkbic_manua al.pdf no longer
contains a circuitt diagram; they
t seem to have deccided to ma ake DIY rep pairs
difficu
ult. Howeveer, see the update furtther down t his page.

This shows
s the lo
ocation of the
t SCRs and a power d diodes, togeether with tthe
component listings as per my
m out-date ed manual, which cove ers six varia
ants of the
KBIC board. Thee componen nts listed he
ere are thosse specified
d for the KBBIC-
240, KBIC-240D D and KBIC C-240DS. Th he correspoonding com mponents in n the KBIC– –
120, KBIC-125 and KBIC-225 have different ratings. Obviously, components
should not be underrated for the job they are going to do, and the 2HP/1500W
motor on my milling machine needs the 20A versions. My lathe motor is only
550W, and 10A versions (S8010L, D8010L, D4010L) would be perfectly adequate.
Of course, it would do no harm to use overrated components, so on my milling
machine I could use a D8020L (800PIV) for D15, rather than the D4020L
(400PIV). The first digit in these component numbers represents their rated voltage
(PIV in the case of the diodes). "4" represents 400v and "8" is 800v. The last two
digits represent the rated amps, so "20" is 20A amps and "10" would be 10A.
Those are momentary current ratings; the continuous ratings are only about 2/3 of
those figures.

As to UK component suppliers, at the time of writing the parts shown in the

diagram are available from Farnell. Someone more electronically savvy than me
says the 2N6509 available in the UK from Cricklewood Electronics at low cost is
rated at 800V 25A , so is a good replacement for SCR1 and SCR2. The part
numbers shown in the diagram above seem to be used by the manufacturer
Teccor, so Googling e,g. “Teccor S8020L” may be helpful. So may googling
"Littelfuse" and the part number.

Returning to the control circuitry in my WM180 lathe, I have traced the jumble of
wires connecting the various boards, switches etc and prepared the diagram
below. I don’t know if all WM180s share the same layout and wire colours, and
accept no responsibility for errors and omissions, but the diagram is shown in case
it assists anyone. The incoming mains connections are shown as I found them,
with Live going to “N in” and Neutral to “L in”. That didn’t present a danger here
(the fuse was still in the Live line), but I have transposed them.
Incideentally, the Fwd/Rev swwitch is pla
aced so thatt access to its termina
als (which
are screw,
s rathe
er than push
h-on) is well-nigh impo
ossible withhout removing it, and its
fixings
s aren't immmediately obvious.
o A thin blade w
will pop out the metallissed label and
expos se the two screws
s ben
neath.

UPD
DATE
In 201
12, I have heard
h from a gentlema an who own ns a Real B Bull mini-lath
he fitted witth
a genuine KBLC C-240D spee ed control board.
b Thatt board is a variant of the KBIC-
240 mentioned
m above.
a It is fitted with SCRs
S and ppower diodes of reducced current
rating (the motorr on the Real Bull is ab bout 2/3 HP P), has no in ndicator LEEDs fitted
and th
here are othher minor differences,
d but it is es sentially the same boa ard as
the KBBIC-240D. So, in case e it helps annyone:
KBLCC-240D SPE
EED CONT
TROL ANDD AUXILIARRY BOARD
DS
AS US
SED ON A "REAL BU
ULL" MINI--LATHE. E
E&OE

By coourtesy of Pat Darrag

gh who traced the cirrcuits, drew
w them and identified
the co
omponents s.