Morning Warm-Ups?

[Neal]

Try one line at G4 P60,000 L3. It might work.

Neal

[trickeng]

Originally Posted by 307startup Geof, Being the resident Haas-guru, isn't there a way to program your machines to turn on by themselves and access a program? I know that you can program Haas' to shut themselves off once a program has been completed, just as you can program them to send reports to cellphones and/or pagers for lights out running.

I just made a sub program which move all 3axis, spindle and repeats as many times as I want it to. I store it as 1111(warm up) so all I have to do is turn on the machine load the program and run. I always warm my machines up in the morning (5-10min). My machines are older and I have proven that the tolerances change from running cold to after the machine is warm. So I will continue doing it with all my machines, new included.

[mattpatt]

I wrote what seems like a nice little program for warm ups.

Starts at low rpm and zooms the table this way and that and also the spindle up and down. After a set number of cycles it ups the RPM and runs through again.

Fingers crossed, but since I started warming all axis up before getting stuck in I haven't had so much as a squeak or a pop out of the machine since my last port on this thread

[chad g.]

I always warm up my old 6030 & 4020 machines w/ a warm up program that I wrote. It just moves all over the table in X & Y and steps up the RPM starting at 500 & moves up incrementally to 5000. The operators just start the program, go get some coffee, get everything else ready, and it's done in 15 minutes. I can post it if anyone needs it. It doesn't move in Z because we do a lot of different setups & I don't want someone to ram the spindle into a fixture but you could easily add a Z move.

[JCMills]

Im not sure that warming up is cost effective if all factors are considered. Also it can be a sign of shop vertigo because it shows that people may have become disoriented such as if the toolsetting method is in doubt or someone recently had a bad cut.. If a laser setter is in use that will definitely lead to people running warmup programs since they dont work well if at all.. It depends on the application. Its hard to quantify but a rough guess would be that warming up is likely unneeded maybe 97% of the time.. Warming up can also have benefits if it honestly gives people a feeling that things are better..If I came in and was going to run a bunch of finished parts that needed micro blending--yes I would likely take one part out and let it run a couple of minutes.. Also you have to consider that it is probable that when first starting--that very close finishing is not going to take place in the first few minutes anyway..

[Neal]

Let me re-state the obivous. IF you run a machine cold the spindle bearing have a little extra play UNTIL the "warm up" period has allowed the initial component expansion. The whole idea of the warm up is to remove the "chill" from the moving components and get the lubrication started before placeing a load on the machine.
It's up to you how you treat your machine. It will give you good service when properly treated. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!

Neal

[JCMills]

[QUOTE=Neal;747544]Let me re-state the obivous. IF you run a machine cold the spindle bearing have a little extra play UNTIL the "warm up" period has allowed the initial component expansion. The whole idea of the warm up is to remove the "chill" from the moving components and get the lubrication started before placeing a load on the machine.
It's up to you how you treat your machine. It will give you good service when properly treated. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!

Nevertheless--those benefits are certainly miniscule un-documentable intangible abstracts and a poor direction for mental and machine resources. No person ever ran any modern machine tool and found out years later that something happened because of not warming it up. However during warm up--you do have tangible documentable things that equate into actual dollars--use of electricity--wear on the machine--wasted time. If one part can be run in 15 mins lets say--that sells for $200 possibly much more. Then multiply that times 365--times 2 or 3 times a day--then add into that the other factors listed--for arguments sake lets say..at the very least--that running warmup programs on one machine could easily be $2000 per year lost up front. Can warming up show somekind of benefit in actual practice?.. Even car manufacturers gave it up along time ago the cost effective thing--they say warm your car up by driving it.. I believe in warming machines up--by running them. The machine is there to do a job and do it fast for value added from short lead times--I do not love any machine or view them as people.. A non-warmup shop will make thousands and thousands of dollars more per year then a warm up shop..Thats dollars in pocket--a warmup shop has dollars in the sky for something that cannot be proven or documented that it makes more money then it loses..If some bearing or something wears out and has to be replaced for a thousand or 2--I would bet my money that not warming up more then paid for it many times over-- Thats my feel on it. Thanks

[DareBee]

I agree with a short simple warm-up.
I do it to get a bit of temp in the spindle and to get way-lube on the full stroke of each axis.

JC - if I am running my machine over a 3" area to make a shift worth of parts, please explain how long the wicking effect takes to get way-lube properly spread over 4' of box way after the machine has sat for 16 hours displacing the film from the day before?
Maybe it is OK for the bearing machines, but not for box-way IMO.

[JCMills]

Originally Posted by DareBee I agree with a short simple warm-up. I do it to get a bit of temp in the spindle and to get way-lube on the full stroke of each axis. JC - if I am running my machine over a 3" area to make a shift worth of parts, please explain how long the wicking effect takes to get way-lube properly spread over 4' of box way after the machine has sat for 16 hours displacing the film from the day before? Maybe it is OK for the bearing machines, but not for box-way IMO.

Personally i would have no objection to that type of warmup travelling the axis to their limits a couple of times..I also believe in changing the location of a vice for instance or setting up in different areas from time to time..

[5axisguy]

My spindle on the 5x machine will not even let me start it up until it does a "prelube" cycle for 3 minutes, then a canned warm up cycle is mandatory, yes it takes a few minutes of the day, but I always have a few minutes in the morning while I gather my programs and tools anyhow. The guys that don't do it are probably the same guys that hop in their vehicles in the winter and stand on it down thier driveway on the way to work, the engine oil does not even reach the top end until they get half way down the road.

[yoshi900]

Originally Posted by JCMills Nevertheless--those benefits are certainly miniscule un-documentable intangible abstracts and a poor direction for mental and machine resources. No person ever ran any modern machine tool and found out years later that something happened because of not warming it up. However during warm up--you do have tangible documentable things that equate into actual dollars--use of electricity--wear on the machine--wasted time. If one part can be run in 15 mins lets say--that sells for $200 possibly much more. Then multiply that times 365--times 2 or 3 times a day--then add into that the other factors listed--for arguments sake lets say..at the very least--that running warmup programs on one machine could easily be $2000 per year lost up front. Can warming up show somekind of benefit in actual practice?.. Even car manufacturers gave it up along time ago the cost effective thing--they say warm your car up by driving it.. I believe in warming machines up--by running them. The machine is there to do a job and do it fast for value added from short lead times--I do not love any machine or view them as people.. A non-warmup shop will make thousands and thousands of dollars more per year then a warm up shop..Thats dollars in pocket--a warmup shop has dollars in the sky for something that cannot be proven or documented that it makes more money then it loses..If some bearing or something wears out and has to be replaced for a thousand or 2--I would bet my money that not warming up more then paid for it many times over-- Thats my feel on it. Thanks

Your reasoning might have sounded good, but the logic behind it doesn't make sense. If you're looking at the opportunity cost of 15min of a day, that can only means the shop is running 24hr a day. If it's running 24hrs, then no warm-up would be needed. If the shop is not running 24hrs, then it would only cost 1-2 min. of labor to turn on the machine and start a warm-up program.