Mill or lathe

[chris123]

Hello,

I currently have the taig mill and taig micro lathe, both are becoming a bit limiting, mostly because of the size.
I'd like to now get get something larger, either a lathe (9x20) or a mill (slightly larger then X3).

Would it be possible to turn and deep bore a 25mm dia x 100mm rod on this mill, because that is all I need the lathe for and if I can machine the rod on the mill it makes the lathe pointless.

The mill has plenty of Z height to do what i need

[RotarySMP]

YouTube - CNC Mill turning Aluminium chess pawn
What material, to what accuracy?

[lsa1541]

Can anyone tell me who to contact for help with a SNK SUT-60 CNC lath with Fanuc controls? Any and all help is greatly appreciated!


Thanks
Steve

[RotarySMP]

Steve you should probably repost your request in Fanuc forum. Here no one will find it.

Also more specific questions will probably bring most help responses.

Fanuc - CNCzone.com-The Largest Machinist Community on the net!

[chris123]

Here is some more info
I make several pieces with slightly varying dimensions
Made out aluminium the final piece is 90mm long
I start with a 40-35mm dia rod
Turn 75mm of it down to 25-23mm
Bore out a 20mm dia hole 88mm deep
The pieces only need to be accurate to 0.01"

I dont use the lathe for anything else, thats why I see it as a waste of a machine If I can do something similar using a mill
Everything else I make is done on the mill

If the piece is too long to mill in that fashion like in the video. Would it work if I put it in the 4th axis and like spiral cut it down, rotate A axis while slowly feeding X. As for boring the hole that shouldnt be a problem on the mill

[RotarySMP]

A 90 mm overhang on a 40mm diameter bar is not excessive. The X3 mill should be easily more rigid than my 7x mini lathe, and my lathe could do that job easily.

The cutting forces on Aluminium are low, and you can take lighter cuts at high speed to reduce deflection.

How many of these things are you planning to make? Cutting the bar stock to length and chucking it in the collet chuck will be a pain if you have a lot of parts to make.

A lathe with a 38mm spindle bore and <38mm stock would allow you to feed through the headstock.

If you have to do this job regularly on the mill, you could make up a tooling plate to hold a facing tool, center drill, drills, reamer, turning tool and cut off tool. Whenever you need to run this job, just throw the tooling plate back on.

[chris123]

I plan to get a HM46 mill which is the biggest desktop mill I can find, heavier and larger then the X3.
I used to make them as they were ordered, but because the micro mill is so tiny it struggles too much, I hated making them. Ideally I will make them in batches of about 5.
A lathe with a 38mm spindle bore is the same price as the mill

Yes was thinking of making up some kind of gang tooling plate, face, turn, center, drill ream, cut off
I just was not sure if deflection would be a problem or not

Another benefit is I will only need to CNC one machine not
Shouldn't be too hard as I converted my small mill to CNC

[RotarySMP]

You have more self control than me. It is not often you get delivered a great reason to do both a lathe and a mill

This should be an easy job on that mill.

[chris123]

Now I just need to find out if the mill can be converted to CNC with out too much trouble
The Z axis is dove tail but has a rack and pinion I think that will be the biggest issue

[RotarySMP]

Most guys are just running a ballscrew beside the column aren't they?

[chris123]

beside the column?
I'll have to search for some threads regarding converting this machine