Tooling Direction

[HamSammich]

Has anybody heard of any advantages to running left hand tools as apposed to right hand tools in a Puma400, ie chip deflection, tool life, machine life? We have 3 machines and have heard that perhaps we could be doing better by turning with different tooling.

[jani]

Do you mean rotating chuck with M3 or M4? Usually on machines i'm worked with, I use M3, but on roughing, if possible(right tools) I use rather M4 because it's better way for machine life.

[WOLOG]

Using left handed tooling causes the forces generated by cutting to be forced into the ways and castings of the machine. Take a look at a diagram of a boxed way machine. You will see that there is quite a bit less material under the way than there is on top of the way. Using left-handed tooling will push on the ways rather than pull away from the ways which will equal better finishes, less chatter during threading and less wear on the machine. I have a Haas SL-30 BB. I notice a difference when I use left handed tools and linear machines are not supposed to be affected by the push/pull thing as much because of the preloaded bearings. I will try to find a picture of what I am describing. On the 400, I would use LH tooling!!

[Chuck Reamer]

The location of the coolant orifice on my Lynx are for upside down right handed tools. If you run left handed you have to use a piece of copper tube to get the coolant were you need it.

They designed the turret for right handed tools, so I would assume the entire machine is designed to take the force it puts on it.

[cncjcl]

Different tooling can make a big changes in tool life and chip control. As far as Machine life, The 400 puma has a tork curve on the up side of 1000 lbs. ratted for 30 min. The machine is built to handle a lot. Iv seen the 300 puma cut .200 deep at 400 surface speed in 15-5 for years and still holds tenths.Your machine is nothing like a haas,(more rigged/more real hp and tork/and the turret clamp design is atleast two classes above) You should have no problems with left or right, unless you need the chips to fly at the door.

[robog]

Hi,

thank you for your response for the RH v. LH question. On a 2 axis lathe, what do you do when you run tools upside down? My question is regarding finding center. My operators say we can not run tools upside down.

Originally Posted by WOLOG Using left handed tooling causes the forces generated by cutting to be forced into the ways and castings of the machine. Take a look at a diagram of a boxed way machine. You will see that there is quite a bit less material under the way than there is on top of the way. Using left-handed tooling will push on the ways rather than pull away from the ways which will equal better finishes, less chatter during threading and less wear on the machine. I have a Haas SL-30 BB. I notice a difference when I use left handed tools and linear machines are not supposed to be affected by the push/pull thing as much because of the preloaded bearings. I will try to find a picture of what I am describing. On the 400, I would use LH tooling!!

[g30u0w0]

You know another thing to mention is cycle times. If you have to stop spindle and reverse for, let's say a drill, that's a drag. Unless you don't mind buying left handed drill bits, which can be hard to come by. Also, the constant forward, stop, and reversing of the spindle can wear on the spindle drive over time. And then there is threading. That would be a pain.
We have a Daewoo Puma 2000sy with sub spindle. On the main we run M03 with standard drills/tooling/taps/etc.. On the sub we run M104 same use of drills/taps.
Last job I ran we were cutting 360 brass .350 DOC at 800sf with a feed of 0.013." While brass is really soft I would hate to try it with forces pulling upward away from castings. (chatter, finish, etc.) But, I bet it would work fine for jobs requiring light cutting forces. Anyone try a job both ways and get different results?
G30

[snaggletto]

In general it's fine. I run upside down right handed tools on my Puma 240's. Mostly because I do alot of drilling. As mentioned above, this keeps you from having to reverse the spindle.

If you are doing heavy duty roughing and trying to push the limits of the machine, then left handed tools, right side up, should be better.