Dumb Question Regarding Machine Capacity

[Eric MFG]

Hi Guys,
I'm working on a project to machine simple angle holes in a 2.5 PCV tube. The patterns of the holes are of two patterns one is a simple 45deg offset the other is a spiral. 40 holes max at 1.13 spacing that translates to a 46" span. Most standard mills are 35" or so on the X is there knee mills 47" on the X if so what is the make and model or any cheep used machines around? I would be converting this machine to CNC with fourth to perform the job.

Thanks,
Eric

[Karl_T]

Unless you're running 10,000, you'd be better off designing a fixture that allows you to quickly slide the part and reclamp. With a little ingenuity, this could be done in seconds.

For production, find a way to do several parts at once. Sounds like its only a couple inches wide.

Karl

[Eric MFG]

Hi Karl,
Thanks for the reply. There are 750 units to be made. One part is 72 inches the other is 60 inches long by 2.5 inches wide round tube. My initial thoughts was to make a steel tube fixture that the PVC tube would slide into and mount drill bushing then mount the fixture on a horizontal rotary base and hand drill. For some reason the customer doesn’t like that idea. Thinks pneumatic would be more efficient. The first machine I thought of was an old lathe bed and add a CNC kit then stack additional fixture vertically and slave of the motors on the first station this would drill four at a time. Customer didn’t like that Idea because they are not sure if the tubes will outsourced to China or someplace like that in the future. So they would like me to retro fit a knee style mill now that way the mill could be used for other projects. Aside from finding a shop with a 5 axis machine with 60 inch travels the manual fixture would be best and fast I think.