Horizontal Tombstone Fixturing

[Crash]

We have a worn out VMC, and are considering replacing it with a horizontal pallet changer. A lot of our work starts in bar form, typically 17" long bars in various widths, held in our own vise jaws with .100" x .100 steps, milled with a negative 3 degree angle to hold the work securely. I have been researching ways to do this on a tombstone, in a vertical orientation, but have not had much success. Found a couple systems which required some kind of stock preperation beforehand, which we are trying to avoid. At this point, I don't have any options other than some kind of custom, in house built fixturing. I'm not opposed to this, but it seems like there should be other shops doing this kind of work. Any ideas?

Thanks

[Geof]

http://www.sovereign-publications.com/ok-vise.htm
http://www.belmag.com/ok_vise.htm
http://www.ok-vise.fi/products.php?family=lpc&Lang=1
http://www.engineerlive.com/asiapaci...machines.thtml


Belmag is a Canadian company but OK Vise is Finnish. I had a look at these things and they are very nice and simple to use. You should be able to find a US distributor.

[big_mak]

If you are switching to a pallet changer machine how many pallets?
You could dedicate one pallet to prep, of if only 2 pallets on the machine, just dedicate 1 face to a prep operation.

The Horizontal is an extremely efficient tool especialy in a multi pallet configuration. I'm currently running an 11 pallet Matsuura horizontal. 8 hours a day, then it'll run unmanned after I go.

Think of dovetailing in the prep op then have the dovetail in the jaws to maximize your holding power, the literally let'er RIP!!!!!!

[dertsap]

technigrip dovetail holders , material needs prepwork but the posibilities are endless with their fixture system , anyone with a good brain storming head can make them work wonders

[Jarwalcot]

Crash,

Is this a high quantity production job requiring 100% of the machines capacity? If so, take a look at a possible solution here: www.chironamerica.com/barmachines.html

I'd like to now what your thoughts are on the design and if it would help meet your needs.