Possible Horizontal Build

[Seelesturm]

Hi everyone.

I am a long time lurker, and am usually able to find anything I need through searching the forums. This one eludes me though, so I turn my thoughts to the forum.

Ever since attending IMTS 2018, I have had this incredibly irritating itch to build a machine. At the event, Fryer debuted a new model, which they called the Toolroom Horizontal. See attached.



I have done dozens of builds before, I am a full time machinist, and I am fully aware of the stresses in a horizontal as well as how impractical they are for versatility. I am not ever going to achieve a MRR like a 20 ton machine. I am more intrigued of the idea of a mini horizontal for having one, as well as developing something totally different and not really ever done. It would be like having a baby DeVlieg.

For the last 3 or 4 months, I have been holding off on starting this build for one simple reason.

How the heck do they protect the spindle from coolant creep? I understand that good seals and such help, but with VMCs gravity helps pull coolant down and out. How in the world do you protect your spindle from this? I understand that horizontal spindles are designed differently, but I do not see where they differ. What type of seals are they, or what is done in practice to prevent this?

I have a spare Kitamura CAT 40 spindle cartridge, as well as a chineseum BT30 cartridge that I can experiment with. But I have no idea where to even start, and I dont want to blow bearings for the sake of just trying things.

Thanks for the input.

[Jim Dawson]

Air purge. That's what my spindle lathe has. I think my Haas VMC has an air purge spindle also.

[Seelesturm]

Is the air purge run in the same chambers / same thing as oil mist lube, or is there a separate chamber and routing for a purge? From my understanding, oil mist would work as a purge.

There are no special changes or anything to the labyrinth seal on the front though?

Thanks

[Jim Dawson]

That I'm not sure about. In the case of my lathe, I'm pretty sure the bearings are greased, and the air purge is separate and there is no oiler on the air system. Not sure how the seal system works. I guess I'm going to have to study the drawings to see if I can figure that one out.

[Seelesturm]

It would be my entire guesstimation that mist oilers also acting as the purge would waste an absolute ton of oil. It seems that an air purge is something that would be difficult to retrofit into an existing cartridge.

I could use a plc in line with oil mist, so that it only drips oil while the spindle is running, but I'd be worried about drying the bearings out during cool down for the day.

I really want to fantasize about having my own baby horizontal, but the spindle seems like it would be 90% of the work, as I'm not properly equipped for all stages of that process.

[Jim Dawson]

It looks like the lathe air purge path is external (in front of) to the bearings. The parts book drawings in that area are not complete. But there does not seem to be any oil mist system for the spindle bearings.

I'm not sure at all what the Haas system looks like.

I really think you would be safe in getting a quill out of almost any machine and mounting it horizontally.