What type of machine is your primary interest?

[merl]

By the way albor,
My hands down, alltime, favorite machine to run was the Devlieg 54K120 I was on 4 years ago. It had an Anilam Comando cnc conversion on it that alowed use of the manuale machine at the flip of a switch and back...
now that was productive. Not a day goes by that I don't wish I had that machine.

[albor]

I have run bullards, g&l, lucas, shibura, kuraki, wotan, each one has it advantages, but I must say those devliegs are very rigid. Use to do a lot of spindle heads, lamb, excello, ann arbor machine, enmark, parker magestic. The mills had bendix nc controls and farrand scales, High precision, cmm would check location of .0002 dia bores @ true position of +/-.0001. Man I gotta go find me some steel to cut, LOL

[tobyaxis]

Yeah those are pretty nice... but no swiss machine matches a Citizen...

Check out there top model.... M32-V

http://www.ncengineering.co.uk/multimedia.htm#

Ok that was Impressive. Threading 2 parts at the same time with one gang tool holder in 2 separate spindles. Got a little dizzy for a second watching those. I visit a shop that has Citizen's. Compared to Tsugami's Citizen's are very smooth running and quiet. Got to love that.

But when it comes to over all performance Star's are just as good.

Swiss are the best machines out there. They hold +-.0001 all day without an offset.

LOL I get a kick out of both these Demo's because both Citizen and Tsugami are running Brass.

[Geof]

....First favorite thing is figuring out how to do things that the 'experts' say can't be done on a particular machine.

You mean like machining the ball for a ball valve on a manual milling machine?

[fizzissist]

You mean like machining the ball for a ball valve on a manual milling machine?

Set up a dividing head, or rotary table, at 45deg upwards on the mill and stick your favorite ball valve material in it, the dia slightly bigger than the OD of the ball. Set up a boring bar backwards to turn an OD coresponding to the dia you need. While rotating the dividing head, feed the boring bar down over the shaft.....but not too far...

...That's how I do it.....

[Geof]

Set up a dividing head, or rotary table, at 45deg upwards on the mill and stick your favorite ball valve material in it, the dia slightly bigger than the OD of the ball. Set up a boring bar backwards to turn an OD coresponding to the dia you need. While rotating the dividing head, feed the boring bar down over the shaft.....but not too far...

...That's how I do it.....

How many people do you know that do it that way?

[fizzissist]

How many people do you know that do it that way?

.....me....

was hinting that I'm open for a better way???

[tobyaxis]

.....me....

was hinting that I'm open for a better way???

WOW!!!!!!!

I don't think there is one buddy.

Geof, is there a better way???????

[Geof]

WOW!!!!!!!

I don't think there is one buddy.

Geof, is there a better way???????

Not manually in my experience. With a good CNC it is trivial.

I had meant to repond to fizzywhatsits post but forgot. I had never met anyone who had done balls that way. It is an interesting procedure because you are generating a spherical surface. Much the same as hobbing a gear; the shape has to come out correct because it has no choice. The essential point is that the axis of rotation for the sphere has to coincide perfectly with the axis of rotation for the tool. But this is easy....when the two axes coincide the cutter creates a crosshatch pattern on the sphere because it cuts all the way around. When the axes do not coincide the cut marks are all one way. Someday I might find the time to set up my ball generating machine and take some pictures.

[thkoutsidthebox]

You folks continue to amaze me. They dont teach you that in college!

[jackson]

You folks continue to amaze me. They dont teach you that in college!

I dont think they teach that anywere LOL!!!!

[Bill Walker]

Home made wire edm or rebuilt wire edm equipment with a different controller such as "CamSoft".

Thank you for the question.

[pntbllrsprky]

CNC router is my first machine I am getting (building)

I have used manual lathes and mills and I want to pick up some benchtop ones for use till I get my own house.

[tobyaxis]

Not manually in my experience. With a good CNC it is trivial.

I had meant to repond to fizzywhatsits post but forgot. I had never met anyone who had done balls that way. It is an interesting procedure because you are generating a spherical surface. Much the same as hobbing a gear; the shape has to come out correct because it has no choice. The essential point is that the axis of rotation for the sphere has to coincide perfectly with the axis of rotation for the tool. But this is easy....when the two axes coincide the cutter creates a crosshatch pattern on the sphere because it cuts all the way around. When the axes do not coincide the cut marks are all one way. Someday I might find the time to set up my ball generating machine and take some pictures.

That would be Great. I'd love to see that. All the cool stuff of yesterday has been replaced by microchips. We young guys have been "RIPPED-OFF".

Glad that some of the old stuff has survived. I used to use a Fellows High Speed Shaper (Series 7A) from WWII 1940'ish. It held +-.00025 all day and made Gears and Pulleys. Straight, Helical, and Bevel Gears. I miss those old machines.

[mr.mark]

I think the haas sl-20 with full c-axis is an awesome machine. Parts that we had to do lathe work on and then do mill work, we can now do with the c-axis in one operation face, turn, bore, live tooling, then part off complete!
You can even take the mill program insert it into the lathe program do some editing- taking out a few codes and inserting your g17 and g112 to transfer it to the xy plane and you got a good program! The only problem that I have with the set up is I don't have a good post processor. I'm using Gibbs cam for c-axis lathe and a generic sl-20 post. I have to do a lot of editing, which doesn't bother me, but sometimes it spits out code that has bad moves in it. I'm 99 percent sure it is my post processor. Does anyone have one that they would let me try or point me in the right direction???

[rodneydeeeee]

Routers coming pretty close I see.

[tobyaxis]

I think the haas sl-20 with full c-axis is an awesome machine. Parts that we had to do lathe work on and then do mill work, we can now do with the c-axis in one operation face, turn, bore, live tooling, then part off complete!
You can even take the mill program insert it into the lathe program do some editing- taking out a few codes and inserting your g17 and g112 to transfer it to the xy plane and you got a good program! The only problem that I have with the set up is I don't have a good post processor. I'm using Gibbs cam for c-axis lathe and a generic sl-20 post. I have to do a lot of editing, which doesn't bother me, but sometimes it spits out code that has bad moves in it. I'm 99 percent sure it is my post processor. Does anyone have one that they would let me try or point me in the right direction???

Wait about 8 months and BCC V2007 might have a Really Nice Modual for Multi-Tasking Lathes. I kid you not when I say that the Post Processors are the EASIEST to Modify and EDIT.
:rainfro:

[tobyaxis]

Anything happening with this thread lately????:rainfro:

[John3]

I just voted on it.

[tobyaxis]

Anyone else????