Tl-2 Power?

[uspatternmaker]

Hi there, we are currently looking at replacing our old 5hp gear head Mauser lathe with a new TL-2. Most of our lathe work is all onesy-twosy stuff, nothing real fancy but it would be nice to have a cnc for peck drilling and other mundane operations. Our main concern is the spindle power. I'd like to think that we'd be able to take a good size (say 1.750 dia) drill and push it thru some steel and not have to worry about stalling the spindle. Any thoughts?

[Geof]

Send me a 1.75" dia. drill and I will do the test for you .

That size means you need to run slow which could be below maximum spindle torque so you might have to go easy on the feed.

Is this is your first venture into CNC? I have found sometimes the mindset that carries over from manual machines has to be altered. On a manual machine you may choose to predrill a hole using a big drill because it can be quicker and easier than enlarging a small hole by boring but with a CNC the opposite can be the case because boring using one of the canned cycles is such a snap.

[uspatternmaker]

Thanks for the input GEOF. We currently are running several vertical and horizontal machining centers in our shop with the lathe dept being the last holdout. I guess what my main concern with the TL-2 is whether or not it is under-powered for a 10" chuck. I've read some of the threads concerning the tailstock not being worth a **** (which causes me some concern) as well as the coolant issues. Oh yeh, the drill is in the mail.