SL-10 lights-out running?

[shawncnelson]

I just had deliverd an SL-10 and the Servo 300 Barfeeder. I intend to have it running a few hours each night on some simple parts. The first thing I notice is that the parts catch/bin assembly is pretty small. Anyone have experience/advice?

[gizmo_454]

After running our SL-10 with the Servo 300 for a little over a year now, my advise would be to run the parts you want to run lights out a few times first just to see how they run. We have some jobs that we could run lights out, and we have some that would never, in a million years, run lights out. Also, you need to take into account for differences in material. We just ran a job earlier this week that normally runs without problems, but the material we got this time did nothing but eat tooling. Sometimes material will build up around the parts catcher and not allow the parts to fall in the bin, (urinal we call it - lol).

Really, it will all depend on the jobs you are running. As for the parts catcher being small, I guess it would depend on the size of the parts you are running. We've run some jobs where 3 or 4 parts will fill the bin. Others, we could theoretically run 1000 parts before emptying it. Obviously that's not a good idea, but we could.

We also tend to run a lot of stainless in our machine. When we do, many of the cutoff chips end up in the bin with the parts. I would say, though, that it's kind of unavoidable. Overall, we are happy with our SL-10. I just don't know if I would trust any machine to run truly "lights out." All it takes is one broken drill to wipe out potentially expensive boring bars, taps, etc. If no one is there to watch/listen, ouch.

Have fun with your new machine!

Gizmo

[shawncnelson]

Thanks! The parts we're going to run are 2" diameter aluminum, they're about an inch long. We got the big bore upgrade. Take a look at my website and you'll get an idea of the parts. Man that parts catcher is small.

[gizmo_454]

Ah. The big bore would have been nice. We are now wishing that we bought that when we ordered our SL-10. Oh well. Next time. As for that size of part, yeah the bin is quite small. However, sometimes you will wish it was smaller... Like when cleaning out the sump or when running a chucking job. I'm not overly tall, so let's just say that it is at just the right height that I have to pay attention when running a chucking job.

Did you get the chip auger or the conveyor? We got the conveyor. Being our first machine with an auger/conveyor, (our Mini Mill was ordered sans auger), I think it does great for easy clean out of the chips when changing materials. (We tend to run everything from brass to steel to plastic to stainless and aluminum.) But it works with some materials better than others. I find aluminum to be the most difficult with the conveyor. We seem to end up with more chips in the sump than in the barrel with alum. That is because the chips fall on the conveyor while being doused with coolant, so they are wet. The ride the belt up to the top over the barrel and then some fall in the barrel. Most of the smaller chips end up sticking to the belt and riding it back down underneath the cutting area where they get washed off by coolant filtering through the belt and out the drain hole in the conveyor to the sump. Stringy stuff doesn't seem to be too much problem. It's just the smaller, "C", "6", "9" type chips that cause issues.

Granted, not a huge problem. We usually take an hour to an hour and a half every 2 to 3 weeks and pull the conveyor out to clean the chips out of the sump. By if you've read any of my recent posts, you would know that we tend to use the snot out of our SL. So depending on your usage, it may be more or less frequently. (If you have the belt type, that is.)

Anyway, just my thoughts. Did you get it in house yet? Or is it still "in process"?

Gizmo

[shawncnelson]

Gizmo_454
We had it delivered with the auger. We'll only be cutting AL, and chip control is something that I'll pay very close attention to. Should work out fine. All of our parts will be of a very similar size, 2"diameter, 1"long(think yoyos). It's on the floor, the bar-feeder is lined up, all I need to do is wire the thing and then have the Haas tech come do the install, very exciting! Thanks for the info, do you run lights-out at all? Make money while you sleep! sounds to good to be true.

[PBMW]

I have an SL10 with a barfeed. I just ran a job of 15000 pcs on it. face center drill, drill, push to length and part. I get 17 pcs per 4 ft bar. The barfeed is the slowest thing I have EVER run. It would be faster to pay labor to have someone pull to a stop.
How many of you have bent the little 3/8 dia push rod into a pretzel?
Mine will settle in height so the material hits the liners and so does the pushrod.
I ran it semi unattended for this job. But there was someone at the next machine to catch it when it would screw up.
I would NEVER trust it to run lights out.
I just bought a Puma 2000Y and it's getting an LNS barfeed. The haas one takes longer as the bar gets shorter because the bar retracts all the way every stroke

[gizmo_454]

Yes, the 3/8 pushrod. I have bent it up pretty good twice. I got it straightened out though. It's running right now and has been all week. No problems. Both times I bent ours were my fault. I switch ours back and forth between the 3/8 and 3/4 all the time depending on the job in the machine.

As for the bar feed being slow, it may very well be. Since our SL-10 is the only CNC lathe on the floor, I have nothing to compare it to. But I will say that it does a great job for us. Originally bought for second ops, (chucking work), it has been stealing jobs from the Brown & Sharpes left and right. I have a number of jobs that it will run circles around them using the "slow" bar feed. Yeah, I guess 5 to 10 seconds is kind of slow compared to the quarter second feed out of some of our Brownies. But keep the tray loaded with bars and it can be relentless. Occasionally I will leave it run when we go home for dinner if it has a good running job in it. But I haven't ventured running it for more than an hour or so unattended.

Anyway, have fun with the new machine!!

Gizmo

[PBMW]

Mine will not feed a bar from the charging tray automaticaly. The pusher will not push it far enough forward to clear the push bar when it lowers. It will crash into the stock on the way down. Every time. Thus we have to load the stock by hand and let it run. It is truely a POS.
Who would have thought I'd have gotten a PAIR of lemons....

[Edster]

If you have to load each bar by hand, and your waisting a bunch of time with a slow barfeed, why not just bar pull?

[PBMW]

Because I can run a bar in 11 min and have that person do something else. It works out to be faster if I have someone pull material, but I loose the labor.
six of one, half dozen of another....

[dfrey2@rocheste]

Originally Posted by PBMW Mine will not feed a bar from the charging tray automaticaly. The pusher will not push it far enough forward to clear the push bar when it lowers. It will crash into the stock on the way down. Every time. Thus we have to load the stock by hand and let it run. It is truely a POS. Who would have thought I'd have gotten a PAIR of lemons....

We had the same problem with ours. Haas tech told us the to just face about 1/8" off the end of the push rod. What I couldn't understand is why the 3/4" rod would work but not the 3/8. Looked to be the same length.

[Edster]

No, I mean using a bar puller. Can't you load the bar into the machine once using the bar feeder, then use a turret mounted bar puller to pull the stock? I use a royal grippex or dunham puller on my sl-10 all the time. Aside from the parts catcher missing parts every once in a while I don't have any problems. I don't have a bar feeder though, so I end up loading a bar manually every hour or so. If you use the grippex it can pull out the remnant and drop into the parts catcher, then you can feed another bar with the feeder.